Controversial BBC challenger with opinion and debate
A British TV news channel – GB News – will go on-air for the first time on June 13 and it’s controversial already before launching. Background is that it is said to be an opinion-led channel with critics in the UK media expressing fear that it will be a UK version of US channel Fox News, owned by Rupert Murdoch and – at least earlier – Donald Trump’s favourite news outlet when he was the US president.
The channel has its headquarters at Paddington in London. And it comes at a time when the BBC is under attack! Politicians have said the BBC has political been leaning to the left and that it is losing attraction – especially for a younger audience. Things did not get better for the public service broadcaster when an independent investigation recently found that Princess Diana was tricked to give her famous interview about her marriage by a BBC reporter who presented fabricated documents.
“FRESH AND DIFFERENT”
The GB News says it will air 6 500 hours a year of “original news, opinion and debate”. It will not have a rolling news service. The channel’s director of news is John McAndrew with a background at the BBC, Sky News, ITN and NBC.
“We can sense a real hunger for something fresh and different in television news and debate”, he said motivating the new channel. “It’s humbling because we are a small start-up with a fraction of the resources of others, but what we lack in size we make up for in passion and determination to provide a welcoming home for honest British news and debate.”
OFCOM REGULATED
“All our presenters will have the freedom to say what they think, to have some fun and to be brave about covering the issues that really matter to the people of Britain.”
On Twitter he wrote that the channel will be “free, fair, impartial” but also that it will be “Ofcom regulated”. UK media authority Ofcom says that news channels must show due impartiality when covering political issues.
INVESTORS
The GB News has been founded by media executives Andrew Cole and Mark Schneider. According to PressGazette, both of them have had associations with Virgin Media owner Liberty Global which is run by John Malone, a major shareholder of GB News investor US -based TV company Discovery.
Former Sky News executive editor John McAndrew is director of news and programming and ex-Sky News Australia chief executive Angelos Frangopoulos is CEO.
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