Since May 2022, Detector Media has been collecting data on the people appearing on air during the United News telethon.
On May 21, 2024, Suspilne’s First Channel withdrew from the joint telethon, remaining part of the United News project in accordance with a National Security and Defense Council decision, and began broadcasting independently. Therefore, we analyze it separately, comparing it to United News.
In September 2025, the First Channel conducted 1,496 guest interviews — fewer than in its record-breaking August (1,764). During the same period, United News held 1,156 conversations.
Traditionally, Suspilne featured women more often: 20.5% of all guests (a slight improvement over August). The state-run marathon, by contrast, included only 15.1% female speakers — a quarter fewer than its counterparts.
Number of Guests on Air in the United News Telethon and on Pershyi Channel
September 2025
The marathon narrowed the gap but still trails behind Suspilne in terms of guest diversity. In September, the same people appeared on the First Channel an average of 1.93 times per month, compared to 2.05 times on United News. In practice, this means the independent broadcaster continues to feature a wider range of voices.
Number of Unique Guests on Air in the United News Telethon and on Pershyi Channel,
September 2025
The contrast in the two platforms’ cultures is best illustrated by their most frequent guests. For the telethon, these were government spokespeople: Andriy Demchenko from the State Border Guard Service (19 appearances), Oleksandr Tolokonnikov from the Kherson Regional Military Administration (17), and the almost “in-house” political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko (15).
On Suspilne, the most frequent guests were political analyst Ihor Chalenko and Militarnyi commentator Vadym Kushnikov, each appearing 14 times — even though in August, the First Channel featured them only ten times combined. In fact, the leading guests on the independent broadcaster change much more often from month to month than those on United News, where the top three speakers in August were almost the same as in September.
Most Frequent Guests on Air in the United News Telethon and on Pershyi Channel,
September 2025, Guests are ranked by the total number of appearances across both the telethon and Pershyi.
Political censorship in the marathon also remained unchanged. Throughout September, United News did not invite a single representative of European Solidarity and included only 14 guests from the conditionally opposition parliamentary factions. The channel featured 59 appearances by Servant of the People members, 15 by representatives of the President’s Office, and 16 by the Cabinet of Ministers — that’s 6.4 government representatives for every one from the entire parliamentary opposition.
Suspilne, by contrast, gave the floor to Servant of the People members 46 times, the Cabinet six times, and the President’s Office once. Another 85 speaking opportunities went to representatives of seven different parliamentary forces, with European Solidarity (34) and Holos (26) leading the way. In fact, every faction appeared on Suspilne more often than, for example, on the specialized parliamentary TV channel Rada.
Presence of Political Party Representatives on Air in the United News Telethon and on Pershyi Channel,
September 2025
Presence of Politicians on Air in the United News Telethon and on Pershyi Channel,
September 2025
The topic distribution in September also remained largely consistent. The First Channel most often covered international affairs (26.2%), the war (24.2%), and humanitarian issues (17.3%), with 117 segments dedicated to Ukrainian politics.
United News devoted 33.5% of airtime to the war, 21.3% to international topics, and 19.2% to social issues, which ranked third. The marathon paid slightly more attention to the economy than the First Channel. However, according to Detector Media’s monitoring, it hosted just one discussion on domestic Ukrainian politics over the entire thirty-day period.
Topic Distribution on Air in the United News Telethon and on Pershyi Channel,
September 2025
