Broadcast TV News Networks We Trust: ABC, NBC, CTV, Global, Sky News and 9News

ABC News

ABC News is the news division of the ABC network, part of The Walt Disney Company since 1996. It produces World News Tonight, Good Morning America and the investigative program 20/20, and has reporters across the US and abroad. AllSides rates it Lean Left (-1.58) and Media Bias/Fact Check Left-Center, while Ad Fontes Media places it in the Middle and rates it Reliable (43.66). Two recent episodes involve its owner and the government: in December 2024, ABC paid $15 million to settle a defamation suit by Donald Trump after an anchor misstated a jury verdict on air, and in 2026 Disney and ABC sued the Federal Communications Commission, saying the regulator was pressuring them over their programming. Is ABC News biased?

NBC News

NBC News, whose roots go back to 1940, is part of NBCUniversal, owned by Comcast. Its programs include NBC Nightly News, Today and Meet the Press, the longest-running show on American television. AllSides rates it Lean Left (-1.48), Media Bias/Fact Check Left-Center, and Ad Fontes Media places it in the Middle (Reliable, 42.84). Its former sister cable channel MSNBC, whose evening shows lean further left, was renamed MS NOW and spun off with Comcast's other cable networks into a separate company, Versant, in January 2026. The ratings on this page are for NBC News only. Is NBC News biased?

CTV News

CTV News is the news division of CTV, one of Canada's two national private TV networks, launched in 1961. It belongs to Bell Media, a subsidiary of the telecom group BCE, and is funded mainly by advertising. Its flagship newscast is CTV National News. Media Bias/Fact Check, the only rater to score it, rates it Least Biased (0.9) with High factual reporting. Its independence was tested in 2015, when Bell Media's president tried to keep the chair of the broadcast regulator out of CTV's coverage of a regulatory decision; he apologized to the newsroom and left Bell Media weeks later. CTV News now works under a Journalistic Independence Policy meant to keep it separate from its owner. Is CTV News biased?

Global News

Global News is the news division of Global, Canada's other national private TV network. Its national newscast, Global National, has aired since 2001, and its stations produce local news across the country. Global has belonged to Corus Entertainment since 2016; in October 2026, a debt restructuring gave Corus's lenders 99% of the company, with Canso Investment Counsel the largest shareholder at about 44% of the votes and no majority owner. The three raters place it at or a little left of the center (Middle for Ad Fontes Media, Lean Left for AllSides, Left-Center for Media Bias/Fact Check), and Ad Fontes Media rates it Reliable (44.63). In 2025 it settled a defamation suit by former MP Han Dong over its 2023 reporting on foreign interference allegations. Is Global News biased?

Sky News

Sky News launched in 1989 as Britain's first 24-hour news channel. Comcast bought its parent company, Sky, in 2018 and made binding commitments to keep funding Sky News and to protect its editorial independence, monitored by an independent Sky News board. As a UK broadcaster it must follow Ofcom's rules on due accuracy and due impartiality. Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias/Fact Check place it near the center; AllSides rates it Lean Left without publishing a number. It posts several short videos a day, more than most outlets in Aplomb. Is Sky News biased?

9News

9News is the news division of the Nine Network, one of Australia's three commercial TV networks, on air since 1956. It belongs to Nine Entertainment, a listed company with no majority shareholder that also owns The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Media Bias/Fact Check, the only rater to score it, rates it Right-Center (2.1) with High factual reporting, which makes it the one network on this page rated right of center. In 2022 it withdrew a 2021 report about MP Andrew Laming and apologized publicly. In Aplomb, only its short news clips are shown, not its current-affairs programs such as A Current Affair. Is 9News biased?

A TV network airs news, talk and entertainment under one brand. What Aplomb shows is the reporting of its news division: the short clips these newsrooms post from their newscasts and correspondents. Morning shows, talk segments and panel debates are a different product, even when the same anchors appear in them. That is also why we judge networks on how clearly they keep reporting apart from commentary, one of our six criteria.

In the US, broadcast networks reach viewers over the air through local stations, which hold licenses from the Federal Communications Commission. That is why the FCC can weigh in on a network's programming, as in Disney and ABC's 2026 dispute with the regulator, while it has far less say over cable channels. Since the FCC abandoned the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, no US rule requires balance on air, and cable news has built much of its evening schedule around opinion hosts.

Canada sits in between. Its Broadcasting Act asks broadcasters for balanced coverage of matters of public concern, and complaints about the accuracy or fairness of private broadcasters, CTV and Global included, can go to an industry body, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council.

The UK works differently. Every licensed broadcaster, Sky News included, must keep its news duly accurate and duly impartial, and Ofcom investigates complaints and publishes its rulings. A channel like Sky News cannot take sides on air the way some American cable channels do, which helps explain why raters place it closer to the center than its US counterparts.

In Australia, commercial networks, 9News included, follow the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice, which asks for accurate and fair news, and viewers who are not satisfied with the network's answer can complain to the regulator, ACMA.

ABC News belongs to The Walt Disney Company, CTV News to Bell Media, part of BCE, Global News to Corus Entertainment, and 9News to Nine Entertainment. NBC News and Sky News are both owned by Comcast, the cable and broadband company, but they are run as separate newsrooms, and Sky News has its own legal guarantees of independence from the 2018 deal. ABC News, NBC News, CTV News, Global News and 9News are funded mainly by advertising; Sky News is paid for by Sky, whose revenue comes mainly from subscriptions and advertising. Ownership by a large company is not a problem in itself under our criteria. Control of the newsroom by its owner would be, which is why each profile looks at the owner's record.

Sky News is part of Latest, the app's feed of international newsrooms, and it posts several short videos a day. ABC News and NBC News cover mostly American stories, so their reports live in the United States tab rather than in Latest, CTV News and Global News are in the Canada tab, and 9News is in the Australia tab. Aplomb alternates newsrooms so no single outlet fills your feed, and you can hide any outlet in the settings.

The TV news Americans trust most is not national at all. In the Reuters Institute's 2026 Digital News Report, local television news was the most trusted source in the US, at 56%, ahead of every national brand. Aplomb does not include local stations today: our feed is built from national and international newsrooms that publish short videos every day on official channels. For news about your city, your local station remains the best source.

• Tell the formats apart. A correspondent's report from the scene, an anchor reading the news and a panel discussion are three different things. Only the first two are reporting.
• Read the on-screen text. Captions and banners are written fast, and they often carry more framing than the report itself.
• Notice who is interviewed. A two-minute report has room for two or three voices. Ask who was left out.
• Check the clip's date. Short videos travel for days after a story has moved on.
• Compare with a wire service. If a network report and an AP or Reuters story disagree on a fact, find out why.