GB News

The Guardian's media editor reported in August 2020 that a group named GB News had been granted a licence to broadcast by Ofcom.[5] The Independent afterwards reported that the licence had been awarded to the group seven months earlier, in January, through a limited company, All Perspectives, registered with Companies House in September 2019.[6]

On 25 September it was announced that Andrew Neil, who had presented live political programmes on the BBC for 25 years,[7] would leave the corporation after leading their coverage of the 2020 United States presidential election. He said that he had been in discussions to continue working on the BBC in a new format after the cancellation of his programme The Andrew Neil Show, but that these talks had "not come to fruition" and he had accepted the post of chairman of a new television news channel.[8] On the same day he was announced as the presenter of a prime time evening programme on the channel, due to launch early the next year. In a statement, Neil said that the channel would "champion robust, balanced debate and a range of perspectives on the issues that affect everyone in the UK, not just those living in the London area", and GB News as addressing a perceived gap in the market for "the vast number of British people who feel underserved and unheard by their media".[9]

It was founded by Andrew Cole and Mark Schneider, two executives associated with the chairman of Liberty Global, John C. Malone.[5] Its chief executive officer (CEO) was announced as Angelos Frangopoulos, the former CEO of Sky News Australia.[2]

In December 2020, Sky News reported that Sir Paul Marshall, a prominent hedge fund manager, was in talks to invest £10 million into GB News.[10] On 6 January 2021, GB News reached its £60 million fundraising aim, which it claimed was "oversubscribed". The majority of the £60 million came from Discovery, Inc., Marshall and the investment firm Legatum. GB News said it would recruit 140 staff, including 120 journalists, and would also launch "streaming, video on-demand and audio services".[3] The recruitment drive began on 25 January.[4] On 28 January it was announced that Dan Wootton would leave News UK to join the channel as the host of a daily show, five days a week.[11]

Neil has said that the channel would not provide rolling news, but would, in similarity with some US networks like MSNBC, divide each day into "individual programmes, news-based programmes, built around very strong presenters".[12] He said that it would aim to offer programming that would become "an appointment to view".[13]

The channel has been forecast by the Financial Times to be "right-leaning"[1] and by The Guardian and City A.M. to be similar to Fox News,[13][5] a channel that Ofcom had ruled had broken rules around impartiality on multiple occasions in its final months broadcasting in the UK in 2017.[14] The BBC noted that "It is not the first channel to be set up in Britain with a strong worldview... But GB News is the first to be set up with an explicit political leaning". The BBC has also stated that "the validity of [the Fox News] comparison is limited".[11]

Richard Sambrook has suggested that "politicised UK TV news could lead to the polarised coverage that many hold responsible for sowing and amplifying division in the US during the Trump presidency".[15]

• Andrew Neil
• Dan Wootton