[DTV]

There's been a bit of discussion on here over the domestic vs international news editorial priorities of the new channel, so, with eight weeks of the new channel now nearly complete, I thought I'd try and put a number on it to give the discussions some actual evidence. Using the archive.org recordings, I've noted the top three headlines every day at 17:00 - i.e., what used to be regarded as the premium hour for UK viewers - and classed them as either UK, US or World news depending on the location and/or framing of the story. For days when they were in rolling coverage mode at 17:00, I used 16:00 instead.

Of the top three stories across these first 56 days, 66 (39%) were UK stories, 29 (17%) were US stories and 73 (43%) were from the rest of the world. When looking at just the lead story, the proportions are roughly the same - 22 (39%) UK, 8 (14%) US and 26 (46%) RoW. Considering the dominance that the few main stories get in terms of coverage on the new channel, these proportions are likely a rough analogue for the total time devoted to such stories - in which case we're probably actually a bit closer to the old NC, which was typically around two-thirds UK news, than WN, which was usually only around 10-15% UK news*. There's also not much evidence of the supposed US dominance of the new channel.

What I found most interesting, though, was that there's been a seeming shift in the last few weeks, particularly in terms of lead stories. In the first four weeks (April), UK news led 7 times (25%) - nearly all of which were reasonably justifiable editorially. But in the last four weeks (May), UK stories have led 15 times (54%). Obviously, some of this is the Coronation, but there does seem to be a greater lean towards certain UK-big, World-nothing stories recently. In the last week, Madeleine McCann led over F16s being given to Ukraine; the Cardiff car crash over De Santis' presidential bid; and UK travel delays over the Turkish election. Does certainly feel like a push to give UK news greater undue prominence.

Obviously this is just a snapshot from (largely) one hour of the day, but it is one of the UK channel's strongest hours, so when more people's perceptions of the channel will be formed.