What you need to know about GB News – Prospect Magazine

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It is a sacred tenet for populists that they alone know what the people want. Common-sense Britain has, they insist, had enough of the woke, liberal nonsense peddled by an out-of-touch mainstream media which tells people what to think and what not to say. If theyre right, then there should be money in providing an alternative. Hence the idea for GB News, a new, Brexit-flavoured TV channel founded by telecoms executives Andrew Cole and Mark Schneider (both close to the right-wing American cable TV billionaire John Malone) and chaired by legendary ex-BBC journalist Andrew Neil.

Despite panic from hyperventilating liberals, it wasnt exactly meant to be a British Fox NewsOfcom regulations preclude thatbut hoped to serve neglected viewers beyond the supposed metropolitan bubble, airing arguments not broadcast elsewhere. The idea was to ditch conventional news bulletins for punchy debates likely to go viral on social media. There would be an upbeat patriotic twistno more talking Britains post-Brexit prospects downand dedicated good news slots. It launched on 13th June with a bang, although arguably not the one it wanted.

Bold choice to film it on a Nokia 3310, tweeted one viewer, as a nation peered into studios so under-lit it wasnt easy to see the presenters. An anti-lockdown monologue from the former Sun journalist turned GB News presenter Dan Wootton, accusing doomsday scientists of terrifying the public, sparked 390 complaints to Ofcom (the regulator subsequently ruled out further action). The next few days brought technical glitches that repeatedly cut guests off, prank calls (one video caller flashed his bare bottom on air), and the socialite Lady Colin Campbell insisting that the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein be described not as a paedophile but an ephebophile, a historic term for someone attracted to older teenagers. It was cult viewing in Westminster, if only because everyone was agog for the next disaster, and its first night viewing figures of 164,000 trumped Sky News. But as the novelty faded, so did the ratings.

By the end of June, audiences had halved, Welsh language versions of the childrens cartoon Paw Patrol were beating GB Newss flagship breakfast show, and star presenter Andrew Neil announced he was taking some time off to recharge his batteries. So why, when culture wars play so well politically for Boris Johnson, arent they translating better onto television?

One explanation is that GB News, whose projected 25m running costs are a quarter of Skys, is simply trying to do things too cheaply. Another is that the people arent quite what populists think. GB News is lockdown-sceptic, yet polling shows this is the view of a noisy minority, not the masses. Some fans may have booed England footballers taking the knee, but only one in five Britons oppose Black Lives Matter and over a third dont even know what woke means, according to pollsters Ipsos Mori. For all the sound and fury, culture wars are a niche pursuit. Britons would rather watch a boxset than a rant about Meghan Markle, which means the single biggest problem for GB News is getting noticed.

Johnson successfully bolted a base-rallying culture war onto an already established Tory brand. But GB News more resembles the anti-lockdown actor Laurence Foxs doomed run for London mayor; its a startup trying to break a market stacked against new entrants, where Netflix and YouTube are eating far bigger players for breakfast. (Rupert Murdochs News UK recently canned plans to start its own TV channel, concluding it wasnt viable in this climate.) Even if, as some suspect, the real intention is to shift the political dial or put pressure on the BBC, that wont happen unless viewers defect to GB News. The biggest threat to its survival isnt brands like Ikea pulling advertising in protest at its perceived valuesit thrives on that kind of controversybut pulling ads because nobodys actually watching.

Theres clearly a loyalif limitedmarket for GB News, much as there is for the Daily Express, and perhaps its backers are politically committed enough to subsidise it indefinitely. But if it cant scale up in the next few months, then a channel that lives by the mantra go woke, go broke could prove instead that populism isnt quite as popular as it thought.

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What you need to know about GB News - Prospect Magazine