Launch of GB News - Sunday at 8pm

[OhHolyJesus]

I think this will be interesting. I'm actually quite keen to hear from Michelle Dewberry.

I'm not big on ex-Apprentice winners but I remember her and appreciated her tweet about being a mother.

twitter.com/michelledewbs/status/1400721389854810114?s=21

I'm also a bit sick of the BBC tbh and I'm for variety in broadcasting so will see what it's like.

It’s awful. Cheap, amateurish and done on a shoestring. Won’t be watching it again.

Watched it briefly. The rolling adverts during the day were actually quite good - about giving more of a voice to people outside of London. But the little I saw was about 'freedom' and the oppressiveness of people not being allowed to mix during a pandemic. Not convinced by that!

My god it's painful to watch. I assume they'll up their game but the tech quality is diabolically bad. I've only been watching for about 15/20 minutes and there's already been three tech problems. Currently doing an extremely boring interview with Alan Sugar. Alan Sugar looks half asleep and bored himself - what a spectacular launch night 😂

@snowballer

My god it's painful to watch. I assume they'll up their game but the tech quality is diabolically bad. I've only been watching for about 15/20 minutes and there's already been three tech problems. Currently doing an extremely boring interview with Alan Sugar. Alan Sugar looks half asleep and bored himself - what a spectacular launch night 😂

I'm kind of fascinated. It seems a bit like Talk Radio on the telly. The set is just dismal and I don't know what is going on with the lighting. It feels like an underground bunker.

I'm not impressed so far but once they sort out teething problems I think it might be a hit with the target demographic. I'm unclear if that makes it sustainable long term.

I was surprised to see Benjamin Butterworth turning up on a panel. They must be paying him well. He will have a lot of opportunity for shocked gasping.

I think Andrew Neil is exactly the stale white male who has kept this country steeped in hierarchies and prejudice

Nice bit of ageism, sexism and racism on display there.

I’m all for consuming a range of media, but for that to be effective, being aware of biases and problems is key.

Yes, absolutely agree.

I would welcome a news channel that is actually a news channel
Absolutely. BBC and ITN don’t know the outside world exists, and serve out celebrity and consumer driven slop with huge side helpings of banal and parochial vox pops.

Turning over to Al Jazeera, with its news reports from Africa, Asia, and South America, it’s alarming to realise just how degenerate our “news” has become.

Give them a break, it's the first night, tech issues are to be expected. Just enjoy Benny Buttonjob getting ganged up on! He's brave to be on that channel.

Sound is awful.

Dan Wooten in an old greenhouse with blackout curtains

It’s seems dreadful with some dreadful people on there. It looks like a bunch of 12 year olds have put it together for a Media Project.

@WeeTorag

Give them a break, it's the first night, tech issues are to be expected. Just enjoy Benny Buttonjob getting ganged up on! He's brave to be on that channel.

Kudos actually to Benjamin taking it on and to Andrew Neil for having him.

I worked in tv news (director) I'd love to know what technology they're using, I bet there's hardly any tech staff working on it, all journalists multi tasking. They need technical managers, studio directors and sound supervisors for starters. The lighting is awful. I know there's always teething problems (been there, done that) but they need something more polished than this.

Nice bit of ageism, sexism and racism on display there.

Dont be so silly. Its a recognition of who is the dominant class in this country and the problems they create for those who aren't part of their elite group.

Lets face it if the Voice and Eastern Eye had got together to launch a news channel no venture capitalists would have come forward to fund it.

To we really need any more of these smug eletes drowning the rest of us out with their smug complacancy.

I find Dan Wooten irritating, but I'll be giving other presenters a chance. Looking forward to daytime content.

Hope tech issues get sorted out.

SunshineCake - if you receive your tv channels through Freeview it does look like you have to retune to get it. I'm not used to having to do this, so i may be missing all sorts of things. Might do a retune to find out what else has become available in the past year or so!

I dipped in and out.

Very disappointed with the Covid denying and sucking up to Farage, but it was expected. Pretty sure Lord Sugar deliberately sabotaged his interview, not on.

Hopefully once the viewers have settled in we'll see some GC content.

On the whole, I'm optimistic.

It's a Pound Shop Fox News. Grim.

I watched some of GB News tonight. You don’t need to be a TV expert to see that technically it was a complete shambles. The sets, lighting , picture quality & especially sound were awful. Frankly, it looked & sounded amateurish. I suspect they have cut too many corners on this stuff, and it shows on screen. Big time.

I will stick with it, though, and hope they hire some proper technical people to sort it out quickly.

In terms of content, I strongly support what they are trying to do, in terms of giving a platform to a much greater diversity of voices and opinions outside the metropolitan liberal establishment. The discussion about the origins of the covid virus featuring Allison Pearson & the Chinese scientist were interesting. Pearson was spot on when she pointed out that discussion about this had been shut down in the MSM because Trump was a proponent of the ‘Wuhan lab leak’ theory.

I've been listening to a mix of Times Radio Talk Radio and Radio 4 they all get annoyingly entrenched in the presenters opinions rather than actual News so another one to add to the mix would be good.

@ArabellaScott

I’m all for consuming a range of media, but for that to be effective, being aware of biases and problems is key.

Yes, absolutely agree.

Not watched it and doubt I'll have time but if/ when I do I'll be keeping bias in mind. But I now do that with the bbc and other news channels, as well as papers.

Fighting bbc bias is why they've set it up but no one is immune.

O hurrah, more divisive right wing brainwashing. Thanks Andrew Neil and your bunch of scuzzy mates, just what the country needs.

Has anyone noticed the narrowing of the BBC's remit over the past few years? I assume this is Covid but I have felt that even nationally it seems like a local news show? I've found it all disappointing. Even Times Radio which started so well just seems that some of its women broadcasters spend too much time giggling. Sad really.

I do like Andrew Neill even though I'm a remainer but good journalists are in very short supply nowadays and it tends to be 'yes they're good but I wouldn't want a whole one'.

We put this on for the launch, but it was a disappointment. They should have started with news or a feature,. We switched off after ten minutes of Michelle Dewberry waffling on about not very much at all. I'll perhaps give it another try when they've had a chance to get over the self-congratulatory stage.

News reporting is expensive business. I worry that a start up will not have the wherewithal to investigate properly.

It feels the BBC these days simply repeat press releases and possibly add some random twiiter responses to make it looked like they have done a bit more. The inclusion of twitter responses always seems particularly pathetic. But there is ao littke actual investigative journalism or unbias critique of carefully prepared press releases.

It's great if you're on the right/anti-lockdown etc.

It's not very diverse though, it's just an echo chamber.