BBC polling
Find Out Now surveyed 2,001 GB adults on 10th November, in addition to monthly tracker surveys ran since January 2025, weighted to be nationally representative by age, gender, region and 2024 GE vote. Find Out Now is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules
Headline results:
- Outright majority (52% vs 28%) says they don’t trust BBC News to provide high-quality and impartial news coverage
- Rises to 82% of 2024 Reform voters. Only Labour and Lib Dem voters more likely to trust than distrust
- Overwhelming majority (71% vs 11%) say they would prefer neutral coverage from BBC News, rather than more opinions and commentary
- More think the BBC has a left-wing (27%) rather than right-wing (15%) bias. But most either say ‘No bias’ or ‘Don’t know’
- Less than a quarter (22%) of Brits think the BBC license fee is good value for money
- Under-30s less than half as likely to think this as over-75s (17% vs 34%)
- Clear majority (62% vs 16%) think the license fee should be replaced with another funding model
- Public are much more likely to think the BBC has done a bad job in its coverage of various issues (we asked about transgender / Israel-Palestine / Trump / Asylum hotels) than a good job
Full data tables can be found here
Tracker questions analysis
Find Out Now runs a series of monthly tracker surveys, including questions about the BBC
Polling about good job / bad job:
- Polling from start of October, public more likely to say BBC doing a bad job (38%) than good job (27%). But many people say ‘Don’t know’ (36%)
- This basically unchanged from start of the year (January polling) when it was 37% bad job, 27% good job and 36% ‘Don’t know’
January tables here and October tables here
Polling on trust:
- Separate polling from start of November (before resignations), outright majority (51%) say they don’t trust the BBC (27% ‘not very much’ + 24% ‘not at all’)
- This compares to only 35% who say they do trust the BBC (7% ‘a lot’ + 28% ‘a fair amount’), with 15% who say ‘Don’t know’
- This also basically unchanged from start of year, when figures were 54% distrust, 33% trust and 14% ‘Don’t know’