Editorial standards and corrections

Where the listings come from

Schedule data comes from two places: the public Freeview XMLTV feed, and Sky's published schedule API. We merge them — where a channel appears in both, Sky metadata enriches the Freeview entry rather than replacing it — and the combined set is refreshed every 12 hours. It covers 428 channels and 9 days of listings.

We are not the broadcaster. Times, titles and episode information originate with the channels themselves, and when a broadcaster publishes something wrong, that error reaches us too. Schedules also change after publication, particularly for live sport and breaking news, and a late change may not appear here until the next refresh.

How the written guides are produced

Each of our most-watched channels carries a written summary of the day's daytime and evening schedule, for 9 days ahead. These are generated automatically from the published schedule — programme titles, start times and run lengths — and then checked against the listings database before publication. They are not written by a human editor, and we say so on every page that carries one.

The generator is given titles and times only. It is not given programme synopses or genre labels, so it cannot describe a plot, name a cast member, or tell you what a programme is about. Anything it cannot establish from the schedule, it leaves out. Output that makes a claim the schedule does not support is rejected automatically and regenerated.

We also regenerate a day's guide when the underlying schedule changes after it was written, so the prose cannot drift out of step with the listings beneath it.

What we do not publish

We do not republish broadcaster programme descriptions. Those synopses are third-party copyrighted text. You will not find them here, and we do not paraphrase them either — a close rewrite of a short synopsis is still derived from someone else's writing. Listings show times, titles, durations and channel numbers, which are facts. Any description you read on TV Radar is our own.

We do not publish programme artwork. Promotional stills and posters belong to the broadcasters and distributors who made them. Channel logos are used only to identify the channel.

Corrections

If something here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it. Email [email protected] with the channel, the date and what is wrong.

• Errors in our own writing — a guide that contradicts the schedule, or says something the data does not support — we correct or remove within one working day.
• Errors in the listings data usually originate with the broadcaster. We will check the source feed and tell you what we find. If the feed is wrong we cannot correct it here, but we will say so rather than leave you guessing.
• Copyright concerns — if you believe something on this site reproduces your work, email the same address and we will remove it while we look into it, not after.

Independence

TV Radar is independent. We are not affiliated with the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky, Freeview or any broadcaster. No broadcaster pays for placement, and no programme appears more prominently because of a commercial arrangement. Where we use affiliate links we say so on the page that carries them.

See also About TV Radar and Contact.