New opinion poll shows public think broadcasters should balance airtime for political parties more equally
Broadcasters need to work harder to ensure they balance airtime for political parties on TV and radio news, according to a new You Gov poll carried out for Cardiff University. While Reform is leading the polls, several other parties are neck-and-neck in the latest surveys. This research shows the public wants impartial coverage that doesn’t favour one party over another.
How broadcasters apply rules on impartiality has come under renewed scrutiny over recent months. There have been repeated concerns about whether the amount of airtime Reform UK – and, notably, its leader, Nigel Farage – have received on TV and radio news is greater than deserved if based on the party’s electoral performance. The BBC, for example, issued a statement defending its impartiality and rejected complaints that Farage had received too much airtime. The Liberal Democrats launched a “Balance the BBC” campaign to draw attention to what they view as the disproportionate airtime given to Reform UK compared to their own party. The Director General of the BBC, Tim Davie, has been grilled in a select committee about how the public service broadcaster allocates airtime to parties, journalists have debated the issue in podcasts and opinion pieces, while rival political parties have argued about the fairest method of apportioning coverage. But the public has largely been left out of the conversation.
As part of our new AHRC-funded project, we commissioned YouGov to carry out one of the most comprehensive surveys to date of people’s attitudes towards broadcast impartiality in the UK. This included asking them how they would allocate airtime to parties, what criteria they would prioritise when balancing coverage, and comparing people’s responses to their political viewpoints and news consumption habits. This is part of a survey that also examined people’s news consumption habits, their perception of how well broadcasters scrutinise each of the main political parties, and their knowledge about the level of net migration into the UK. All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2,153 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 5th - 6th October 2025. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all UK adults (aged 18+).
Allocating airtime for political parties
To explore public opinion on how broadcasters should allocate airtime for political parties, the survey asked a series of questions about the balance of coverage. This was based on a range of criteria broadcasters typically use to weight coverage, such as the number of MPs each party has, total party vote share at the last general election, a party’s performance at the latest regional and local elections, trends in voting intention polling data, as well as the journalistic significance of a political story. These judgements have become talking points during the last months because – as our recent study showed - Reform UK and its leader Nigel Farage have been receiving more coverage than the Liberal Democrats and its leader Ed Davey in the UK’s flagship evening TV news bulletins. This is despite the fact that Reform UK has only four MPs while the Liberal Democrats have 72. On the other hand, voting intention surveys have consistently shown Reform UK leading the polls since April 2025.
When asking people how they would allocate airtime, we were conscious that responses would likely be influenced by people’s own political perspectives. We therefore asked half of the sample (N = 1077) about how they would designate airtime without naming specific parties, while in the other half (N = 1076), we namechecked Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats.
We first told the respondents the following: “Imagine a situation where one party has four MPs but has been leading the polls for several months, and has been the best performing party in the latest regional and local elections. Another party has 72 MPs but is in fourth place in the polls”. We then said: Thinking about the airtime UK broadcasters allocate to parties in this situation, which of the following best reflects your view?
We found that 60% of people thought there should be equal airtime for both parties, while 13% said there should be more airtime for the party leading the polls, while 12% said there should be more airtime for the party that has more MPs. A further 14% were unsure. Interestingly, 60% of Reform UK voters and 65% of Liberal Democrats said there should be equal airtime. When considering people’s news consumption habits, we found frequent GB News consumers had the strongest preference for allocating airtime according to the latest opinion poll data, compared to consumers of the other channels we asked about. Once we excluded those who were not sure, we found that 70% of people thought there should be equal airtime for both parties. Meanwhile, 15% believed broadcasters should give greater airtime to the party leading the polls, and 14% said there should be more airtime for the party with more MPs.
We then outlined the same options to the other group of respondents, but this time we namechecked Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats. We provided the following context: “In the 2024 General Election, the Liberal Democrats had 72 MPs elected and approximately 3.5 million voted for the party. Reform UK had five MPs elected and 4 million people voted for the party. But over recent months, Reform UK has been ahead of all the other parties across the UK for the last few months, according to the latest trends in opinion polls, and the Liberal Democrats are in fourth place. Reform UK was also the best performing party in the latest 2025 regional and local elections.” We then asked: “Given this political context and thinking about UK broadcasters’ allocation of airtime to parties, which of the following best reflects your view?”
We found that 40% said there should be equal airtime for Reform and the Liberal Democrats. We then discovered that 22% thought there should be more airtime for Reform and 21% said there should be more airtime for the Liberal Democrats. A further 18% were unsure. Interestingly, however, 47% of Liberal Democrat voters thought there should be equal airtime, while 46% said there should be more airtime for the Liberal Democrats. When considering people’s news consumption habits, we found frequent GB News consumers were the least likely to support equal airtime for both Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats, compared to consumers of the other channels we asked about.
Once we excluded those who were not sure, we found 48% of people thought there should be equal airtime for both parties, while 27% thought broadcasters should give greater airtime to Reform UK compared to 25% who said the Liberal Democrats.
The survey also asked people to consider the importance of different factors that typically inform how broadcasters allocate airtime for each party. This included weighting coverage on the basis of: 1) the number of politicians a party had elected at the last general election; 2) the vote share a party received; 3) the performance at the most recent devolved, regional and local election; 4) the latest trends in political opinion data; 5) and whether a political party says or does something a news organisation considers important to report.
47% of people considered the number of MPs elected at the general election to be a fairly or very important factor when broadcasters allocated airtime, while 27% did not think it was fairly or very important. The remaining 27% were unsure. If we excluded don’t knows, 64% of people considered the number of MPs elected at the general election to be a fairly or very important factor when broadcasters allocated airtime, while 36% did not think it was fairly or very important.
