Channels
The Broadcasters
What each UK TV news channel focused on, what they left out, and how their agendas compare across the full archive.
Channel 5 Leans health
“opinion polls suggest the public is split on the question of independence though this pollster says it isn't high on people's list of priorities so overall for scott it's pretty low it's 12th on the list of big issues even for SNP supporters it's only number three it comes behind the cost of living and the nhs”
BBC ONE West relays John Swinney's claim of a growing consensus for Scotland's right to decide, whereas 5 reports polling that the public is split and independence ranks low among priorities.
BBC News Leans international
“Zelenskyy is not a good guy for us to deal with.”
Sky News frames Zelensky as a defender of democracy while BBC NEWS airs a characterization of him as not a good leader to deal with.
BBC One Leans sport
“The party is opening its annual conference in Aberdeen today. And its leader, John Swinney, claims there is a growing consensus that Scotland once again has a right to decide its own future.”
BBC ONE West relays John Swinney's claim of a growing consensus for Scotland's right to decide, whereas 5 reports polling that the public is split and independence ranks low among priorities.
BBC Two Leans politics
“but it's quite clear that the people of Scotland should be in charge of our destiny, not politicians at Westminster.”
BBC NEWS characterises the SNP's democratic mandate for a referendum as an invented notion that would trump the law, whereas BBC TWO presents the people of Scotland, not Westminster, as having the right to decide.
Channel 4 Leans war
“probable criminal activity for their use of an undercover reporter.”
Channel 4 relays Reform's claim that ITV's undercover filming is probable criminal activity, whereas BBC ONE West presents it as ITV's legitimate journalism.
GB News Leans immigration
“including possibly threats from AI in the future.”
GB News characterises the AI threat as a possible future risk, whereas Sky News characterises AI as already supercharging security threats against the UK.
ITV Leans sport
“because the establishment want Reform out of the picture.”
ITV1 reports Farage's claim that the investigation was an establishment attempt to remove Reform, while Sky News reports ITV's statement that the broadcast is in the public interest.
Sky News Leans international
“Vladimir Zelensky is fighting for democracy and it's in the nature of democracy that you have your own constituency.”
Sky News frames Zelensky as a defender of democracy while BBC NEWS airs a characterization of him as not a good leader to deal with.
⚑ Flagged quotes reflect the language a broadcaster used, not a judgement of its accuracy.
All-Time Comparison
Coverage, news density, flagged omissions, disputed language, and how each channel's mix of stories changed over time. Flagged omissions is a count, not a rate: channels running shorter bulletins are already excused, so read it against the days on air beside it. Click a column to sort.
| Channel | Coverage | News density | Flagged omissions | Days on air | Flagged quotes / hr | Agenda change | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BBC News | 155h 3m | 79% | 46 | 105 | 2.0/hr | Highly distinct | |
| BBC One | 149h 28m | 83% | 17 | 107 | 3.2/hr | Distinct | |
| Sky News | 137h 51m | 82% | 46 | 107 | 3.1/hr | Typical | |
| ITV | 106h 47m | 74% | 31 | 108 | 3.1/hr | Distinct | |
| GB News | 105h 53m | 66% | 167 | 104 | 1.9/hr | Highly distinct | |
| Channel 4 | 71h 53m | 78% | 64 | 105 | 3.5/hr | Typical | |
| BBC Two | 52h 34m | 86% | 35 | 75 | 1.0/hr | Highly distinct | |
| Channel 5 | 45h 52m | 62% | 37 | 106 | 2.4/hr | Highly distinct |
Difference measures how far a channel's topic mix sits from the cross-channel average, adjusted for how many topics we observed the channel covering — a narrow programme would otherwise look distinctive purely for having no room to cover much. It is a description of emphasis, not a judgement.
News density is the share of each analysed slot spent on identified news stories — ad breaks, weather, sport and trails count as “not news”.
How bleak, how hard
The share of each channel's airtime given to bad-news stories and to light ones. This is about which stories a channel chose to run, and for how long, not about how it covered them. Hidden until enough of the window has been scored.
Each channel's position is the share of its airtime given to bad-news stories and to light ones: what it chose to run, and for how long. It is not a measure of how any channel covered anything.
- Bad news, good news
- Whether things got worse or better for the people in the story. Most stories are neither, which is why the two never add up to a whole bulletin.
- Light
- Human interest, sport, curiosity: a story with no consequence beyond the people in it. A record-breaking water lily is light; a defence spending shortfall is not. This is a separate question from good and bad, so a light story can still be sad.
- BBC News
- ITV
- Channel 4
- Sky News
- BBC One
- GB News
- Channel 5
- BBC Two
| Channel | Bad news | Good news | Light | Stories |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BBC News | 49% | 11% | 15% | 280 |
| ITV | 52% | 14% | 24% | 324 |
| Channel 4 | 44% | 12% | 9% | 201 |
| Sky News | 44% | 12% | 14% | 284 |
| BBC One | 46% | 16% | 19% | 445 |
| GB News | 37% | 4% | 14% | 182 |
| Channel 5 | 37% | 23% | 37% | 235 |
| BBC Two | 26% | 7% | 7% | 77 |
Disputed language over time
Contested and charged quotes per hour of analysed airtime, by day. Flagged quotes reflect the language a broadcaster aired, not a judgement of its accuracy.
Distinctive vocabulary
Words and phrases that set a channel apart from the rest over the last 30 days — word choice, not a judgement of accuracy or bias. Only channels whose vocabulary differs measurably from the rest appear — 4 of 8 here; the others sit too close to the average to have distinctive terms.
Agenda Alignment
How similar each pair of channels was in the topics they covered. Darker means more alike.
Channel Differences
Where each channel covered more or less of a category than the average channel.
Broadcaster Agenda Comparison
How each channel divided its coverage between topic categories across the full archive.
Topics That Travel Together
For each channel, the two topics it most often runs on the same day — set against how often the rest of the roster pairs those same two. Same-day co-occurrence describes what shared a bulletin day, not why.
- GB News Immigration + Energy 78% vs 0% 7/9 days
- BBC News US-Iran + West Bank 67% vs 0% 6/9 days
- Sky News Royal Family + FIFA 75% vs 7% 6/8 days
- Channel 4 US-Iran + Climate Change 45% vs 18% 5/11 days
- BBC One Ukraine + Formula One 70% vs 6% 7/10 days
- Channel 5 Wimbledon + Heatwave 63% vs 21% 5/8 days
- ITV Wildfires + Drowning 50% vs 9% 4/8 days
No pairing clears the evidence floor yet for BBC Two — a channel needs 4 days running both topics, out of at least 8 days covering either.