thenorthern
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Indeed although they are all print publications it seems there was a gap in the market for broadcast.
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GB News
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Indeed although they are all print publications it seems there was a gap in the market for broadcast.
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birchesgreen
Established Member
They seem to have a problem with keeping the scrolling ticker tape up to date though thats the least of the channel's shortcomings.
If I was an advertiser I wouldn't be pleased that the scrolling ticker tape is shown continuously through the adverts which are also not shown full screen and are in poor definition.ki
matt_world2004
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It seems the channel has blown it's £60 million budget on the on-screen talent and spent next to nothing on the behind the camera talent.
They should at least hire production assistants to filter through the emails that the presenter reads out ffs
They should at least hire production assistants to filter through the emails that the presenter reads out ffs
brad465
Established Member
The Sun has actually been written down to a worthless asset by Murdoch (yippee!), so one wonders how long it has left before being closed altogether?
With regards to OFCOM we have to remember the Government are trying to get Paul Dacre in charge of it, in the hope he'll allow incidents that incriminate the Government to go unchecked. The appointment is over 6 months late and after an independent panel ruled out choosing him, the Government are trying to get another panel to re-run the process (so they can get the result they like
). At the very least though the longer this takes the less time there is for things to change, in terms of proximity to next election and the possibility of Johnson leaving office before then (Dacre is also in his 70s so who knows if he'll want to do this for long).
DarloRich
Veteran Member
The influence over governments and government policy it gives him is worth more than mere corporate money! Why give that up? The Sun is the highest circulation daily paper with around 1.2m copies a shifted everyday. That is nothing like the old days but still access to lots of people and their thoughts.
158747
Member
I think Stop Funding Hate should be renamed “Stop Funding Things We Don’t Agree With” I think that would more accurately sum up their mission.
Also why a lot of advertisers seem to be willing to immediately comply to the demands of this minority group is a mystery to me.
brad465
Established Member
You make a good point. The question I'm wondering though is what happens when 90 year old Murdoch's time on earth is up? His son certainly is diverging from his line of thinking, leaving Rebekah Brooks, but I don't know if she has the same clout as News UK's chairman.
birchesgreen
Established Member
I think the sheer ineptitude of the product has been a big factor as well to be honest.
Exactly. It won't have been the first case where advertisers have moved away from a seemingly failing or unpopular product, particularly if it is their agent that has chosen to advertise there not the company itself. 'Stop Funding Hate' may claim victory, but they would, wouldn't they. Companies will keep quiet, walk away, and their adverts might start cropping up on, say, Talk Radio or LBC instead.
I don't know the answer to this but would there not be a few hours of 'pilot' broadcasting made available to potential advertisers so they can see what they were getting (and so the production team could get up to speed)?
Purple Orange
On Moderation
Does anyone actually recommend watching GB News? It appears to me, to be a channel where you go to hear things you want to hear, rather what you need to hear. It is like it is the WWE equivalent of news broadcasting - ‘news entertainment’ is probably the most accurate description.
thenorthern
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From what I understand though there are two types of people that GB News is trying to target.
The first and most obvious type of person is someone who is "Right wing" and feels that other broadcast news options are too woke and left wing. In recent years things like Brexit, Boris Johnson and Donald Trump have pushed the BBC impartiality rules to the limit. Other things like many say the Black Lives Matter protests last year as a bad thing because they were breaching lockdown rules, committing acts of vandalism and made comments by activists that were seen as problematic. The BBC however kept calling the protestors "brave" and would often point out they were "mostly peaceful" which meany viewers didn't agree with.
Another type of viewer that they are targeting is people who think the news doesn't cover things they are interested in. Think about it how many stories are there about domestic US Politics on BBC News that are irrelevant to the United Kingdom? Think about it did Brett Kavanaugh being appointed as a US supreme court justice really need to be the main headline on BBC News at Six? Does the BBC really need a nightly news programme about domestic US Politics on BBC News and a Weekly podcast? GB News is apparently going to have much more UK News which let's face it is most relevant to UK viewers.
