Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Andrew Neil to chair a new British television news network

For some time now, there has been talk about a challenger television to rival Sky and the BBC. Now it’s official: GB News will launch early next year – under the chairmanship of Andrew Neil, who will be its flagship presenter. He is leaving the BBC and will join a new team of about a hundred journalists, in what is the most important television launch in Britain for a generation.

GB News is raising between $55 million and $65 million  – and the lead investor is Discovery Inc, which is behind Discovery Channel and Science Channel. It’s stumping up about a quarter of the cash. It looks as the fundraising will be oversubscribed, building a pretty big warchest to be spent on journalists.

The premise of GB News is fairly simple: that the current players – BBC, Sky, ITV – are so similar in tone and format that there’s space for a bit more diversity. For intelligent, discussion-based show coming from a more independent mindset. Not a British answer to Fox News (the analogy often reached for whenever a rival to the BBC is mentioned) but a station that might broadcast good news a bit more often, or would not be so quick to assume that everything that goes wrong is the fault of the government. One that takes a more even-handed approach to culture wars, and doesn’t see coverage of US politics an exercise in exorcism.

Emboldened by his recent success at Spectator TV, Andrew will be hosting four one-hour shows a week in primetime and will also chair GB News editorial board. His coverage of the coming US elections will be his last BBC gig. It will be advertiser-financed, so freely available: as a Sky channel, on Freeview, Virgin and all digital platforms.

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