GB News insiders are speculating over whether Boris Johnson can ride to the rescue as the right-wing station battles low ratings and a morale slump after announcing cost-cutting plans to axe 40 jobs.
The inside sources fear the controversial channel could even follow the example of Rupert Murdoch’s Talk TV, which will leave scheduled television and go online only this summer, after two years of poor viewing figures.
The GB News redundancy plan will replace dedicated editorial staff working on individual shows with a “pooled” story team, i understands, in a move designed to stem losses which ballooned to £42.2m in 2023.
Seasoned presenters, including economics editor Liam Halligan, are set to leave GB News, which is struggling to retain its modest live audience and still faces eight outstanding Ofcom investigations into alleged impartiality breaches.
“Morale is pretty low. Some nights they are getting only 30,000 viewers at peak-time,” an insider told i.
“The speculation is the channel could go online only after the general election. It would save millions on licensing fees and takes GB News outside of Ofcom’s broadcast regulation.”
Staff had been boosted by the signing of the former prime minister Mr Johnson, who was to front his own GB News show and become the channel’s star commentator on the UK general election and the US Presidential race.
Six months on from the announcement, Johnson has yet to begin his role. Sources say he will join after completing work on his memoirs. But his absence has led to rumours that he may be having second thoughts about his association with the channel.
“Boris was going to ride to the rescue but where is he?,” another insider asked. “His deal means he will be paid when he delivers.”
“You won’t see him presenting a live show like Nigel Farage. What GB News is really paying for is Boris in the studio exclusively on election night talking about an expected Conservative Party meltdown.”
GB News has reported total losses of £76m since its launch and been placed “on notice” of possible financial sanctions by Ofcom after breaking broadcasting rules on 12 occasions in the past 18 months.
The channel, still grappling with an advertising boycott orchestrated by critics of its content, has had to retrench after headcount soared from 175 in 2022 to 295 by May 2023.
Its politician presenters remain well rewarded, with former cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg paid £324,000 for his prime-time show last year. Lee Anderson, the former Conservative and now Reform party MP, was paid £100,000.
Voluntary redundancies are being sought for the job cuts, which amounts to 14 per cent of its workforce. “Fees are being cut for panellists and guests,” said one staffer.
Viewing figures have fallen since most-watched presenter Dan Wootton was suspended last September for his role in the misogynistic rant launched by Laurence Fox on Wootton’s nightly show.
On Friday, the channel’s main backer, hedge fund tycoon Sir Paul Marshall, confirmed he is stepping down from the board of GB News’s parent company All Perspectives, after three years.
Allies of Sir Paul have rejected suggestions that distancing himself from GB News could help win regulatory approval for an expected renewed bid to buy The Daily Telegraph.
“Sir Paul stepping back from the board doesn’t mean his commitment to GB News is any less,” one figure said. “There’s huge costs to launching a TV channel and the losses now have to be reduced. But it’s about influencing the political debate for Paul, not making a profit.”
Announcing his board resignation, Sir Paul said: “I joined as a director for the start-up phase but now GB News is on a secure growth trajectory.”
“I want to focus on my other business and philanthropic interests. I remain very engaged as a co-lead investor.”
Lord Agnew, a former Treasury and Cabinet Office minister, will replace Sir Paul on the board.
He called GB News “a business with huge opportunity as the industry undergoes a digital transformation across existing and emerging platforms.”
However Andrew Neil, GB News launch chairman and presenter, who quit just weeks later, told a Lords committee this week: “Whereas the original business model was to break even by year three, I think I’m pretty safe in saying that won’t happen.
“If there’s a bunch of people who want to carry on financing it because they like the ideology that’s up to them, but I find it very hard to see how it could ever be profitable – or even break even.”
Executives point to GB News’s growing digital impact. It is one of the fastest-growing UK news brands, according to Press Gazette’s rankings, with its website audience up 167 per cent year-on-year, reaching nine million people.
The GB News YouTube channel has 1.2m followers and bosses are planning a US expansion, trading on Farage’s close relationship with Donald Trump to target Fox News viewers during the Presidential race.
After rebuffing approaches from News UK to combine Talk TV with GB News, and having seen off its rival as a linear TV venture, the channel remains bullish about its future, both on TV and online.
“It’s a tough environment for any commercial broadcaster and the channel is taking steps to become financially self-sufficient,” a source said. “We’re regularly challenging Sky News and the aim is to become the number one UK news channel by 2028.”
A new poll finding that Labour is more popular than the Tories with GB News viewers suggests the channel is reaching voters in the “Red Wall” towns which will decide the outcome of the general election.
This week’s Ofcom announcement that politicians can continue to be TV presenters, as long as programmes demonstrate “due impartiality”, even during an election, removed an existential threat to GB News.
GB News and Sir Paul Marshall did not respond to requests for comment.
