Every day we transcribe the main UK TV news bulletins and compare them — revealing which stories every channel agreed mattered, and which only one chose to run.
Across all channels right now, these are the topics and stories eating up the most airtime.
Across the last 7 days, Murder Investigation, SNP and Brexit emerged as new stories, while coverage of World Cup, Labour and Russia-Ukraine faded. BBC One stood out, giving Mental Health 3.0x the airtime share of its peers.
32 broadcasts
Keir Starmer has resigned as Labour Party leader and Prime Minister following the loss of support from his parliamentary party and Andy Burnham's by-election victory, triggering a leadership contest with Burnham as the frontrunner.
18 broadcasts
The Met Office has issued a rare red extreme heat warning for parts of England and Wales, with temperatures potentially reaching 40°C.
10 broadcasts
The Met Office has issued an amber extreme heat warning for parts of the UK, with temperatures forecast to reach 38°C, potentially breaking the June record.
9 broadcasts
England are preparing to face Ghana in the World Cup 2026 group stage after a strong opening win against Croatia, with an injury concern over Bukayo Saka.
The most recent finished day's cross-channel verdict — where channels agreed and where they broke apart.
The editorial agenda was dominated by "Labour", "Heatwave", and "World Cup". BBC One showed a distinctive focus, over-indexing on "Mental Health" at 3.0x the average airtime share of peers. Notable coverage gaps occurred where "Murder Investigation" was omitted by GB News.
Where channels' language diverged most. Quotes shown in context on each topic page.
Zoom out: patterns over every day we've ever analysed.
Channels pulled together when their overall news agendas overlap; pushed apart when they diverge.
Topics that dominated TV news airtime aggregated across all dates.
Comparing the cumulative share of airtime dedicated to each category across all channels.
Historical cosine similarity mapping how closely channels' overall airtime distributions overlap across the entire archive.
| Channel Pair | Channel 5 | BBC NEWS | BBC One | Channel 4 | GB News | ITV | Sky News |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Channel 5 | 100% | 16% | 83% | 86% | 88% | 94% | 89% |
| BBC NEWS | 16% | 100% | 36% | 4% | 5% | 16% | 32% |
| BBC One | 83% | 36% | 100% | 64% | 66% | 89% | 83% |
| Channel 4 | 86% | 4% | 64% | 100% | 94% | 84% | 86% |
| GB News | 88% | 5% | 66% | 94% | 100% | 87% | 89% |
| ITV | 94% | 16% | 89% | 84% | 87% | 100% | 90% |
| Sky News | 89% | 32% | 83% | 86% | 89% | 90% | 100% |
Values represent cumulative cosine similarity of overall topic coverage share vectors. A higher percentage reflects closer alignment in long-term news priorities and weighting.
Measures how much each broadcaster's news agenda shifts day-on-day. Broadcasters with higher scores are highly reactive to breaking daily cycles; lower scores represent consistent daily beat profiles.
Broadcaster is highly responsive to the daily news cycle, rapidly shifting resources between categories day-to-day.
Broadcaster is highly responsive to the daily news cycle, rapidly shifting resources between categories day-to-day.
Broadcaster is highly responsive to the daily news cycle, rapidly shifting resources between categories day-to-day.
Broadcaster is highly responsive to the daily news cycle, rapidly shifting resources between categories day-to-day.
Broadcaster balances a consistent core beat agenda with moderate day-to-day shifting to match breaking news patterns.
Broadcaster maintains a highly consistent daily topic agenda, keeping emphasis on similar beats day-to-day.