GB News is reported to be “closely monitoring” Elon Musk’s lawsuit against advertisers to assess whether they could carry out similar action over brands which boycott its channel.
Social media platform X has launched legal action against a group of advertisers, alleging that a “massive advertiser boycott” deprived the company of billions of dollars in revenue and violated antitrust laws.
The company formerly known as Twitter filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in a federal court in Texas against the World Federation of Advertisers and member companies Unilever, Mars, CVS Health and Orsted.
It accused the advertising group’s initiative called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media of helping to co-ordinate a pause in advertising after Musk bought Twitter for 44 billion US dollars (£34.62 billion) in late 2022 and overhauled its staff and policies.
Musk posted about the lawsuit on X on Tuesday, saying “now it is war” after two years of being nice and “getting nothing but empty words”.
Linda Yaccarino, chief executive officer of X, said in a video announcement that the lawsuit stemmed in part from evidence uncovered by the US House Judiciary Committee which she said showed a “group of companies organised a systematic illegal boycott” against X.
According to reports in The Telegraph, GB News is closely monitoring the situation to assess whether it could launch similar action.
A spokesman for the TV broadcaster said: “GB News notes the antitrust action commenced by media companies X and Rumble against the advertising industry. We will be closely monitoring its progress.”
Brands such as Ikea and Nivea have suspended ads on the channel since it was launched three years ag out of fear of being associated with controversial content.
The ad boycott is believed to have taken a significant toll on its finances, which last year saw its losses balloon to more than £42 million.
The start-up broadcaster has since been forced to cut jobs while seeking new sources of revenue from live events and a paid membership scheme.
However, it remains deeply reliant on billionaire investor Sir Paul Marshall and Dubai-based hedge fund Legatum, who jointly own GB News through holding company All Perspectives.
The amount GB News owed to its parent company almost doubled from £42.8m to £83.8m in the last year alone.
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