Ad boycott ‘undermining GB News and free speech’

ADVERTISING agencies mounting a prolonged boycott of GB News are damaging its business, its chief executive has admitted, as he claimed the action represents a threat to free speech.

Angelos Frangopoulos said public debate was at risk because the channel was being put under “commercial pressure” to change its content a year after its launch.

He said: “Commercially, this is a very serious matter. This does cause damage to the GB News business model, there is no two ways about it. And that is something that the advertising industry itself needs to acknowledge.”

Mr Frangopoulos, the former chief executive of Sky News Australia, said advertising buyers had opted to keep GB News on their blacklists despite the channel remaining in-step with Britain’s broadcasting rules.

“Being part of a regulated environment should give an advertiser and a brand confidence that a broadcaster is

‘To apply commercial pressure to change content is quite dangerous for public debate and free speech’

meeting the legal requirements around impartiality,” he added. “To then ignore that and apply what could be perceived to be some kind of commercial pressure to change that content, I think is quite dangerous for public debate and freedom of speech.”

GB News was targeted at launch by Stop Funding Hate, the social media campaign group that has organised boycotts of national newspapers promoting Right-wing views.

Some of the world’s biggest brands including Groslch and Ikea suspended ad ties following the attack – although some companies later reversed their decision.

Mr Frangopoulos said he was having top-level talks with agencies and brands who continue to boycott GB News to understand their concerns.

His comments come on the first birthday of GB News, a channel backed with nearly £50m of funding from the US broadcaster Discovery, the Dubai investment group Legatum and the Brexit-supporting hedge fund manager Sir Paul Marshall.

Despite hopes of disrupting the dominance of the BBC, the channel endured a tumultuous start beset by technical glitches and the swift departure of its chairman and lead presenter Andrew Neil.

The station has also faced a challenge from Rupert Murdoch’s Talktv.