Jacob Rees-Mogg’s short-lived spell as a GB News presenter could soon be up as debts pile up at the beleaguered broadcaster.
According to Financial Times reports, Angelos Frangopoulos has signalled that the former MP for North East Somerset “might be past his sell-by date” after losing his seat in the 2024 general election.
“We’re probably going to have to have some conversations”, the chief executive said.
GB News courted several Tory politicians in the early days of the channel, paying more than £660,000 in appearance fees and salaries to MPs from the party at one point, according to analysis by The Guardian.
Lee Anderson earned £100,000 a year from GB News, while Nigel Farage, who is the channel’s biggest puller, gets almost that every month.
It has resulted in vast debt piles which are unlikely to turn into profit any time soon.
A boycott campaign by the pressure group Stop Funding Hate, which attempts to divert advertising from media groups that it says promote “fear and division”, has contributed to losses in the tens of millions of pounds per year.
In the year ending May 2022, its pre-tax loss was £30.7 million. The following year losses widened to £42.4 million.
“It’s never going to make enough money,” says Gill Hind, a media analyst at Enders Analysis.
Unlike in the US, where Fox News and other cable news channels are paid by cable companies for the right to transmit them, UK channels are almost entirely reliant on advertising.
As the FT points out, financially, GB News really isn’t Fox News: its revenues were £15.5 million last year, while Fox News’s were about $3 billion. Total losses have now exceeded £100 million.
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