The Much Delayed and Definately Last BBC News Regional Bias Report

I actually stopped this project at the end of January. I believe my point, that London is not unduly favoured by the BBC 6 O' Clock News, has been made and that my research protocol is really not sophisticated enough to glean much information beyond that.

In terms of raw minutes of coverage London and the North-West remained neck and neck through out the monitoring period.

Total Mins	September	October	November	December	January	Total
London	18.31	18.99	28.22	17.04	29.39	111.95
North West	42.66	18.76	15.70	12.89	20.52	110.53
Wales	14.55	24.46	26.59	1.37	14.01	80.98
Yorkshire +	19.76	11.08	23.41	4.34	15.04	73.63
South-West	5.60	22.88	16.19	16.44	11.93	73.04
South-East	24.07	9.91	7.85	9.08	10.86	61.77
Scotland	13.59	21.35	6.08	3.71	14.37	59.10
West Midlands	0.92	10.57	13.48	9.30	14.12	48.39
Northern Ireland	7.37	2.88	6.32	10.67	3.04	30.28
East	3.43	13.81	6.30	1.29	1.37	26.20
East Midlands	1.97	1.72	6.36	7.05	1.69	18.79
North East	6.55	-	1.13	0.23	5.16	13.07

If we adjust for population, so that 1.00 means that a region gets exactly the same percentage coverage as it has percentage of the UK population, we find that London comes 6th in the table. There is also a dramatic bias towards the so-called Celtic Fringe and that it is the Eastern parts of the UK that are the most neglected.

	September	October	November	December	January	Total
Wales	1.89	3.22	3.48	0.30	2.04	2.36
Northern Ireland	1.62	0.64	1.40	3.98	0.75	1.49
North West	2.41	1.07	0.89	1.24	1.30	1.40
Yorkshire +	1.49	0.85	1.77	0.56	1.27	1.24
South-West	0.42	1.75	1.23	2.10	1.01	1.23
London	0.89	0.94	1.38	1.41	1.60	1.22
Scotland	1.03	1.64	0.46	0.48	1.22	1.00
West Midlands	0.07	0.76	0.96	1.12	1.12	0.77
South-East	1.11	0.46	0.36	0.71	0.56	0.64
North East	1.00	-	0.17	0.06	0.89	0.45
East	0.23	0.95	0.43	0.15	0.10	0.40
East Midlands	0.17	0.15	0.56	1.05	0.17	0.37

The Very Last BBC 6 O'Clock News Regional Bias Report of 2012....

Well you probably know the drill by now but if you don't you can check here, here and here...

Done? Then let's get down to it.

Well trends continued much as they have before but with London creeping up the minutes per million population chart and the South West getting a lot of flood coverage.

Total Mins.	September	October	November	December	Total
North West	42.66	18.76	15.70	12.89	90.01
London	18.31	18.99	28.22	17.04	82.56
Wales	14.55	24.46	26.59	1.37	66.97
South-West	5.60	22.88	16.19	16.44	61.11
Yorkshire +	19.76	11.08	23.41	4.34	58.59
South-East	24.07	9.91	7.85	9.08	50.91
Scotland	13.59	21.35	6.08	3.71	44.73
West Midlands	0.92	10.57	13.48	9.30	34.27
Northern Ireland	7.37	2.88	6.32	10.67	27.24
East	3.43	13.81	6.30	1.29	24.83
East Midlands	1.97	1.72	6.36	7.05	17.10
North East	6.55	-	1.13	0.23	7.91

There's a definite bias towards the so-called Celtic Fringe at the expense of the East of the country (nobody likes those Danes do they) but the coverage is still primarily following natural disasters and juicy murders.

Mins/Mpop	September	October	November	December	Total
Wales	4.75	7.98	8.68	0.45	21.86
Northern Ireland	4.07	1.59	3.49	5.89	15.04
North West	6.05	2.66	2.23	1.83	12.76
South-West	1.06	4.33	3.06	3.11	11.55
Yorkshire +	3.74	2.10	4.43	0.82	11.09
London	2.24	2.32	3.45	2.08	10.10
Scotland	2.59	4.06	1.16	0.71	8.51
West Midlands	0.16	1.89	2.41	1.66	6.12
South-East	2.79	1.15	0.91	1.05	5.90
East	0.59	2.36	1.08	0.22	4.25
East Midlands	0.43	0.38	1.40	1.56	3.77
North East	2.52	-	0.44	0.09	3.05

Given how the regions bop up and down the rankings we're still a long from proving my hypothesis (that Northerners are wrong to moan about being neglected by a London centric media in case you've forgotten) is far from proven to my satisfaction.

Ranking	September	October	November	December
Scotland	6	3	9	9
Wales	2	1	1	10
Northern Ireland	3	9	3	1
North East	7	12	12	12
North West	1	4	7	4
Yorkshire +	4	7	2	8
East Midlands	11	11	8	6
West Midlands	12	8	6	5
East	10	5	10	11
London	8	6	4	3
South-East	5	10	11	7
South-West	9	2	5	2

UPDATED 31/12/2012
As requested below I have added National Averages for Total Minutes and Mins/Pop.

	Tot-Mins	Min/Mpop
Wales	66.97	21.86
Northern Ireland	27.24	15.04
North West	90.01	12.76
South-West	61.11	11.55
Yorkshire +	58.59	11.09
London	82.56	10.10
NAT. AVERAGE	49.24	9.50
Scotland	44.73	8.51
West Midlands	34.27	6.12
South-East	50.91	5.90
East	24.83	4.25
East Midlands	17.10	3.77
North East	7.91	3.05

Scotland was above the average until December and I suspect it will go higher in the New Year when the independence debate ratchets up.