After running Sky News Australia for two decades, Angelos Frangopoulos had a rocky start when he launched the TV news channel GB News in the UK 15 months ago.
Frangopoulos arrived in the UK via Abu Dhabi where he spent just under 12 months at the helm of Sky News Arabia.
After launching in a hurry, the channel was soon surrounded by its own media storm. There were technical challenges, an advertiser boycott and the controversy about the arrival and quick departure of star recruit Andrew Neil after only a handful of shows. The upside perhaps was a lot of people got to know the name quickly.
Things have settled since with less sensational headlines being replaced by quotes in news stories about some of the debates that have gone to air. Former politician and Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage is now the key primetime attraction.
Just earlier this month there was a change in ownership when founding partner Discovery sold out.
GB News chief executive Angelos Frangopoulos inside the channel’s London HQ
“When Discovery first invested in GB News it was pre the merger with Warner Bros,” Frangopoulos explained to Mediaweek. “Post-merger they now also have CNN. While Discovery was happy to remain an investor, their shareholding has been bought out by [Dubai-based global investment firm] Legatum and Sir Paul Marshall [co-founder, chairman and chief investment officer of UK hedge fund giant Marshall Wace].
“It is a positive for GB News and great for Warner Bros Discovery. We very much departed as friends. I think they have a terrific team and we thank them for being the initial GB News investor.”
Frangopoulos explained this didn’t cast any shadow over the future of the UK news channel. Coinciding with the news about the ownership restructure was confirmation of additional investment. “[The change] gives us greater clarity about our future trajectory. The £60m Series B funding that has been raised is a validation of the fundamentals of our model.
“Our primary goal was to disrupt the market and go boom. We have done that. Disrupted not just on TV, but radio too.
“We are also really pleased about our digital growth. Our YouTube site has more subscribers than rivals who have been on the scene for over a decade. That shows there is something about our content that resonates with the audience outside the M25 [the motorway that surrounds Greater London]. You can see that in the numbers. We over-index in places like Scotland, Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool.
“The funding from Series B will allow us to invest more resources and more journalism outside of the M25. We can also invest more in political coverage which is the lifeblood of any 24-hour news channel.”
GB News master control
Building the team will supplement the 200+ journalists already employed. “We recently announced the appointment of Camilla Tominey from The Telegraph who is leaving LBC to join GB News. Andrew Pierce is also leaving LBC to join us. He is a very senior political journalist who will continue to write for the Daily Mail.
“We have also secured the services of former conservative party cabinet minister Michael Portillo is joining us. What he does with his Railway Journeys programs is just extraordinary. He is absolutely compelling, but his insight into UK politics is also terrific.”
Frangopoulos confirmed that Times Radio contributor Portillo will be leaving that brand for his role at GB News.
GB News business model
“Fundamentally we are an advertiser-driven model,” Frangopoulos told Mediaweek about paying the bills. “We have some other business activities we haven’t announced yet that will supplement that and in time be a compelling part of the business.”
Needing to sell ads meant that an advertiser boycott in the early days of the channel hit hard. “We had a very rocky start in relation to advertisers,” admitted Frangopoulos. The welcome mat is again being rolled out to advertisers. “A lot of lessons were learnt from that. We are an Ofcom-regulated channel. [The UK’s communications regulator.] We wanted to be a participant in the British media landscape and we are.
“Our crews work alongside the BBC, ITV and Sky News every single day delivering content.
“I understand some of the initial concerns the advertisers may have had about a disruptor like us. The last 15 months have shown that the confected social media campaign about us was put together by people who don’t believe in freedom of speech.”
GB News is confident those days are behind it with what Frangopoulos labels a “real audience and a community that consumes the channel”. He noted that the longer they are on air it becomes better accepted they are now part of the UK media landscape.
“When we launched there hadn’t been a new 24-hour news channel for three decades.”
TV on the radio
There isn’t a TV, radio or social media platform in the UK that doesn’t allow some sort of engagement with the GB News brand.
“The team has done a terrific job in optimising what we do for all our different platforms. We know from research that while many watch us in a linear sense on TV, many watch via clips that have a viral nature.
“With radio we have shown that television on radio can work. However, when you try radio on TV is just not a compelling visual product. We always alert our radio audience when we are about to play a clip, describing what will happen in the clip.”
How conservative politically is GB News?
Frangopoulos: “We are Ofcom regulated so we have to be impartial. We have broader viewpoints than you would get on the BBC and Sky News. We also have absolute diversity in all the voices we have on air.
“We are about having a healthy debate. That wasn’t the case when we launched as we had challenges getting Labour politicians on the channel.
“Mediaweek readers might remember that Sky News Australia had similar challenges in the early days.”
In the UK those days are past, with Frangopoulos noting one of their presenters is the former Labour MP Gloria De Piero. “She hosts a show and is one of the people here who give the channel coverage from a range of perspectives.
“On programs like Breakfast we have great depth to the coverage. We are about promoting debate and we are about promoting discussion about topics that are not really covered very much in the British media landscape in an open way.”
One example Frangopoulos gave was the channel’s recent coverage of an increase in crime. “It is important those questions are asked about the police force and criminal activity in the United Kingdom.
“We also want to celebrate this country. Its contribution to the cultural infrastructure of the western world is quite extraordinary.”
As part of that, GB News starts each new day at 5.59am with the national anthem God Save the Queen. “You won’t see that on other channels here.” There are no accompanying visuals of Her Majesty the Queen though or the flag. “We run beautiful images of landscapes. It’s a beautiful country.”
GB News live on the road
GB News on the road
When asked about the initial studio-based discussions that dominated all shows, Frangopoulos explained. “It’s a journey that we are on. When you start a business from scratch, and you launch a business during a lockdown, we had to go through a journey of building skillsets. Observers will note that more and more we are on the road.
“Nigel Farage has a very successful feature we do every second Thursday called Farage at Large where we go and broadcast from a pub. Australian audiences might find that a familiar format perhaps!
“Just two weeks ago we did our first People’s Forum with Liz Truss and Alastair Stewart just outside of Manchester. Another familiar format for Australian audiences.”