Reform TV set to take on GB News

As Rats in a Sack reported a week ago: “One of the things that Reform is expected to spend its new-found fortune on is apparently launching its own TV channel. That will come as a surprise to those who thought it already had one – GB News, on which the party’s leader Nigel Farage has a well-remunerated slot to hold court at 7pm every night.”

It seems, though, that the party wants to escape the clutches of Paul Marshall’s money-losing outfit and broadcast its own, unexpurgated output. Reform already has its own broadcast-standard TV studio at its headquarters on Millbank, opposite the Houses of Parliament, and intends to stream its channel on YouTube which, outside the auspices of Ofcom, will not have to worry about even the thin veneer of impartiality demanded by GB News.

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The worry for GB News is not only that the channel will be a direct competitor – a growing proportion of its viewership is on YouTube, via smart TVs – but that Farage may take a large chunk of its staff with him.

This summer GB News was forced to shed up to a third of its 260 employees as total losses at the channel grew to £131 million. Many of the rank-and-file who remain are said to be increasingly unmotivated, and producers on a starting salary of £30,000 or camera operators on £24,000 could expect to see their pay packets rocket given Reform’s large pockets, recently increased by £36 million donations from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne. Geoff Marsh, who led the digital operation at GB News until July, has already been brought in to oversee Reform TV.

Insiders at the channel also wonder if Farage might peel away some of its on-air ‘talent’ too. Martin Daubney, Patrick Christys, Michelle Dewberry and Matt Goodwin are among those said to have been hired at Farage’s suggestion, while party chair Lee Anderson is unlikely to remain at GB News once his own party’s channel goes live.

Farage himself appears to believe he could host for both channels on top of being leader of a political party and occasional Member of Parliament for Clacton. In his i column last week, Michael Crick, Farage’s biographer, tells of how he met him in GB News’s Westminster studio and asked him whether he would be switching his nightly show to Reform’s new channel.

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“He clearly understood the deliciousness of my question, and responded with that traditional Farage combined grin and chuckle where his face lights up all animated,” wrote Crick. “It would surely be possible, he suggested, to ride both horses at once, and perform on both channels?

“Really? Not even Farage has the broadcasting skill to appear on both channels at 7pm simultaneously. Especially at a time when people are urging him to cut back his busy, exhausting lifestyle. Where would his loyalties lie? Which channel would get priority on the really big news days?”

Farage does, however, hold nearly half a million shares ( roughly a 2% stake) in GB News’s parent company All Perspectives Ltd through his personal media firm, Thorn in the Side Ltd – something which might concentrate the mind.

Publicly, GB News is unconcerned about the threat from Farage’s new operation, with Michael Brooker, its editorial director, telling the Times on Monday: “I’ve never heard such twaddle.” But given the channel has paid Farage £704,000 since he became an MP alone, they may now be questioning the wisdom of attaching themselves so closely to the leader’s wagon. Rupert Lowe At Drivetime, anyone?