It may be the bane of many liberals, and its provocative broadcasts have certainly kept Ofcom busy since its launch.
But despite all the controversy, the audience for GB News keeps rising, and November appeared to be another significant month.
According to data from Barb, the TV rating agency, GB News overtook Sky News for live TV viewing across one month for the first time.
GB News averaged 70,430 live viewers in November during a 20-hour period between 6am and 2am. The average audience for Sky News was 67,670 over the same period.
In a digital era when many people watch news on different platforms and at different times, such figures can be misleading – and they are not the yardstick they once were.
Yet, since the re-election of Donald Trump, many right-leaning media platforms in the US and the UK appear to have had a boost.
GB News, however, said its coverage of the farmers’ protest last month was one of the reasons its audience soared. On 19 November, the day of the demonstration in London, it secured 90,000 average live views between 6am and 2am.
The next day it broadcast an exclusive interview with Eric Trump, who spoke about his father’s impending return to the White House.
In a statement, the channel’s editorial director, Mick Booker, said: “GB News isn’t just a broadcaster. It’s a community that is getting bigger every day. People trust us to tell their stories, and the day-to-day story of Britain, openly and honestly with free and respectful speech. We will work hard to keep that trust and keep building our community.”
Over the years, the number of live TV viewers has become a less important metric as people started to consume news in different ways. Overall, Sky News is understood to have had a monthly reach of 8.05 million in November – an average daily reach of 1.63 million.
Sky believes that, on average, more than 4 million people a day watch its TV coverage via television, video on demand, YouTube, its website and app.
Though its audience is increasing, GB News has frequently fallen foul of Ofcom, the broadcast regulator. It has found GB News in breach of its rules 12 times since it launched in 2021.
At the end of October, Ofcom fined it £100,000 for “breaking due impartiality rules” with its programme featuring the former prime minister Rishi Sunak in February.
The media regulator said it imposed a fine over the programme People’s Forum: The Prime Minister because it considered the breach serious, and due to GB News’s track record of breaking impartiality rules.
The channel described the ruling as a “direct attack on free speech and journalism in the United Kingdom”. It has been given permission to seek a judicial review of the finding.
GB News has previously breached impartiality rules by allowing sitting Conservative MPs to serve as news presenters. The broadcast regulator said these related to five occasions involving Jacob Rees-Mogg, Esther McVey and Philip Davies. All three were Tory MPs at the time, though only McVey remains in the Commons.
