Today we’ve published our 2026 News Report, our annual research looking at how people in the UK access and consume news, and how they feel about it.
Some of the main findings can be found in our news release, and here we’ve highlighted further detail that shines a light on people’s preferences when it comes to how they get their news.
Local news remains a useful service
Despite the availability of wide-ranging national and international news content across different sources, local news and information continue to be important to UK audiences. Seven in ten people consider local news to be among the most important forms of news, with local weather being the most valuable type of local information.
Almost all adults (95%) make use of local news and information. Word of mouth (54%), social media (48%) and television (42%) are the most common ways of accessing it. While 81% of adults get their local news online, the BBC remains prominent provider of local news - its website, app and regional television bulletins are among the most-used local news sources.
Long-form content offers value in an election year
Although audiences increasingly consume everyday news in shorter digital formats, election coverage appears to drive demand for more detailed content. In May there was a series of elections in England, Scotland and Wales. Around this time, TV was the most commonly-used platform for election information, reaching 62% of people who were aware that the elections were taking place. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of people preferred longer-form election coverage such as articles and news bulletins, compared with 18% who preferred shorter formats.
Traditional news providers were also rated significantly more trustworthy, accurate and impartial for election news than news accessed through social media, with public service broadcasters among the highest-rated news providers.
Children primarily get their news through online and social
For children aged 12-15, the main routes to news content are through social media and video-sharing platforms. More than three-quarters of them (78%) access news through social media, with TikTok (42%) and YouTube (38%) the most-used services.
As with adults, much of this news content comes from established broadcasters. For example, 70% of X users and 64% of YouTube users in this age group said they had seen news from UK broadcasters on those platforms.
Children seeing news on TikTok are slightly more likely to see it from influencers, independent commentators and online creators (46%) than from UK broadcasters (42%). However, on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and X they are more likely to see news from broadcasters.
When it comes to subject matter, children are mainly interested in entertainment-related news topics such as music, film, celebrities and sport rather than politics or international conflicts.
In a crowded ecosystem, the BBC is the most-used news provider
Despite increasing competition and fragmenting audiences, the BBC remains the most widely-used news provider in the UK, reaching 77% of adults via its different services on TV, radio and online. By comparison, ITV reaches half of adults, while Sky and Global each reach around a third.
The BBC is the most-used news brand across all age groups, although its reach is considerably higher among older audiences, at 87% of people aged 75+. However, it is also the most widely-used news source among younger adults, with two-thirds of 16-24s saying they had used BBC News in the past month.
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