GB News: Launch

[Whataday]

It's also not been denied by Andrew, who is quite active on Twitter

Indeed. He has been asked the question numerous times over the last few days and hasn't responded. He generally does check and respond to his mentions.

[London Lite]

I've seen the Andrew Neil rumours for the last few days or so and chose to ignore it.

[Brekkie]

I doubt he would ever have been with them much more than a year - that's not unusual at all for such channel launches both in terms of the people launching them behind the scenes and the people launching them on screen too.

Leaving after two weeks on air though would suggest all is not right. I suspect he's far from satisfied with the finished product and if he can't get the investment to fix the issues and realises things aren't going to improve I wouldn't blame him at all for quitting.

[VMPhil]

If it's true then surely at least some of those who joined because of Neil's involvement will be unhappy?

[James Martin]

The amount of hate is very sad.

Never before in 20 years of being on these forums have I ever seen anything willed so much to fail.

[TJTSW]

I’ve watched GB News and thought it was a breathe of fresh air, I think there are some talented presenters such as Rosie. She made me chuckle when she was doing the interview this morning with a cow farmer and the cow was almost going to take her out but, it was different and refreshing I like the Great British Breakfast, I saw the crash out this morning too and then watching something I’d already seen, with the live bug. Which did confuse me, I don’t like alll the chatty chatting on the sofas and Dan Wilton drives me up the wall!

It’s a new channel and needs to find its feet, some will love it some will hate it, marmite, when I was a kid I hated the stuff, but now I love it…. Give it time

It’s needs Tweeking for sure, I like their theme music and the graphics and they way the do their adverts with the GBN Graphics and the adverts inverted
, get bored of the weather all the time ?

But from my days when TSW left and Westcountry Tv came I. Everyone hated it and hated Westcountry live news - however they they found their feet, and Westcountry Live News became popular with most bud the ones who didnit like it could go to another channel of watch bbc spotlight, which again had issues with its identity for a while but again found its feet.

Hopefully they will change some of the content of the programs and names of them, but maybe they wanted to stand out to be a bit different so it hits peoples attention, before they change it ?!

[JayCasey]

The amount of hate is very sad.

Never before in 20 years of being on these forums have I ever seen anything willed so much to fail.

This is the issue James, and I agree with you. Not in my 20-odd years in the business have I seen it either. The closest to it I can find is the poor (but otherwise still professional) output on the ITN News Channel, which became the ITV News Channel.

Let's not beat around the bush here... GB News was designed from the outset to put the cat amongst the Pidgeon's.

At this point I must declare that I'm indifferent to the channel, I'm simply commenting on technical ability and output.

We all know the output is substantially below par. I have Dan Wootton's show on the telly right now, and it's nothing more than a televised version of his radio show.... that's not TV News and never will be.

This talk of Andrew Neil abandoning ship, and not commenting on twitter about it for weeks - to me at least - is just, and I'm afraid I'm going to have to use the term despite my hate for it - virtue signalling.

Whilst the channel is clearly in trouble and needs to find direction, it certainly isn't failing as a going concern, it is filling advertising slots - albeit with no-win no-fee ads rather than the original glamourous holiday ads from TUI et al.

To surmise, I believe GB News' issues are actually quite simple to tackle... They've gone on air on the cheap. Cheap kit, cheap sets and cheap production. A few well-served television producers would be able to turn this ship around in possibly a few weeks.

[cityprod]

The amount of hate is very sad.

Never before in 20 years of being on these forums have I ever seen anything willed so much to fail.

Prove it!

Where in this thread, have people actually said they "want" GB News to fail, rather than predicting their demise.

Where is the actual "hate" as you put it for GB News?

For myself, I don't hate GB News. I just thought that an "anti-woke" agenda was not a recipe for success in a media market overrun by right wing news outlets.

[James Martin]

I just thought that an "anti-woke" agenda was not a recipe for success in a media market overrun by right wing news outlets.

Hardly. BBC and C4 are left wing, ITV and C5 are centrist, as is Sky under Comcast. GB News is the only right wing television outlet.

Sky under Murdoch control? Yeah I might have agreed with you.

[AllWillBeWell]

The amount of hate is very sad.

Never before in 20 years of being on these forums have I ever seen anything willed so much to fail.

I’m sure there are many in general that want the channel to fail, this was evident in the early days when every error was swarmed on. Then there was the ridiculous comparisons or outrage over nothing. I might add a couple of users did indeed openly state they enjoyed watching the technical errors and and had an admin respond to such messages because they were not created in good spirit.

Sadly the channel however has failed itself regardless of the negativity around the channel.

[James Martin]

The amount of hate is very sad.

Never before in 20 years of being on these forums have I ever seen anything willed so much to fail.

I’m sure there are many in general that want the channel to fail, this was evident in the early days when every error was swarmed on. Then there was the ridiculous comparisons or outrage over nothing. I might add a couple of users did indeed openly state they enjoyed watching the technical errors and and had an admin respond to such messages because they were not created in good spirit.

Sadly the channel however has failed itself regardless of the negativity around the channel.

But I feel because of the target audience there is more hate speech directed at the channel.

