SkySports is a group of subscription-based sports channels provided by British satellite media conglomerate SkyGroup. With an audience of 23 million, Sky is Europe’s largest satellite broadcaster and one of the most extensive subscription-based media services in the world. Formed in 1989 after the merger of Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting, the company (then known as BSkyB) became the UK’s largest subscription television company, rising to become Europe’s largest broadcaster after acquiring Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia in 2014. The Group was acquired by Comcast/NBC Universal in 2018.
SkySports news coverage is provided by SkySports News, one of the twelve primary channels in the SkySports service package. As the name implies, SkySports News is focused almost entirely on sports news coverage, although that is not to say that they may discuss political events on occasion as they relate to the sports world. Indeed, one cannot ignore the possible intersections of sports and political issues. According to YouGov’s analytics, SkySports’ massive audience makes it one of the most famous networks in the world, with a whopping 94% fame rating. Statistics show that television is the most popular way for UK citizens to get their news, with roughly 65% of citizens 16 or older citing television as their preferred news source.
With such popularity and wide-ranging influence, SkySports’ trustworthiness and possible bias are certainly pertinent questions. Therefore, we will analyze their coverage to determine if there is any political bias in their reporting and, indeed, if it is possible for a sports network to have any political bias in the first place.
How does Biasly Rate News Sources?
Biasly’s algorithms produce bias ratings to help provide multiple perspectives on given articles. Biasly has analyzed 200,000+ news articles from more than 3,200 news sources through our A.I. technology and team of political analysts to find the most factual, unbiased news stories.
Biasly determines the degree of political bias in news sources by using Biasly’s Bias Meter Rating, in which Biasly’s team analyzes media sources’ reliability and bias and produces three scores, a Reliability Score that measures the accuracy of media sources; an A.I. Bias Score, evaluated by A.I.; and an Analyst Bias Score evaluated by political analysts. These scores are rated based on seven rating metrics including Tone, Tendency, Diction, Author Check, Selection/Omission, Expediency Bias, and Accuracy. These metrics help our analysts to determine the political attitude of the article.
Our A.I. machine-learning system employs natural language processing and entity-specific sentiment analysis to examine individual articles and determine their bias levels. By analyzing the key terms in an article such as policies, bias phrases, political terminologies, politicians, and their nicknames, the algorithms can rate the attitude of the text. Bias scores range from -100% and 100%, with higher negative scores being more liberal higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral.
Is SkySports Politically Biased?
Biasly’s rating for SkySports is derived from its A.I.-based algorithms. SkySports has a Computer Bias Score of Medium Liberal. This produces an interesting conundrum for a bias analysis. The Computer Bias rating tells us that SkySports has a noted conservative slant, yet usually, sources only lack an Analyst Bias score when a source does not have enough political content. How can a source have political bias without political content? This is a question we hope to resolve later in the article.
The Computer Bias Score is generated by AI-based algorithms that focus on the tone, opinion, and diction of the author, as well as the tendencies that the author may display in their writing.
These biases may be a product of SkySports’ efforts to cater to their audience, which trends older and male, a group that usually is rather conservative and whose preferences could impact SkySports’ content. Is this the case? How biased is SkySports truly, and is Biasly’s AI rating truly reflective of SkySports’ content? We will explore further later on in this article, of course. But first, a disclaimer.
Before we begin, we need to discuss bias. Bias is a natural function of humans, and we can express it both consciously and unconsciously. Bias is one of the most fundamental forms of pattern recognition in humans. This isn’t to lower the bar and say that “all things are biased,” but to explain the process in which we may come to trust certain news organizations that display patterns of coverage.
On the media’s part, there is an incentive to retain audiences, encourage them to purchase subscriptions, and rate products positively. Bias is a two-way street, people want to see news stories about things they care about, and the media needs viewers to continue their operations. This creates a positive feedback loop that influences what stories are covered and from what perspective. This also explains the actions of more liberal news organizations.
