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Saturday 29 October 2022

GB News Ad Revenue - DIDDUMS

Hardly had Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”) debuted, with its then star presenter, former Murdoch editor Andrew Neil, telling the few who actually tuned in that “if you want fake news, lies, disinformation, distortion of the facts, conspiracy theories, then GB News is not for you”, than it was doing something rather similar itself.

Angelos Frangopoulos

Because following Neil was the deeply unpleasant Dan Wootton, who claimed “Lockdowns are a crude measure. Mark my words, we will discover that they have caused far more deaths and devastation than the Government has ever admitted. They should be wiped from the public health playbook forever more. But tragically the doomsday scientists and public health officials have taken control. They are addicted to power and the Government’s 15-month-long, never-ending scare campaign has suitably terrified the public into supporting lockdowns”. GB News instantly became Conspiracies ‘R’ Us.

A year and a half on, this endures, with complaints to Ofcom, and hosts from Wootton to Neil Oliver to Mark Steyn to former Brexit Party Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage talking well, but lying badly. Guests appear to be carefully selected to reflect the channel’s worldview.

So it should have been no surprise to GB News’ management that, as early as June 2021, the people at Stop Funding Hate were on its case, politely but firmly reminding those who advertised on the broadcaster of the falsehood and misinformation peddled by hosts and guests alike.

And we now have confirmation that SFH’s actions are having enough of an effect that GB News’ CEO Angelos Frangopoulos has gone blubbering to the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph, brandishing his king size onion and protesting that his empire is a victim of non-existent cancel culture.

The plot against GB News: ‘We were cancelled before we launched’ … The 'free speech' channel is growing its audience and star power, yet a sinister boycott is deterring advertisers. Now the fight back begins” is the hilariously OTT headline, and an admission the channel is shipping serious money.

So what’s the excuse? “There are many fronts in the war on free speech but one of the most insidious is being fought out in the basement of a building in Paddington Basin, west London … a fierce battle is being waged to secure the future of the fledgling broadcaster”. Yes? Yes yes? Yes yes yes?

Because, although the increasingly professional station is finding its feet and a growing audience, a sinister Left-wing outfit which aims to starve it of advertising revenue is maintaining a relentless campaign. And it seems that many in the advertising industry are its willing accomplices … The campaigners go under the title of Stop Funding Hate (SFH)”.


Curses! They’ve been rumbled!! But there’s more. “For GB News chief executive Angelos Frangopoulos, countering the threat from Stop Funding Hate (SFH) has been a constant worry since the station was founded: ‘We were cancelled before we launched,’ he tells me”. Yeah, right. If they were cancelled, how come they launched and are still broadcasting?

Do go on. “GB News … has set itself the task of standing outside the establishment by giving a platform to voices the other broadcasters shun. Frangopoulos … maintains that doesn’t mean the content is ‘hateful’; if it was, he says, the company would be in trouble with Ofcom”. Er hello Telegraph droids, GB News is already on its third Ofcom investigation.

But the Tel does want you to know that GB News is increasingly popular. However, “so far this audience success hasn’t translated into advertising revenue”. And guess why that is? “The problem, it seems, is the attitude of the media planners who work for the advertisers and who act as the interface between the broadcasters and the brands”. And that means what, exactly?

Stop Funding Hate has tapped into the prejudices of the sort of folk who make up the workforce in the average advertising agency. As in certain parts of the media itself, as in academia, the higher reaches of the civil service, as in every influential institution in the country it seems, a groupthink prevails dictating a certain set of ‘progressive’ attitude”. And to that I call bullshit.

The Rotten Lefties™ done it. A big boy did it and ran away. It’s a sinister plot against FREEZE PEACH. Or, more accurately, it’s none of the above. A minor media player protests that nefarious forces out there are agin them, and in the process gives the game away: GB News is shipping a lot of money, and those overseas investors may be unlikely to keep stumping up more.

GB News may be for a time, but not for all time. Just rejoice at that news.


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8 comments:

Mirth said...

Thank you for this, especially for pointing out that they haven't been cancelled!. I volunteer for SFH. I am in my 60s, vote Liberal Democrat and knit in my spare time. So I quite enjoy being thought of as 'sinister'. Not so keen on the word 'bullies' though. Most of the time, we have just let companies know that their ads appear on GB News and they willingly pull them.

iMatt said...

Once more from the extreme right, we see ''Poor me, poor me''. Usually said straight after an alpha male display of machismo, defiance and self-righteousness.

Anonymous said...

Good riddance to a gang of far right overpaid hate-mongering gobshites.

Nick63 said...

“Stop Funding Hate has tapped into the prejudices of the sort of folk who make up the workforce in the average advertising agency. As in certain parts of the media itself, as in academia, the higher reaches of the civil service, as in every influential institution in the country it seems, a groupthink prevails dictating a certain set of ‘progressive’ attitude”. And to that I call bullshit.

This paragraph is especially amusing. I worked in London ad agencies for twenty years. Not many (though one or two) could in any way be described as hotbeds of progressive (read slightly left of centre) thought; especially media buying departments. Buyers, whilst they do advise what should be on the media schedule, ultimately do what the client asks them to do, and if the client wants a certain publication or TV channel on the schedule, it will be on the schedule.

So you're absolutely correct to 'call bullshit' (or 'bollocks').

Simon said...

The channel is broadcast on Freeview and therefore available to tens of millions of homes, it's on YouTube, Twitter and maybe other platforms. Literally anyone with an Internet connection can watch it. But they've apparently been cancelled. Why would I take them seriously?

You also have to wonder why they have a problem with advertisers exercising their freedom of choice.

Fact is, it's available to a huge audience but few choose to watch it. Maybe the reason is a little closer to home?

Mr Larrington said...

Cancel, Angelos? You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Anonymous said...

Never watched it, never will. The names of its 'contributors' and 'presenters' tell you all you need to know about its likely content. I hope it goes bankrupt - not that it'll matter that much, they'll be employed to peddle their neofascist shit elsewhere. As the slob Neil does on Channel 4. Which is only one example of institutionalised corruption in British corporate media, and why nobody with a sense of honour and decency trusts a word from their twisted mouths.

Anonymous said...

The question is, what will GBN morph into?
1) A Gammon shopping channel - get your Nigel was right mugs here
2) Games channel - "Ooh you said 'Woke' that's one off the bingo card"
3) Gammon Adult Chat - where lonely Gammons can get their jollies "I'm coming over there to take you job, you naughty boy"