GB News: Andrew Neil says new channel will have US-style ‘anchors with a bit of edge’
Andrew Neil has claimed his new 24-hour news channel GB News will be similar to the opinion-led US networks – featuring anchors with “attitude” and “a bit of edge”.
The broadcaster announced last week he was leaving the BBC to become chairman of a US-funded operation, which aims to rival the Beeb and Sky News when it launches next year.
Mr Neil – who will also host a flagship evening programme in primetime – promised that GB News would be very different to current offerings in the UK.
“There would be no point doing what is already being done pretty well with the existing incumbents. It will not be a rolling news channel,” he told Good Morning Britain.
“It will be based more like MSNBC in America, which is on the left, and Fox [News], which is on the right … They don’t do rolling news. They do news when it breaks, but they don’t do continuous rolling news.
“They segment the day into individual programmes, news-based programmes, built around very strong presenters, or anchors as they call them in the United States, and that is what we will do too.
He added: “Anchors with a bit of edge, a bit of attitude, bit of personality – and people will make an appointment to view them. That’s the plan.”
The 71-year-old, best known for The Andrew Neil Show, as well as This Week and Daily Politics on the BBC, has claimed there is a “vast number of British people who feel underserved and unheard by their media”.
Despite making the comparison with Fox News himself, Mr Neil rejected the idea the new channel would play host to a series of right-wing rants.
“I am as neutral and as impartial as anybody on the BBC,” said the veteran, who is also chairman of the company which owns the right-wing political magazine The Spectator.
“I come from a different political tradition but I don’t let that affect how I do interviews.”
The US media and entertainment company Discovery, Inc is the lead investor in GB News, set for broadcast seven days a week across the UK and Ireland.
Executives plan for the channel to reach 96 per cent of British television households via Freeview, Sky and Virgin Media.
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