Analysis of Bias in SkySports Online Articles
According to SimilarWeb, the primary audience for SkySports is 73% male. 62% of the audience is from the UK, and over half of the audience is between the ages of 25 and 44. The audience typically also visits the general Sky News website as well as BBC News- what Statista calls the UK’s most popular news site, with almost 38 million visits per month as of December 2023. Does any of this information tell us about the political bias of SkySports’ audience? We will look at some of their articles below in order to identify the signs.
When determining bias, some of the most common metrics used include Tone, Tendency, Author, Diction, and Expediency Bias, which are the primary metrics we’ll focus on below.
- Tone: This represents the attitude of the writing, formed distinctively but related to the author’s word choices or diction.
- Diction: The specific words chosen by the writer.
- Author: A metric related to the article’s author, taking into account their history of stance on issues based on past articles and social media posts.
- Tendency measures how consistently an author shows bias in their work, including factors like their tone and perspective.
- Expediency Bias relates to the immediate impression created by elements like the article’s headline, images, or summary, indicating if they favor a particular viewpoint.
Enough preamble, let’s take a closer look at some articles from SkySports and assess their potential for bias using these metrics. We will begin with an example of bias metrics at work from the jump; the first headline and image that an author chooses for an article can often influence the reception of an entire piece, as seen here:
Donald Trump brands NBA ‘political organisation’ after Jacob Blake shooting protests
Jacob Blake was shot in the back several times by a police officer in Wisconsin, sparking widespread protests
Thursday 27 August 2020 22:52, UK. Image: Donald Trump said ‘I don’t think that’s a good thing’ that players are protesting
Note in this article, how the headline refers to Trump “branding” the NBA as a ‘political organization’. The tone and choice of words lead the reader to conclude immediately that the label is undeserved. What’s more, the picture shows Trump in a petulant pose, leading to the implication that his complaints should not be taken seriously. Finally, the image descriptor claims that Trump is simply condemning the NBA players and does not provide the former president’s full quote, which could lead the reader to miss important context. All of these taken together could demonstrate a latent anti-Trump bias that might affect the audience’s perceptions.
Let us examine another SkySports article using all five bias metrics. We’re going to take a look at a piece that demonstrates some of the quirks of SkySports’ coverage. In “Eight Years On, Colin Kaepernick Waits for NFL Call: ‘I Could Help Win a Championship”, author Miriam Walker-Khan discusses the controversial and outspoken former NFL quarterback’s latest attempt to return to the field for the first time since “taking a knee” against police brutality in 2016.
“’Taking a knee’ made headlines globally and still happens in sports all over the world, including before certain matches during the Premier League and WSL seasons.”
While the article seems relatively neutral at first glance, the author is perhaps demonstrating a hint of bias for Kaepernick’s cause in the article’s diction. By claiming that his actions “made headlines globally,”; the author, by overselling the impact of Kaepernick’s actions, demonstrates a sympathetic approach that could read as bias or favoritism, especially by those disinclined to support Kaepernick. On the other hand, the tone of the article remains relatively neutral and restrained throughout, mentioning only the impact that they believe Kaepernick’s actions had and focusing mainly on the athlete’s plans to return to competition.
We reach more illuminating territory when we pivot to discussing the potential biases of the author, Mirriam Walker-Khan. As the official Diversity and Inclusion reporter for Sky Sports, Ms. Walker-Khan’s X profile is naturally filled with liberal sentiments on social issues, containing generally liberal sentiments regarding racial matters, discrimination, and inequality.
I really strongly feel that in big 2021 we should not be explaining why the word p**i is racist. Anyone using that word knows exactly what they’re doing and how offensive it is. We’ve got to get past explaining why things are racist, to racists, who only mean to harm and offend.
— Miriam Walker-Khan (@mimwalkerkhan) November 6, 2021
My friend just sent me this from 2 years ago when I was prepping for an interview on holiday.
People still insinuate that I only got that job cos I’m brown & a woman, cos hOw cAn a bRoWn GiRl bE a SpOrTs jOuRnO?
