So, at long last, GB News has launched. I watched the channel from it’s first seconds through to about nearly 23:00 and I must admit that there was lots that impressed me. The opening statement by Andrew Neil in which he emphasised the new channel’s commitment to freedom of speech and repeated what has become the channel’s motto ‘if it matters to you then it matters to us’, did the job of telling new viewers what the channel was all about.
The presenting staff were engaging and interesting from what I’ve seen of them so far and are a mix of experienced people from other broadcasting organisations along with those, such as Inya Folarin Iman, whose work with civil society organisations such as the Equiano Project, has previously impressed me. This mix of individuals from both inside and outside the broadcast world could end up being a winning formula for GB News.
As regards the regular programming it’s obvious that GB News is not going to shy away from controversy with the Dan Wooton programme as his programme heavily featured speakers who were both critical and supportive of the covid lockdown policy. This is something that you probably would not see on either the BBC or Sky. On those channels the bias is so obviously pro lockdowns. The panel that Mr Wooton held on this subject contained two speakers who were either centre right or libertarian in outlook and one left winger. I was pleased to see the left winger actually get some intellectual challenge which is again something that you rarely see on the BBC.
I could quite happily have watched more of the night’s proceedings if I didn’t have to get up early to attend to the needs of our lively Laughing Boy.
There are criticisms of the channel that I need to express. Some of these are quite minor and represent new broadcaster teething troubles and others are more major. There were obviously some kinks that need to be ironed out. I noticed voices from the broadcast gallery, which should never be heard by the viewer, leaking through into the broadcast feed along with some losses of audio and video, however the presenters and the tech staff seemed to recover well when these happened.
The other minor criticism that I have is that the audio quality could be a bit better than it was, especially with modern technology, it came over to me a little muffled and quiet at times. I really really dislike the font style on the channel’s chyron. There’s nothing in my view wrong with using a slim san serif font in this area but it has been so stretched in a vertical direction that it starts to merge with the edges of the box. The lower part of the chyron that contained a rolling news feed was not in my view updated nearly enough. It would be better not to have this rolling news feed if it is not going to be updated to any appreciable degree. However these are all minor criticisms that can hopefully be addressed as time goes on.
The major criticism that I have is the channel says that they are not going to have conventional news bulletins that many other news channels have on the hour. Personally I think that this is a mistake. The format of hourly headlines on news channels is one that the public have got used to and abandoning this might lose this channel that part of the audience that is expecting such a feature.
In layout and linear style GB News seems to be looking to be more like BBC Radio Four than Sky News or Fox News. This is because rather than dealing in immediate news all the time, something that can in my view lead to a culture of ‘if it bleeds it leads’ and the chasing of soundbites and headlines, GB News is based around individual programmes with some news added within it. It will take some time to see if the British public like this style or whether the channel is hit by the lack of defined news segments at the top of the hour and needs to change.
So far, from what I’ve seen, I’m impressed. I certainly like the channel’s public commitment to free speech and its willingness to dive head first into controversial topics. I hope it succeeds and I wish it well.
