The news station, backed by Brexit-supporting billionaire Paul Marshall, crash-landed on British screens in June 2021, but overcame tech and studio fails to establish itself as a genuine force, with a loyal following of around 3M viewers a month and an ability to set the agenda — if not always for the right reasons.The channel provoked Rupert Murdoch into launching TalkTV and forced Sky News, the established commercial leader, into a major rethink of its schedule. GB News is now the channel of choice for over half of Tory party members, the people who picked Britain’s prime minister in 2022. Former PM Boris Johnson will join its presenting ranks as early as this month, Deadline hears.In securing this foothold, GB News’ brand of opinionated broadcasting has begun to reinvent the idea of a news channel in the UK. It has also tested television rules to breaking point. Media regulator Ofcom ruled on five separate occasions last year that GB News transgressed its Broadcasting Code, a set of standards licensed TV channels are legally obliged to abide by. Another 12 investigations are ongoing.This level of regulatory activity is unprecedented for a British-owned broadcaster in recent times. You have to go back to ITV’s abuse of premium-rate phone lines in 2008 to find a UK broadcaster that has kept Ofcom so busy. The regulator revoked RT’s license in 2022 for shamelessly transmitting Russian propaganda after the Kremlin invaded Ukraine, but a GB News insider acknowledged that this is not company the channel wishes to keep.Deadline understands that Ofcom is expected to make another set of rulings on GB News early this year. Some think it is inconceivable that the channel will escape sanction. At the very least, Ofcom’s decisions could set the tone for how the Broadcasting Code is interpreted for years to come.Particular attention will be paid to Ofcom’s conclusions on GB News deploying politicians as presenters. The channel’s roster features sitting Conservative lawmakers including Jacob Rees-Mogg and Lee Anderson. This is despite rule 5.3 of Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code stating that: “No politician may be used as a newsreader, interviewer or reporter in any news programmes unless, exceptionally, it is editorially justified.”Ofcom has, however, classified the vast majority of GB News’ output as current affairs rather than “news programmes,” meaning politicians can anchor output. This determination is, in itself, disputed and we will return to it. In the more immediate future, Ofcom has five separate rule 5.3 investigations into GB News that could effectively draw a line between what’s news and current affairs.This distinction does not currently exist in the Broadcasting Code. Instead, Ofcom sketched out its thinking in a blog last year. MPs can’t host news shows, in which presenters directly address an audience with a running order of short-form stories delivered by roving reporters. But lawmakers can anchor current affairs output, which is more long-form and should feature balanced discussion, analysis, and interviews.The regulator has already made a relatively swift GB News ruling in this space. In less than a month, it determined that GB News did not breach rule 5.3 when Lee Anderson, the deputy Tory chairman, interviewed former home secretary Suella Braverman on September 29, 2023. The pre-recorded sit-down was clearly a current affairs show, Ofcom said.The five ongoing rule 5.3 investigations (concerning GB News broadcasts that took between May 12 and June 23) are not as clear cut. For example, on May 9, did former cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg vacate his current affairs safe zone and veer into newsreader territory when telling viewers that a jury had found Donald Trump guilty of sexually assaulting writer E. Jean Carroll? Watch the moment below.Trevor Barnes, a former Ofcom legal director, said he would be surprised if Ofcom did not find GB News in breach. He argued that sanctions will be considered if more than one investigation is upheld. Under Ofcom rules, serious or repeated breaches could result in a fine and GB News having to read out a summary of the regulator’s findings.“There is a feeling in the industry that Ofcom’s credibility will be shot to shreds if it doesn’t sanction GB News,” Barnes said. “Ofcom has given GB News plenty of opportunities to sort themselves out, but it’s just been breach after breach, cockup after cockup.”Ofcom decided against punishing GB News over any of its five breaches last year. It twice reminded the channel to take “careful account” of its decision and on a third occasion required the station to attend a compliance meeting after ex-presenter Mark Steyn platformed anti-vax conspiracies.Stewart Purvis, a former Ofcom content and standards executive, claimed that there is discontent at the regulator among some who believe that GB News has been given too much leeway. “There are people, certainly at a non-executive level, who are deeply troubled about where they have got to,” Purvis told Deadline.Ofcom bosses insist they are regulating without fear or favor, with one senior insider saying that GB News content is being examined “ruthlessly, forensically and analytically.” If there is a view among some at Ofcom that GB News has been cut too much slack, there are others who argue that freedom of expression is sacrosanct and broadcasters must be given space to innovate.An Ofcom spokesperson said: “All broadcasters are treated equally and held to the same high standards that UK viewers and listeners expect and deserve.”Industry observers have argued that GB News’ regulatory compliance processes are either ineffective or that management is riding roughshod over guidance. GB News declined to comment on its compliance setup. Nick Pollard, a highly regarded news executive, is GB News’ compliance officer, but he does so on a consultancy basis and is not employed by the news channel. Where other news channels have