The first and most obvious type of person is someone who is "Right wing" and feels that other broadcast news options are too woke and left wing. In recent years things like Brexit, Boris Johnson and Donald Trump have pushed the BBC impartiality rules to the limit. Other things like many say the Black Lives Matter protests last year as a bad thing because they were breaching lockdown rules, committing acts of vandalism and made comments by activists that were seen as problematic. The BBC however kept calling the protestors "brave" and would often point out they were "mostly peaceful" which meany viewers didn't agree with.
Another type of viewer that they are targeting is people who think the news doesn't cover things they are interested in. Think about it how many stories are there about domestic US Politics on BBC News that are irrelevant to the United Kingdom? Think about it did Brett Kavanaugh being appointed as a US supreme court justice really need to be the main headline on BBC News at Six? Does the BBC really need a nightly news programme about domestic US Politics on BBC News and a Weekly podcast? GB News is apparently going to have much more UK News which let's face it is most relevant to UK viewers.
More accurately, the BBC was obsessed with being "balanced". Which it interpreted as matching every expert global economist warning of the risks of the Brexit against Barry from down the pub (or Sheila in a high street in the North on a Tuesday afternoon) who reckons we should "go WTO" or "walk away".
It shows something of this modern world (and how we ended with Brexit) if people are empowered to disagree with something that is demonstrably and factually true.
thenorthern
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That is part of the problem, with Leave voters the media often went to run down areas to describe that as the face of leave voting Britain. Areas like Sevenoaks and Solihull got much less coverage yet both voted leave.
brad465
Established Member
While perfect impartiality is impossible, having extreme sides dominate everything means that merely reporting what's going on in the centre makes either left or right-wing individuals think the reporting is biased towards the other side. The post-truth world also increases the amount reporting what's actually going on is shouted down as biased, lying and/or exaggerated (e.g. Project fear).
Elsewhere there are so many issues it seems a Twitter account called @GBNewsFails has been setup to try and find them all. This one in particular caught my eye regarding introducing the weather (video in link):
thenorthern
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In regards to the people watching it to complain the shareholders will be loving that as it's more viewers which is good for advertisers as advertisers like more viewers. Also many of the people watching it to complain are under the age of 30 which advertisers love as they are more likely to buy things.
Busaholic
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I used to have a certain amount of time for Andrew Neil, when he was tearing into those politicians who made themselves available (i.e. not Boris Johnson, and others of that ilk) on BBC television, but he could never be accused of hiding his light under a bushel. He actually has an extremely large head for his body size (doubtless he'd claim in order to accommodate his brains!) but he's always been guilty of 'pushing' certain characters in public life, mostly those who, if not obsequious, are prepared to indicate they value Neil's opinions, or not argue too hard against them. If they are Scottish, so much the better, so such disparate characters as Salmond and Galloway are included (though both, I note, are happy to promote themselves on Russia Today.) He'll hate having been discarded by the BBC and will see it as a personal crusade to oppose those who he considers responsible, a bit like some of those politicians he's ever keen to promote. His time has gone.
DynamicSpirit
Established Member
I think that's a pretty good summary, and is my understanding too. Somewhat impressed that you seem to have described those two groups of viewers in a way that doesn't seem to show any bias either way towards whether you think those people are right or wrong.
I agree, this and a lot of posts on this thread are very interesting and informative and balanced.
I tend to think of all TV news as "entertainment" and don't like any of it. My preferred news medium is radio plus newspapers, the latter because I want them to be opinionated and the former because I want the facts. My preferred radio news is Newshour on the BBC World Service at 9pm; I discovered the World Service on medium wave in Oxford in 1980 and I've been a convert since then, and now it's easy to listen to.
I don't think this new TV channel is for me, but I really need to try again to watch it just to be sure, once the lips are moving in sync. with the sound anyway. I certainly used to have time for Andrew Neil in that he tended to ask the questions I wanted to ask and he tended to interrupt when I felt the people he was interviewing were waffling. There are many TV and radio interviewers who interrupt when I'm listening to the answer, and that's really annoying.
thenorthern
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It's probably due to my line of work which is in the media. At the end of the day viewers (or consumers as they are now called) have very little brand loyalty and like any other industry you want their custom which calling them "Gammons" and making content that doesn't appeal to them is not a good way of attracting them.
