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GB News: a thread so you never have to watch it

cupid_stunt said:
So, they are basically fucked.:thumbs:
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I hope you are right - but we've seen dozens of times loss-making right wing media persisting for decades or even centuries because of its wealthy owners continuing support, whether it's The Express, The Spectator or The Jewish Chronicle. Owning a significant niche of the media gives the owners a sense of importance and provides political leverage, specially within those niches. A bit like owning race horses or a football club - your primary sites of financial exploitation are elsewhere, its the social importance that matters. Owners of GB News might be happy to make perpetual losses (so long as they are not ruinous). Even viewing figures to a degree aren't too significant, what is important is that the channel looks as though it can exert influence (though with zero viewers that would be hard).
 
Even if the above is the case, remember that there are not enough people to support it. Although there is a lot of worry in the politically minded, this alt-right clearly doesn't have the support for people who don't care much about politics. The Mail and Express are more worrying as their headlines drip hate to people who just glance at them.
 
Benjamin F said:
I hope you are right - but we've seen dozens of times loss-making right wing media persisting for decades or even centuries because of its wealthy owners continuing support, whether it's The Express, The Spectator or The Jewish Chronicle. Owning a significant niche of the media gives the owners a sense of importance and provides political leverage, specially within those niches. A bit like owning race horses or a football club - your primary sites of financial exploitation are elsewhere, its the social importance that matters. Owners of GB News might be happy to make perpetual losses (so long as they are not ruinous). Even viewing figures to a degree aren't too significant, what is important is that the channel looks as though it can exert influence (though with zero viewers that would be hard).
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The Spectator claims to make a small profit, which is more than can be said for the Guardian which has been losing money for decades.
 
Benjamin F said:
I hope you are right - but we've seen dozens of times loss-making right wing media persisting for decades or even centuries because of its wealthy owners continuing support, whether it's The Express, The Spectator or The Jewish Chronicle. Owning a significant niche of the media gives the owners a sense of importance and provides political leverage, specially within those niches. A bit like owning race horses or a football club - your primary sites of financial exploitation are elsewhere, its the social importance that matters. Owners of GB News might be happy to make perpetual losses (so long as they are not ruinous). Even viewing figures to a degree aren't too significant, what is important is that the channel looks as though it can exert influence (though with zero viewers that would be hard).
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I don't think GB News seemingly deciding to go with a Fox-style culture wars operation can be wrapped up as making commercial sense. The experience so far shows that there's not a large ready audience for it, and UK media regulation is likely to give it problems. The intention must be to subsidize it in the hope that it will in time foment revolution and give the owners untold power and status.
 
Not surprised TBH, and there's a rumour that Andrew Neill will join after his contract with GBN to appear as a regular guest ends in December.

This could trigger Discovery Networks to pull out of GB News, because they are not going to win against a Murdoch operation.

As I've mentioned before, I wouldn't be surprised it Murdoch ends up buying the remains of GBN on the cheap.
 
Don't know about the UK but rolling news ratings aren't exactly amazing, even Fox as the US Kingpin trails behind reality TV and pretty much all major sports. They cater to a narrow and generally ageing demographic, same as Murdoch will here. Bad for society, no doubt, but as with most of the Culture War bollocks the main group paying attention to it are the core audience and the obsessive Left - most people will never watch it. It's wider cultural influence that matters and the tabloids here have seen that waning for a long while.
 
Bosses believe Morgan fits in that category and is the biggest name to have signed up to the project. He will also write a column for the Sun, a book for the Murdoch-owned HarperCollins, and have his show produced on Murdoch-owned channels around the world.

Does Murdoch not realise that this content is going to be 100% Morgan calling Meghan Markle an evil bitch who didn't return his calls?
 
tim said:
What has GBNewts got that Murdoch would either want or need?
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Posted on 16th July...

cupid_stunt said:
No, he would be picking-up a basically 'bankrupt' business on the cheap, picking up the valuable transmission slots, very limited on Freeview not so much via satellite, plus the channel numbers (very limited on Sky, not so much on Freesat & Virgin) across all the platforms, there is probably some bits of infrastructure that could be used with their own studios.

He downgraded his plans for 'News UK', because of GB News launching, taking that out, changes the picture completely, let's not forget what he did with the so-called 'merger' of Sky TV & BSB back in the day, which was basically a take-over.

He's still planning to launch a 'News UK' TV service on streaming platforms, there're clear benefits to putting that on broadcast platforms for a few hours each evening. It would be run professionally and easily pick-up GBN viewers & more, he has his own sales house with well connected contacts in the advertising agencies, so wouldn't need Sky Media to sell the advertising & take commission.
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Plus GBN is paying for a slot on 'Digital One', which is the main national commercial DAB multiplex in the UK, they won the bidding for that back in June or July, and still haven't launched GB News Radio, that's the last & very valuable slot available, which could be attractive to Murdoch if he wants to keep expanding his UK radio operations.
 
YouSir said:
It's wider cultural influence that matters and the tabloids here have seen that waning for a long while.
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Exactly this. It doesn’t matter if only a few thousand watch it, millions will be talking about it. It will be his way to set the cultural and political agenda in exactly the way he did with The Sun.
 
beesonthewhatnow said:
Exactly this. It doesn’t matter if only a few thousand watch it, millions will be talking about it. It will be his way to set the cultural and political agenda in exactly the way he did with The Sun.
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A lot of that talk will be generated by the Left, especially the media part of it, who have far more interest in reacting to obvious bait than in building anything new.
 
existentialist said:
"The Left", that well-known monolithic clique of monothought... :hmm:
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The media part of it is fairly predictable, yes. Amongst the 3 or 4 Left Wing voices who get any real airtime I bet there'll be a more prominent focus on Murdoch News than anyone else outside of their arsehole viewership will ever give it.
 
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