Saw this & decided imposter syndrome is not for me anymore 🙅🏽♀️ pic.twitter.com/3GSZpyP4Yi— Miriam Walker-Khan (@mimwalkerkhan) August 16, 2020
She has also previously published articles implying strong support for Black Lives Matter, as referenced in this post:
I’ve been working on something for a while now – please have a read if you want to learn about #BlackLivesMatter and the part sport has played.
And ❗️ follow WorkByMischief on insta who did these incredible illustrations. https://t.co/9ywYeLp9mp— Miriam Walker-Khan (@mimwalkerkhan) September 1, 2020
SkySports has an entire Black Lives Matter subsection on their website devoted to articles about the organization’s impact on the sports world and racism in sports more generally. Given our information about Ms. Walker-Khan’s work, it is safe to say that she demonstrates a consistently liberal tendency. However, the article chosen for this example demonstrates a more restrained bias than her social media presence would indicate. When running a background check on an author, it’s essential to evaluate their work history or any other publications they have available to assess whether they demonstrate any particular bias.
The final bias metric, expediency bias, evaluates the visual components of an article, determining the extent to which the headlines and images included in an article were intended to sway the reader in a particular direction. In this article, the title “Eight Years On, Kaepernick Waits for NFL Call”, could imply that the author feels that Kaepernick is “owed” a chance from the NFL after his last season in the league. It could also be that the “eight years on” refers to the eight years since Kaepernick’s last season when he took the knee, which the author argues touched off such a firestorm. The images in the article with the textual descriptions near them suggest a Medium Liberal bias by painting liberal ideologies in a respectful or positive light. The diction and tone are the clearest indicators of bias, although the bias is not extreme.
Source: SkySports
Analysis of SkySports Opinion Articles
Whenever the topic of opinion articles is brought up, it is often helpful to underline the distinction between factual reporting and opinion pieces. While typically reporting is intended to be neutral, providing facts and primary sources such as quotes and interviews for the reader to form their own opinion with the available information, opinion pieces are explicitly designed to allow the columnists at a particular outlet to express their own opinions on the issues of the day, providing the reader with a more personal touch that allows them to get a read on how people feel regarding particular events. SkySports is no exception to this trend, providing its own opinion column on the latest sports news.
Unfortunately, there is no political analysis in SkySports’ opinion section. As a sports site largely focused on English Premier League coverage, SkySports has news and opinion pieces focused mainly on football news. They have articles and information about the British domestic, European, and international leagues (both men’s and women’s), news about upcoming matchups, and a Transfer Centre speculating on prospective trades. All this is to say SkySports does not have the editorial section of a particular news outlet. If they cover political news at all, it is only indirectly and as it relates to the wider sports world.
Who Owns SkySports?
As mentioned earlier, SkySports is owned by British media conglomerate Sky Group, a Comcast/NBC Universal division. Comcast acquired Sky in 2018 from Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox. As of 2021, the current CEO of Sky Group is Dana Strong, former head of Consumer Services at Comcast Cable (now Xfinity). Unfortunately, we do not have any information regarding Strong’s political bias or political history, so we cannot accurately determine how her bias may influence SkySport’s coverage.
How to Evaluate and Uncover Bias
It can often be difficult to tell if the news you watch is biased. If you have settled on a news channel, it’s usually because you trust the information you are gaining. Unfortunately, many trust the information they are hearing because it confirms what they already believe. This is referred to as “confirmation bias.” It is important to challenge your beliefs and get third-party verification that what you are hearing is the full story. This is why we recommend using Biasly to compare different news stories side-by-side using our bias ratings to figure out what both sides think of a political issue.
Even though Biasly gave SkySports a “Somewhat Liberal” bias score, as long as you remember that bias varies by article and that some types of articles are generally less biased than others (i.e, opinion articles vis-a-vis factual reporting), there’s nothing to worry about for the attentive reader. SkySports does not generally publish enough political content for them to be accused of much bias in the first place. It can’t hurt to be too careful, however, so we recommend using Biasly’s News Bias and Reliability Checker to evaluate the pieces you read.