compliance teams, Pollard leads “Ofcom refreshers” and employees have been empowered to call out mistakes.GB News CEO Angelos Frangopoulos told the RTS Cambridge Convention last year that it takes regulation “seriously,” but was unequivocal that the channel was “here to do things differently.” He pointed to the friction between freedom of speech and due impartiality.Despite the high volume of investigations and repeated breaches, there is a view at Ofcom that GB News is listening. Ofcom has not launched a fresh rule 5.3 probe in six months, despite reviewing thousands of hours of programming. “I don’t think that’s evidence of a licensee ignoring the rules,” a senior Ofcom source said.So why is Ofcom taking time with its current inquiries? The regulator must carry out its quasi-judicial process in which broadcasters are twice invited to argue their corner. GB News has shown it is prepared to take a combative approach to rulings, publishing statements when it disagrees with findings. It was censured last month because an on-air “Don’t Kill Cash” campaign (see below) was deemed to have reflected the political interests of its owners, but GB News argued this could not be “further from the truth.” Established broadcasters, such as ITV and Channel 4, do not usually comment on Ofcom rulings.Chris Banatvala, Ofcom’s former director of standards, said GB News’s output is posing more fundamental questions about whether the Broadcasting Code is fit for purpose. Rule 5.3 was written nearly two decades ago, at a time when it was not envisaged that a news channel would have lawmakers hosting shows on a nightly basis.“It would be wise, given broadcasters are coming up against the code, for Ofcom to have a rigorous discussion and a possible consultation around this matter and be open about why changes may or may not be needed,” he said. Purvis put it more emphatically: “It’s hard to conclude that current regulation is fit for purpose.”Perhaps unsurprisingly, GB News agrees with this assessment. “What we are doing is very different to what the normal parameters of the Ofcom code were originally considered to be about,” Frangopoulos told the BBC last September. “They were designed for the [BBC] News at Ten.”Politicians as presenters was the first item on the agenda at two Ofcom content board meetings in 2023. Last June, the regulator commissioned audience research into the issue, which it promised to publish before the end of 2023. The work has been delayed as Ofcom reaches rulings on GB News. “We will publish it in due course,” a spokesperson said. “Our first priority is to conclude the live investigations.”Ofcom has not said that the audience research will be a precursor to a rethink of the Broadcasting Code, but neither has it ruled this out. “We keep the code under constant review,” said an insider. “We do not know where we will end up.”A general election in the UK this year could yet sharpen thinking on the matter, not least because GB News stars Rees-Mogg and Anderson will be standing for re-election. They will not be allowed on-air during the campaigning period, which is penciled in for the second half of 2024.Ofcom last changed the Code in 2021 to ensure broadcasters provide better protections for reality show contestants, but tinkering with the rules is not done lightly. The regulator’s instinct is to be light touch and it cannot diverge from legislation that underpins the rules.A spokesperson said: “We periodically conduct research among viewers and listeners to understand how attitudes, tastes and tolerances can change over time. These studies can help broadcasters to better understand audience expectations and what steps they may need to take to protect them. They also help to inform our approach to upholding broadcast standards.”Ofcom chair Lord Grade appeared to pre-empt the research last November, telling the Voice of the Listener & Viewer conference that he doesn’t think it’s “difficult at all” to distinguish between news and current affairs shows. This would be a vote of confidence for the GB News model. Asked if Grade’s comments echo what audiences are saying, an Ofcom spokesperson said the work is “not yet complete.”Other broadcasters are wondering aloud if they have been misinterpreting Ofcom’s rules for 20 years. Sophy Ridge, one of Sky News’ top presenters, put it this way in an interview with Ofcom CEO Melanie Dawes last year: “I’ve always been slightly terrified of Ofcom. Now I’m wondering, did I get it all wrong? Are the rules actually way more flexible than I ever realized?”“No,” Dawes replied. “You can see from the fact that the public really trusts our TV news that we’re getting a lot right in this country. It is a testament to the stability, clarity, and standards in our regulatory framework.”Away from the furor over MPs hosting news shows, Ofcom has eight other investigations ongoing into GB News. Five concern the “Don’t Kill Cash” campaign and, with one finding already going against GB News, there is a feeling more could follow.Actor Laurence Fox’s misogynistic comments about journalist Ava Evans on Dan Wootton Tonight are being investigated after becoming the most complained-about moment on TV last year. Fox has since been fired and Wootton has been suspended for months. GB News is also subject to a fairness and privacy investigation, which Ofcom does not publish details on.It’s a heaving in-tray for Cristina Nicolotti Squires, Ofcom’s new group director for broadcasting and media, who joins from Sky News this month. She won’t be making the rulings herself, but will become the face of Ofcom’s regulation of GB News.“We know the world likes our view. People in politics and the media are waiting for them,” an Ofcom insider said of the upcoming GB News rulings. It remains to be seen if 2024 will be GB News’ year of reckoning, or the year it successfully reinterpreted UK broadcasting rules for a new generation of news channels.
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