GB News

About GB News

No British television channel of recent years has generated as much controversy, as quickly, as GB News. Launched in June 2021 with the backing of £60 million in investment and fronted by the BBC's former political heavyweight Andrew Neil, it positioned itself as an insurgent alternative to the established broadcasters — "Britain's News Channel", promising a new approach to news, opinion and debate. Within months it had lost its star presenter, attracted an advertiser boycott, and become a fixture of national debates about impartiality, media ownership and the future of broadcast regulation.

Five years on, GB News is still here — still loss-making, still controversial, and still growing. Backed by the hedge-fund manager Sir Paul Marshall and the investment firm Legatum through the holding company All Perspectives Ltd, it has accumulated losses of more than £140 million while building a loyal audience and a powerful digital presence. Love it or loathe it, it has changed the British media landscape.

History and Launch

GB News's corporate origins date to 25 September 2019, when All Perspectives Ltd was founded as the holding company for the proposed channel. In January 2020 the company was granted a licence to broadcast by the media regulator Ofcom, and in September 2020 came the announcement that would define the venture: Andrew Neil, who had presented live political programmes on the BBC for 25 years, would leave the corporation to front a primetime evening programme on the new channel.

Fundraising moved fast. In January 2021 GB News announced it had reached its £60 million fundraising target, with the money coming principally from the American media group Discovery, Inc., the Dubai-based investment firm Legatum, and Sir Paul Marshall, investing in a personal capacity. The channel said it would recruit 140 staff, including 120 journalists, and launch streaming, video-on-demand and audio services alongside the television channel.

The months before launch saw a flurry of high-profile hires: Dan Wootton from News UK, Sky News's Colin Brazier, political editor Darren McCaffrey, correspondent Tom Harwood, economics editor Liam Halligan, host Michelle Dewberry and the comedian Andrew Doyle. The pressure group Stop Funding Hate called for an advertiser boycott before the channel had broadcast a single frame.

GB News went live on the evening of 13 June 2021 with a special programme hosted by Andrew Neil — a glitch-plagued launch night that became a story in itself. In July 2021 Nigel Farage, the former UKIP and Brexit Party leader, began hosting his own programme. Then, on 13 September 2021, just three months after launch, Andrew Neil resigned as lead presenter and chairman, later describing his differences with the channel's direction. The founders of the venture were Andrew Cole and Mark Schneider.

Ownership

GB News is owned by All Perspectives Ltd, the holding company jointly owned by the hedge-fund manager Sir Paul Marshall and the Dubai-based investment firm Legatum. Marshall, who co-founded the Marshall Wace hedge fund and also owns the online media group UnHerd and The Spectator magazine, is the channel's principal British backer; Legatum is the investment vehicle of the New Zealand-born financier Christopher Chandler.

The channel's chief executive is Angelos Frangopoulos, the former Sky News Australia executive, and its chairman is Alan McCormick, a partner at Legatum. The ownership structure — a for-profit news channel funded by wealthy backers with declared political interests — has been central to debates about the channel's role, with critics arguing it functions as a political project and supporters insisting it is a legitimate commercial broadcaster serving an underserved audience.

Programming and Flagship Shows

GB News broadcasts a mix of rolling news, opinion-led discussion and interview programming. Its schedule is built around presenter-led shows rather than the neutral rolling coverage of its rivals — a deliberate editorial choice that distinguishes it from the BBC News channel and Sky News.

Flagship programmes have included Farage, Nigel Farage's primetime show, which became one of the channel's biggest draws; GB News Breakfast, the morning programme; Free Speech Nation with Andrew Doyle, the comedian's weekly current-affairs show; and evening discussion programmes hosted by figures including Michelle Dewberry. The channel's presenters blend journalists — such as political editor Darren McCaffrey and correspondent Tom Harwood — with politicians, commentators and campaigners, a mixing of roles that has itself been controversial.

Weekend programming includes political interview shows, documentaries and discussion formats, while the channel's digital output — clips, interviews and live streams — has become a major part of its identity.

