New Discovery & Murdoch News Channels?

Unless you're Sky News and other news organisations who run them at a loss.

Talking of Global, LBC costs a lot of money to operate and will come out of the revenue from the profitable music brands to keep them going. It's about giving the company some much needed kudos and political and business contacts. LBC News is run on a more shoestring budget, but it reiterates Global's commitment to news.

RT, which can be considered partisan is never going to make a bean or attract viewers outside their conspiracy theory or Western bashing core audience. For Putin, it's about getting his message to destabilise the West using his propaganda outlets at a loss financially.

Another partisan news channel which targets the alt-right hasn't got a hope in hell if Sky News makes a loss, Murdoch can't even get talkRADIO right and added a more mainstream speech station in Times Radio to balance the news skewed radio portfolio.

Don’t understand the “alt-right” stuff myself either. Feels like everything to the right of communism gets labelled as this these days. A news channel that is vaguely right-leaning, in a country that has in the last year given the Conservatives an 80 seat majority, isn’t a crazy idea.

Yes, I've not listened to him for years but enjoyed his TV and radio output in the 90s, he is an excellent broadcaster. Sadly its not looking good for him at all

Well that's the story from inside the company at the time - there was a lot of pressure from staff which almost certainly contributed to his early removal. Although I think it was unlikely that he was going to get a new contract. Even not considering how much he was paid, his time in the spotlight is waning

The issue they had was that Global was supporting the movement on air and on the company's social media... and then having one of its highest profile presenters undoing all that. Plus I imagine it put those working on Capital Xtra in an awful position

You're right in that they're not known for having a great level of diversity (and their figures on equal pay are pretty bad too - a lot worse than the BBCs) but BLM was very high profile at the time and reputationally it was looking a bit hypacritical,

Story from the time here: https://m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/nigel-farage-lbc-global-media-staff_uk_5edf9d9dc5b66a22b3803845
Of course Global deny it but it must have been a factor... or an excuse

It's a mis-used term, but like so many it's a loosely defined one in the first place.

The core ideology though is fairly consistent and the term can be used accurately to some prominent individuals both in the public eye and government.


Thing is that it has been speculated and even tried a few times but is the audience actually there? It's not as if there's no mainstream 'right' media in this country already, and even though there's a Conservative government in at the moment do many people have the desire to immerse themselves in that ideology? Also the population are generally more moderate, the US style shock jock ranter doesn't work here.

Audiences will be small anyway, the news channels we have now don't rate that well to start with

Personally I hate this gradual creeping in of divisive politics - 'the left' and 'the right'. It's a very dangerous way for things to go, politics is being increasingly turned into tribalism, treating political parties like football teams rather than support being conditional depending on what they are actually doing.

It also assumes that there are only two teams you can be in.

Of course this is being driven by the type of politician who has an interest in dividing the population for their own ends. As I say dangerous stuff

On the subject of Channel 4 News, I think you can say fairly objectively that their coverage sits slightly left of centre, in a way that coverage on the BBC/ITV/Sky isn’t. I think it’s almost the TV News equivalent of The Guardian (which, I think is worth pointing out, is no bad thing). So TV news can have an editorial slant, whilst still offering impartial coverage.

Given the high readership of the Daily Mail, the Sun, etc. I think a TV channel in that sort of nature could do reasonably well - sitting centre right in it’s coverage, but complying with OFCOM rules. However, it’s the sort of thing that should have been launched 20 years ago, not in the era of streaming, when the golden age of TV in its linear form is long gone. However, if the online content is produced well, it has the potential to do very well.

Set design and communications have dropped in price dramatically over the last few years. Someone mentioned talkradio's studio which i think is very impressive with its videowall of London even though I don't agree with some of the views on there




I feel the same. I can't understand this alternative politics either but i do fear it may have a dangerous effect. Any new station such as GB News will have to be aware of this.

High readership? The Sun and The Mail have shred readers due to the decline of print media. The Mail market leads however, but from a lower older skewing base.

Targeting a tv channel at 50+ Tory and Brexit Party supporting viewers isn't going to be the most ad friendly.

Has there been a right wing news channel in the UK?

I think it would be very difficult for any new news channel to get a grip of people regardless or being left or right wing. The two established names are Sky and the BBC. You would need to spend vast sums of money on advertising, and then hope you can get people to tune in and then you would have to catch them and interest them. I am right wing, and I would welcome a right wing news channel, but I am not even sure I would tune in by default. I watch BBC News and Sky News for the odd news hour, any other news channel would have to do something new, do things differently and hit the ground running, without a penny spared. It must also be "British" and professional, having some loud mouth on screen isn't going to work here. I just have this fear any news channel that starts up today and aims to be right wing, will end up with topless darts. It is not impossible, if they get some established names etc.

The other thing to consider, is why we may ask is Sky leaning more to the left? it is because in my mind, they want to attract the young on electronic devices, and get their clicks. Because this is now where lots of the money is I suspect. All news organisations are now motivated by click bait above all else. They have to follow the rules of course, but at the end of the day, all they want is your click. The older generations who are generally more right wing, and would have been younger consumed the content 15-20 years ago on screen, are now being replaced by a new generation which are much more left wing.

What makes you say that Sky News is now leaning more to the left?

Because they are employing people that used to work at the Guardian or similar places, lots of the old faces have gone. In addition the spin of many stories is of a more left wing nature when it comes to certain things. I can't see an example today to show you.

When Sky News starts hiring the likes of Grace Blakeley and Ash Sarkar as correspondents, then I'll start worrying.

Martha Kelner isn't exactly making me think that her impartial sports reporting for Sky News has suddenly gone left.

Beth Rigby who some on the right think is a "leftie" worked for the FT and that well known Murdoch publication The Times. Kate McCann also worked for The Times.