49% of people thought the total share of votes a party received at the general election was a fairly or very important factor when broadcasters allocated airtime, while 25% did not think it was fairly or very important. A further 26% were unsure. If we excluded don’t knows, 66% of people thought the total share of votes a party received at the general election was a fairly or very important factor when broadcasters allocated airtime, while 34% did not think it was fairly or very important
49% of people considered the total share of votes a party received at the general election a fairly or very important factor when broadcasters allocated airtime, while 25% did not think it was fairly or very important. The final 26% were unsure. If we excluded don’t knows, 66% of people considered the total share of votes a party received at the general election was a fairly or very important factor when broadcasters allocated airtime, while 34% did not think it was fairly or very important.
48% of people thought a party’s performance at the latest devolved, regional or local election was a fairly or very important factor when broadcasters allocated airtime, while 25% did not think it was fairly or very important. The remaining 27% were unsure. If we excluded don’t knows, 66% of people thought a party’s performance at the latest devolved, regional or local election was fairly or very important factor when broadcasters allocated airtime, while 34% did not think it was fairly or very important
51% of people believed that the latest trends in public opinion surveys were a fairly or very important factor when broadcasters allocated airtime, while 25% did not think they were fairly or very important. A further 24% were unsure. If we excluded don’t knows, 68% of people believed the latest trends in public opinion surveys were a fairly or very important factor when broadcasters allocated airtime, while 32% did not think it was fairly or very important
56% of people thought that when a political party says or does something a news organisation considers important is a fairly or very important factor when broadcasters allocated airtime, while 18% did not think it was fairly or very important. A further 26% were unsure. If we excluded don’t knows, 75% of people considered that when a political party says or does something a news organisation considers important, it is an important factor when broadcasters allocate airtime, while 25% did not think it was fairly or very important.
Finally, we asked people to rank what they considered to be the most impartial way of balancing party-political perspectives when UK broadcasters are allocating airtime, where 1 is the most important and 5 is the least important. Table 1 below presents the findings.
Above all, there was no overwhelming consensus about the most important factors broadcasters should prioritise when allocating airtime to different political parties. The performance of parties at the latest devolved, regional or local election was considered to be the least important. The factor that was ranked the highest – albeit with a just quarter of people – was when a political party says or does something a news organisation considers to be important, followed by the performance according to the latest trends in public opinion surveys.
Analysis of findings
When asked if broadcasters should allocate airtime to a political party with more MPs (without mention of the parties in the question wording), or the party leading the polls or whether both parties should receive equal levels of coverage, we found a clear majority – 60% - favoured equal airtime for parties. And if excluded those unsure, 70% favoured equal airtime. This opinion held for a majority of people who would vote Reform UK (60%) or the Liberal Democrats (65%). When we considered people’s news consumption habits, around half of frequent GB News consumers (47%) supported equal airtime for both parties, with many favouring using opinion polls to weight coverage (68% considered this to be important). The survey shows that when people do not interpret the allocation of airtime through the prism of their party political preferences, they are more likely to support equal airtime for the political parties mentioned in the question. Once we provided some political context, such as referencing the fact that Reform UK is leading the polls and the Liberal Democrats have 72 MPs compared to Reform UK’s four MPs, those favouring equal airtime reduced from 60% to 40% (or from 70% to 48% when those unsure were excluded). In other words, people’s party political prejudices informed how people think broadcasters should allocate airtime. That said, almost half of the Liberal democrats thought there should be equal airtime for both parties (47%) in this scenario, and a further 46% said more airtime should be given to the Liberal Democrats. This suggests many Liberal Democrat voters appear to believe in the principle of balancing coverage – consistent with the party’s campaign to “balance the BBC”.
When asked more specifically about how they valued the factors involved in allocating airtime to political parties, our survey revealed that about a quarter of people said they didn’t know. The findings suggest many people may not understand the varying factors about allocating airtime according to criteria, and did not want to offer a judgment. When we specifically asked people about different ways of weighting coverage, there was no clear consensus on which was the important factor. However, many said that when a political party says or does something a broadcaster considers important or a party’s performance in the latest poll is important.
As we enter a new political landscape with the collapse in support of the two main parties – Labour and Conservatives – and a rise in support for Reform UK, alongside a resurgence in Green party members with a new leader, as well as the SNP leading polls in Scotland and Plaid Cymru in Wales, the competition for airtime among parties will only intensify. Our new survey suggests many people instinctively want more balanced coverage of parties, but there is only so much space available for broadcasters to reflect the full spectrum of political parties across the UK. Our survey showed the vast majority of people believe broadcasters should be impartial, and they trust TV and radio above other forms of news, such as online or social media. But more people thought broadcasters were complying badly than well with the due impartiality guidelines, signalling that editors of TV and radio programming could do more to convince the public about how they allocate airtime. In order to ensure people continue to keep faith with the impartiality of broadcasters, we would argue they need to be more transparent with their audiences about how they weigh coverage according to different factors, as the BBC did in September when the public service broadcaster issued a statement explaining its coverage of Reform UK.
As the devolved elections in Scotland and Wales approach, broadcasters will again come under pressure to explain how they weigh coverage in a crowded field of political parties. While it is not always easy to allocate airtime to all parties, our survey suggested a preference for equalising coverage. At the same time, it found many people were unsure about what factors should influence editorial decision-making. This makes it essential for broadcasters to inform their audiences about the difficult decisions they are making in balancing airtime for parties and how they are complying with impartiality rules.