LONDON: GB News — the first dedicated television news channel to launch in Britain in more than two decades — goes live for the first time on Sunday.
But even before its first broadcast at 1900 GMT, it has had to fend off unfavourable comparisons to the firebrand and divisive populism of US network Fox News.
The British broadcaster says it aims to cater to a broad audience, including marginalised communities that backed the 2016 Brexit vote to leave the European Union. And it has billed itself as “Britain’s news channel”, unashamedly draping itself in the red white and blue of the Union Jack as it prepares to face off with more established competitors such as the BBC and Sky News.
“Our presenters will have the freedom to say what they think, to have some fun and to be brave about the issues that really matter to the people of Britain,” said director of news and programming John McAndrew.
The station, which has a staff of 140 journalists based at newly acquired offices in west London, has attracted a string of high-profile UK broadcasters.
Chief among them is veteran journalist Andrew Neil.
Even he is being cast as an outsider, despite having worked for 25 years at the BBC, edited Rupert Murdoch’s establishment weekly the Sunday Times and founded Britain’s last successful TV start-up, Sky.
“We are for people who think the existing channels don’t quite represent how they see things,” Neil told London’s Evening Standard newspaper.
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