If this was, say, Guardian TV so much more would be forgiven. So much more.

[JayCasey]

The amount of hate is very sad.

Never before in 20 years of being on these forums have I ever seen anything willed so much to fail.

I’m sure there are many in general that want the channel to fail, this was evident in the early days when every error was swarmed on. Then there was the ridiculous comparisons or outrage over nothing. I might add a couple of users did indeed openly state they enjoyed watching the technical errors and and had an admin respond to such messages because they were not created in good spirit.

Sadly the channel however has failed itself regardless of the negativity around the channel.

But I feel because of the target audience there is more hate speech directed at the channel.

If this was, say, Guardian TV so much more would be forgiven. So much more.

That's the issue here James, and not to go political, the wanton expectation of failure has been exasperated by one's outlook.

From a purely technical output. Yes it has been poor, but it is infact improving. It is clear that, despite the big claims of "£80 Million Investment" etc, it's not running on anywhere near that budget.

I don't think it is failing, I just think it's not offering anything substantially different to that which you can get on TalkRadio or LBC.

That's where GBNews have gone and are not doing much good at it. It should do more "News" and less chat. At least then, it'd have a chance.

Oh, and if the Wales correspondent went to North Wales now and again, that'd be an advantage!!!

[BBI45]

The amount of hate is very sad.

Never before in 20 years of being on these forums have I ever seen anything willed so much to fail.

I’m sure there are many in general that want the channel to fail, this was evident in the early days when every error was swarmed on. Then there was the ridiculous comparisons or outrage over nothing. I might add a couple of users did indeed openly state they enjoyed watching the technical errors and and had an admin respond to such messages because they were not created in good spirit.

Sadly the channel however has failed itself regardless of the negativity around the channel.

But I feel because of the target audience there is more hate speech directed at the channel.

If this was, say, Guardian TV so much more would be forgiven. So much more.

I don't see how being critical about the channel's content and technical issues is being hateful and wanting it to fail. Whenever I tune in, there seems to be mediocre content and the occasional technical problem. I'm not saying that as somebody who wants the channel to fail, but as somebody who wants to give them a fair shot. These sorts of issues are forgivable to begin with, but that isn't an excuse to simply make do with them, and you can't be surprised when people look at the channel and start searching for signs of change.

IIRC, there was quite a bit of this sort of speculation shortly after GMB launched and viewing figures weren't doing well. It's what people do here. This is a forum about television, and if they're wrong, they're wrong. However, people are here to talk and that will extent to speculation about the future, and I don't see how it's hateful for people to be wondering what will happen in the future when there are clear signs that viewing figures are dropping.

[thecorrector]

I’m sure there are many in general that want the channel to fail, this was evident in the early days when every error was swarmed on.

It was understandable that every error was "swarmed on" because a) they were happening multiple times an hour and b) a social media account which very quickly gained traction was dedicated to highlighting them. We also had the furore in the first week about major companies withdrawing advertising - and regardless of the reasons behind it, that in itself was an interesting debate on a forum like this which was obviously going to pour over the first launch of a major UK news channel for 20 years.

It's also not a question of wanting the station to fail - if we take the linear ratings in isolation, it seems like the audience isn't that interested in what GBN has to offer. They fell after week one and haven't recovered (and seemingly can't be blamed on a summer lull given that the BBC NC and Sky's figures are static). While we had the performative tweets during launch week from left-wing people who were desperate for the station to close, we had plenty of equally performative tweets this week from supposed regular viewers of the channel who were so incensed that Guto Harri took the knee live on air, they claimed they'd turn off and never return. We then had one of the reporters publicly sticking it to those viewers:

https://twitter.com/Lily_Hewitson/status...39618?s=20

...which went down like a cup of cold sick judging from the replies. GBN seems to want to be right-wing most of the time, but not all the time like the current incarnation of talkRADIO, for example - meaning the market I assumed they were going for (predominately white, working class, distrustful of "mainstream media" and all the rest of it) are left disappointed. As JayCasey suggested, they're lacking direction and that will be their downfall - not those wishing GBN to go away.

But I feel because of the target audience there is more hate speech directed at the channel.

If this was, say, Guardian TV so much more would be forgiven. So much more.

If Guardian TV launched, Guido Fawkes would have someone monitoring it 24 hours a day to provide a pipeline of "look at this ridiculous woke content" stories. It cuts both ways.

This talk of Andrew Neil abandoning ship, and not commenting on twitter about it for weeks - to me at least - is just, and I'm afraid I'm going to have to use the term despite my hate for it - virtue signalling.

On this, we can agree - there is absolutely no evidence that Neil is about to walk or has any intention to do so. The rumours on social media are just that, and seem to be completely unsubstantiated.

[James2001]

If Guardian TV launched, Guido Fawkes would have someone monitoring it 24 hours a day to provide a pipeline of "look at this ridiculous woke content" stories. It cuts both ways.

Indeed, you can be sure the very same people who are critisising people for (allegedly) being "hateful" towards GB News and "not giving a chance" and "deciding what it was like before it even went on air" would be doing the same with that sort of channel.