‘This is not just channel Farage’: GB News boss positions his station as ‘mainstream’

Two years after its launch, GB News has a simple mission statement: to be the biggest news broadcaster in Britain by 2028.

With an average daily audience of about 34,000 in May the target is ambitious, said chief executive Angelos Frangopoulos.

Many media analysts and commentators wrote off the channel’s chances after its launch was dogged by technical problems and its chair Andrew Neil abruptly exited in 2021.

But Frangopoulos is confident that plans to expand the lossmaking broadcaster further into digital media and politics coverage — and even to take its highly focused and often regional British coverage into the US — will make the channel the “mainstream” choice for news.

This positioning is important for a channel seen by many in the industry as the UK equivalent of US broadcaster Fox News. The former Sky Australia executive rejects the idea that GB News is rightwing, despite a roster of presenters that includes Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg and former Ukip leader Nigel Farage, as well as the Telegraph journalist Christopher Hope, who has recently been recruited to lead its politics team.

Frangopoulos told the Financial Times he wanted to reclaim the phrase “mainstream media” for GB News. He regards rival groups as “establishment media . . . we’re actually the media for the mainstream. It’s an important, subtle difference.”

“This is not just channel Farage; this is a wide cross-section of voices and perspectives and journalism,” he said.

On a weekday morning, the small studio and newsroom in the basement of an office building in Paddington is bustling with activity. Presenters and journalists mingle in the small reception area leading directly to the news floor, as the mid-morning anchor takes over.

The anchor controls his own autocue: much of the production at GB News is automated or artificial intelligence-assisted, a sign of how the broadcaster tries to keep its operations lean as it seeks to turn profitable.

Brand awareness had been a problem, said Frangopoulos, outside a “certain elite who know what GB does”. This has meant “steadier slower growth”.

All-day share of viewers increased from 0.43 per cent to 0.57 per cent in the past year. The number of digital viewers and listeners for its radio station is also growing, while Frangopoulos said its website had overtaken rivals such as the i newspaper for the first time in April.

But GB News lost more than £30mn in the year to May 2022, on a turnover of £3.6mn, according to accounts filed in March. Claire Enders, a media analyst, said news broadcasting was rarely profitable without global reach, an uphill task for GB News.

“We always knew this was going to be hard,” said Frangopoulos. “It has been harder. We’re still challenged. But it’s getting better.”

The channel relies on advertising to make money and faced a campaign to encourage an advertiser boycott when it was launched. Frangopoulos admitted there was still some “pushback” from brands.

He added, however, that the advertising relationships were changing, with the highest number since launch and “more high-profile brands on the channel”.

“We’re having a lot more sophisticated, more senior conversations with agencies and clients now. The longer you go, and the more the audience we drive, that’s got a value. People want to sell stuff,” he said.

Frangopoulos said the channel now regularly beats rivals for ratings at certain times. Profitability was “still a little way out but we can see it in the distance and we’re very focused on trying to accelerate that as much as we can”, he added.

In the meantime, investors remained committed, he said. GB News has raised £120mn in total, with Brexit-backing hedge fund boss Paul Marshall and Dubai-based private investment group Legatum investing £60mn last year, making them the majority shareholders after the exit of founding investor US media group Discovery. Directors of All Perspectives Limited, the channel’s parent company, include City fund manager Helena Morrissey.

The deep pockets of its backers have meant that the group can invest — in new presenters and journalists, as well as studios in Westminster to broadcast its politics coverage.

Frangopoulos also wants to make GB News a “full-service media brand”. Digital expansion has brought a US audience, leading the company to consider investing in the region ahead of next year’s presidential election. This month, GB News broadcast an interview by Farage with potential Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

The key for presenters was authenticity, Frangopoulos said, although allowing freer expression of views has caused some trouble.

Regulator Ofcom had found the channel “significantly” in breach of UK broadcasting rules twice, most recently with an interview by Mark Steyn of author Naomi Wolf that described the Covid-19 vaccine rollout as akin to “mass murder”.

Frangopoulos said Steyn no longer worked for the channel, and that “no talent, no matter how talented they are, how many ratings they’re getting, is above the regulatory environment, and our own editorial charter”.

But, returning to the core of GB News’ proposition, he added that there needed to be space for honest opinions, and he had concerns about “cancel culture”.

“People shouldn’t be scared to talk about stuff. Why are those viewpoints being cancelled?” he said. “The people trying to cancel don’t agree with those viewpoints. It’s damaging democracy.”