GB News made a loss of more than £30m in its first year on air, as the right-leaning news channel invested in hiring presenters to combat the launch of rival TalkTV.The controversy-prone channel which launched in June 2021 racked up a pre-tax loss of £30.7m in the year to the end of May 2022, a period in which it hired former Ukip leader Nigel Farage to host a nightly primetime show.Rupert Murdoch’s rival TalkTV launched in April last year, spearheaded by marquee signing Piers Morgan’s daily show Uncensored.More recent GB News appointments have included Conservative MPs Jacob Rees-Mogg, Esther McVey, Philip Davies and earlier this month Lee Anderson, the outspoken Tory party deputy chair.TalkTV landed Nadine Dorries, the former Tory culture secretary, who launched her Friday night chatshow in February with a Boris Johnson interview.GB News has weathered on- and off-air turmoil since its launch and has found it difficult to win over advertisers wary of its reputation as the “British Fox News”.Last week, regulator Ofcom ruled it broke rules regarding harmful content for misleading viewers about Covid booster shots.GB News made £3.6m in turnover over the year, with the two biggest streams made up of £3m from advertising revenue and just over £550,000 in digital revenue.The company reported a bill of £12.75m for its 175 staff at the end of May last year, up from 16 employees and less than £1m a year earlier when it was in start-up mode.Despite the ballooning losses, up from £3m when GB News filed its first public financial report for 2021 before launching on air, the company said it continues to have the support of its backers for foreseeable future.“The company’s aim is to champion robust, balanced debate and to provide a range of perspectives on the issues that affect everyone in the UK,” it said in financial filings published on Thursday.Last August, there was a shake-up among its backers, with the founding investor Discovery selling up, and the existing shareholders Sir Paul Marshall, the Brexiter hedge fund tycoon, and Legatum, the Dubai-based investment company founded by the New Zealand billionaire Christopher Chandler, taking control.Financial accounts for Discovery’s UK business subsequently revealed it sold its 25% stake for £8m, a 60% drop on the original £20m it paid, which would suggest the value of GB News has fallen from £80m at launch to £32m.The latest £60m funding round, in which the co-founders Andrew Cole and Mark Schneider resigned as directors and sold their stakes, could sustain GB News for a number of years if it chose to cut costs dramatically.
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