With GB News though it will be interesting if it works. LBC going national in 2014 radically changed the radio market although few industry people thought it would. Times Radio on the other hand was seen as big when it launched but it's not doing as well as hoped.
Busaholic
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Times Radio is doubtless meant to appeal to people like me and my wife who've both been Times readers for decades and listen to the radio all day when home, and in the car too, but I've never bothered to seek its waveband out. When Mars introduced Mars Bar ice creams I weaned myself off my addiction to their confectionery, despite my liking ice cream hugely too, because I felt they were making a presumption that I'd become hooked on that product too and I wanted to prove them wrong. I have now tasted the product a few times and don't greatly rate it, as well as considering it too expensive. GB News may be making what I consider to be the same mistake. It's not only 'woke' media that can take their customers for granted!
birchesgreen
Established Member
Thought i'd watch again to see if they have improved yet. Simon McCoy seems to have aged 10 years in a week.
Presumably he's staring himself in the mirror each day saying over and over: "The money was worth leaving the BBC. The money was worth leaving the BBC."
I’ve been watching it every day and think it covers quite a good gap in the market; the channel name perhaps a bit of a misnomer as it was never intended as a rolling news channel like BBC or Sky News.
I can’t help but cringe at the number of problems they’re having. It’s improved since Sunday & Monday where it was so dark you couldn’t see what was going on properly. Timings need to get a bit better too; they introduced the weather earlier and had to string it out a bit as they were about ten seconds early, and then at the top of the hour they had to abruptly cut a guest off as the intro was about to roll.
I can’t help but cringe at the number of problems they’re having. It’s improved since Sunday & Monday where it was so dark you couldn’t see what was going on properly. Timings need to get a bit better too; they introduced the weather earlier and had to string it out a bit as they were about ten seconds early, and then at the top of the hour they had to abruptly cut a guest off as the intro was about to roll.
thenorthern
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Times Radio is DAB so it doesn't have a frequency in the normal sense. Times Radio is very good quality although it's not getting as many listeners as expected.
It's designed to replicate the North American News Channels.
johncrossley
Established Member
Strictly speaking, DAB does have frequencies, but the technical details are largely hidden from the user. Times is on the Sound Digital multiplex which is on frequency block 11A (216.928 MHz).
DynamicSpirit
Established Member
Just tuned in again to see what GB News is doing - and right at the moment they're doing a feature about the railways and the changes with Great British Railways https://www.gbnews.uk/watchlive
Worm
Member
There was an internal NHS report into the findings after the Jimmy Saville scandal and it noted that a psychologist scalded any attempts to make the exact same distinction in Saville during the hearings as a rightly unnecessary waste of time.
They seem to have got a big name signed up; Nigel Farage has a regular slot at 10am - Midday on Sundays. In addition to his weekday evening show, he used to have a show on LBC radio at the same times on Sundays until June last year.
tbtc
Veteran Member
I wouldn't be surprised if they start announcing some high profile names over the next couple of weeks - have the "soft launch", get the channel up and running and then introduce some people from LBC/ Talk Radio etc - don't announce Piers Morgan too early, let the station bed in before you unleash the "big guns"
What has surprised me so far is that they haven't (as far as I've noticed) introduced the "token liberal" - in the way that Fox News would sometimes have a counterfoil, e.g. Alan Comes to Sean Hannity - or LBC have James O'Brien in midmorning to follow Nick Ferrari - in fact having someone like Ash Sarkar would not only counteract the accusations that it was only biased in one direction but it'd also get the right wingers agitated enough to phone/tweet their views (in the way that some car crash presenters are so bad that you just have to keep listening to/ watching them to find out what objectionable thing they'll say next). Maybe George Galloway - he's worked with Murdoch companies before so he's not going to be too proud to take money from Andrew Neil and his mysterious backers.
GB News need to keep your audience angry and scared and sometimes the best way of doing that is by showing the worst excesses of the other side - e.g. Andrew Neil's late night show on BBC One was careful to balance the photogenic articulate right wing Micheal Portillo with the slightly clumsier Dianne Abbott (who the right wingers must love to hate) instead of a Blairite