Channel profile
BBC Two
What BBC Two chose to cover, what it left out, and how its agenda compares with the rest of the roster.
How much the agenda changed
This channel changes its topic mix sharply from day to day, often moving quickly between categories.
Stories this channel missed
Number of times this broadcaster did not cover stories that several other channels covered.
Time spent on news stories
57h 15m of this channel's 66h 15m analysed was identified news stories — ad breaks, weather, sport and trails count as “not news”.
Recent broadcasts
The latest broadcasts behind this channel's analysis — open one to see its annotated timeline.
Newsnight, followed by Weather
Led by Israel's election count, the bulletin was dominated by Andy Burnham's first Budget, which took 15 minutes 12 seconds. The Israel vote count got 9 minutes 8 seconds, while viewers' accounts of age bias and retraining barriers got 3 minutes 27 seconds.
Politics Live
An edition dominated by domestic politics and led by John Healey's first Budget, which took nearly 23 minutes, more than half the bulletin. The rest of the airtime went to Andy Burnham's EU free movement comments and King Charles's Caribbean visit, at eight and a half and about eleven minutes respectively.
Newsnight, followed by Weather
Newsnight reported that major retailers and independent sellers had seen a surge in sales of essentials after the government urged households to stock up for a crisis. Robert Dyas said radio sales rose 160% in a week, Maplin reported rises in radios, torches and power banks, and Iceland reported a 40% weekend rise in tinned goods; an online prepper shop described unprecedented demand and a 650% increase, with wind-up radios sold out. Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said it was encouraging that people were taking practical steps, while the panel discussed resilience, cyber threats and defence spending.
Newsnight, followed by Weather
The programme led with an interview with Andy Burnham ahead of his first budget on Wednesday. He said the approach would be to keep the economy strong and stable and to provide help for households and businesses without taking risks with the public finances, citing an IMF report and warning against repeating the mini-budget's effects on mortgages. He pointed to measures including existing help on electricity costs, a two-pound bus fare cap in 2027, and asking the Chancellor to examine gas standing charges, and said a 10-year plan for Britain would follow later this year.
On screen
Stills are sampled automatically at 60-second intervals. Where shown, the still is the nearest available frame from the relevant broadcast segment and is included to show what was on screen during that part of the broadcast. A still may not correspond to the exact second of a quoted phrase.
Repeatedly missed categories
Categories where this broadcaster often missed stories that other channels covered.
This channel missed a relatively high number of stories in this category.
Category trend (last 30 days)
How this channel's coverage changed by category over the past month.
Flagged quotes over time
Contested and charged quotes per hour of analysed airtime. Flagged quotes reflect the language this broadcaster aired, not a judgement of its accuracy.
Distinctive vocabulary
Words and phrases this channel used far more often than the rest of UK TV news over the last 30 days. Distinctive vocabulary describes word choice relative to other channels, not accuracy or bias — terms reflect the stories a channel covered as much as how it framed them.
- national story 20×+ more often · 10 uses
“it is part of our national story.” Newsnight, followed by Weather · Wednesday 14 October 2026
- burden 5.9× more often · 25 uses
“And I know just the the sheer kind of burden of compliance” Politics Live · Tuesday 27 October 2026
- panel 5.1× more often · 59 uses
“Let me introduce your panel this evening.” Newsnight, followed by Weather · Tuesday 27 October 2026
- guests 4.8× more often · 23 uses
“Join me, Misha Glenny, and expert guests for In Our Time.” Newsnight, followed by Weather · Monday 26 October 2026
- uncomfortable 4.8× more often · 16 uses
“Which is a question as worthy of being asked and answered because the consequences could be uncomfortable” Politics Live · Tuesday 27 October 2026
- welfare 4.6× more often · 117 uses
“We need a review of welfare spending.” Newsnight, followed by Weather · Tuesday 27 October 2026
- headline 4.6× more often · 26 uses
“Let's have a look at this headline in the I paper” Politics Live · Tuesday 27 October 2026
- triple lock 4.4× more often · 112 uses
“And that's why the triple lock is going to become,” Newsnight, followed by Weather · Tuesday 27 October 2026
News agenda by category
How this channel divided its coverage compared with the cross-channel average.
Timeline
This channel's topic coverage day by day — what it ran, and how much time each story got.
Wednesday 28 October 2026
Topics covered
No topics recorded for this channel on this date.
Stories missed
No coverage gaps for this channel on this date.