News and Current Affairs

GB News covers the full range of national and international news, but with an editorial character distinct from its rivals: sceptical of what it calls the establishment consensus, foregrounding stories about immigration, crime, "woke" culture and the perceived failures of mainstream institutions. Its supporters say it covers stories other broadcasters ignore; its critics say it amplifies a partisan agenda under the guise of news.

The channel's approach to impartiality — the legal requirement on British broadcasters under Ofcom's Broadcasting Code — has been its most contentious issue. Ofcom has investigated the channel repeatedly over alleged breaches of due impartiality rules, particularly concerning programmes presented by serving politicians. The regulator's decisions have themselves become political flashpoints, with free-speech campaigners accusing Ofcom of bias and media reformers accusing it of failing to enforce its own rules.

Audience and Ratings

GB News's linear television audience is modest by the standards of the main news channels, but its influence extends well beyond overnight ratings. The channel claims around 10 million followers across social media and has reported billions of video views and streams, making its digital output one of the most-watched news operations in Britain online.

Financially, the picture is stark. The channel has never made a profit: its latest accounts, covering the seven months to December 2025, showed revenue of £17.4 million — up 16 per cent year on year — against a pre-tax loss of £10.5 million. Total losses since the 2021 launch have reached £142 million, funded by continued investment from Marshall and Legatum. Around two-thirds of revenue comes from television advertising, with most of the rest from digital. The accounts also revealed a 63 per cent drop in website and app visitors, attributed to changes in Google search and the rise of AI-generated answers.

Despite the losses, the channel's backers have maintained their support, guided by the ambition — stated in an internal memo in 2023 — of becoming "the number one news channel in the United Kingdom by 2028".

Broadcast and Streaming Availability

GB News is available free-to-air across the United Kingdom on Freeview channel 236, on Sky channel 512, on Freesat, Virgin Media and YouView, and it streams live on its website, gbnews.com, and on YouTube. Its broadcast area is listed as worldwide, reflecting its global digital distribution. The channel also produces podcasts and on-demand video, extending its reach beyond linear television.

Cultural Impact and Controversy

GB News has had an outsized cultural impact for a channel of its size. It has given a national television platform to Nigel Farage — now the leader of Reform UK — and to a roster of right-wing commentators, becoming closely associated in public debate with the populist right. Critics, including the former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, have described it as effectively the media arm of a political movement; the channel rejects this characterisation, pointing to its Ofcom licence and its audience.

The advertiser boycott organised by Stop Funding Hate led several major brands, including IKEA, to pull their advertising from the channel over concerns about its content — though the channel's advertising revenue has grown regardless. Its coverage of COVID-19 lockdowns, net zero policies and immigration has repeatedly made headlines, as have the Ofcom investigations into its output.

Whatever one's view, GB News has demonstrated that there is a substantial audience for opinion-led television news in Britain, and it has forced the established broadcasters — and the regulator — to confront questions about impartiality, pluralism and the funding of news that will shape British media for years.

Related Media Interests

GB News does not have sister television channels, but it sits within a wider media ecosystem assembled by its principal backer. Sir Paul Marshall's media interests include the current-affairs magazine The Spectator, acquired in 2024, and the online comment platform UnHerd, which he founded. Together with GB News, these outlets form one of the most significant right-of-centre media groups in Britain — a concentration of influence that has itself attracted scrutiny.

Recent Developments

The channel's most recent accounts, published in 2026, showed revenue growth and narrowing losses — evidence, its management says, that the business is moving in the right direction despite the collapse in website traffic caused by AI-driven changes to search. The broadcaster has realigned its financial year to end in December and continues to invest in its digital output, where the bulk of its audience growth has come.

Politically, the channel's fortunes remain intertwined with those of Reform UK and Nigel Farage, whose programme has been central to its identity. As Britain heads towards its next general election, GB News's role — as news channel, opinion platform and lightning rod for debates about broadcast impartiality — seems certain to remain at the centre of the national conversation. Whether it can achieve its stated goal of becoming Britain's number one news channel by 2028, and whether its backers' patience with nine-figure losses will hold, are the open questions that will define its next chapter.