GB News reports losses of £31m after first year on air
The broadcaster has paid substantial sums to attract politicians and on-screen talent including Nigel Farage, Arlene Foster, and Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg
Conservative British TV channel GB News has reported losses of £31 million after its first year on the airwaves.
The right-wing British television and radio channel first launched in June 2021 with promises to ‘shake up’ broadcasting, famously opening with Andrew Neil announcing: “We are proud to be British – the clue is in the name”.
However, it quickly suffered an advertiser boycott shortly after its debut with brands including Sainsbury’s and Ikea pulling ads from its channel.
Airing with shows from big names like ex-BBC journalist Andrew Neil, ex-UKIP Leader Nigel Farage, Daily Mail columnist Dan Wooton and ex-Sky broadcaster Colin Brazier amongst others, it has spent huge sums to attract on-screen talent and a year on its Companies House accounts for the year to 31 May 2022 report a loss of £30.7m.
The accounts show that GB News Limited reported advertising revenues of £2.97m, digital revenues of £564,000 and sponsorship revenue of £105,664, however, the cost of sales stood at £25.4m and operating expenses at £8.9m.
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Yet the business has said that its directors are ‘satisfied’ with the results for the year and expect growth in the future.
Conservative politician Jacob Reese Mogg hosts a regular show on the channel called ‘State of the Nation’. / Image: GB News / Youtube
The reports follow warnings from bosses in February that the channel faced a tough financial environment, as they revealed it is now being financially supported by Brexiteer hedge fund tycoon Sir Paul Marshall and Dubai-based investment company Legatum.
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At the start of March, the broadcaster moved its website from gbnews.uk to gbnews.com, which a spokesperson said: “allows us to reach a much larger potential global audience”.
The broadcaster has paid substantial sums to attract politicians and other talents including Nigel Farage, Arlene Foster, and Conservative MPs Esther McVey and Philip Davies.
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According to PA Media, McVey was paid £58,650 by GB News in 2022 and Davies £46,203.
Press Gazette also found in December that GB News had spent more than any other publisher on payments to MPs, dishing out a total of £82,040 between October 2021 and September 2022.
Since then the company has hired two more sitting Conservative parliamentarians, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Lee Anderson, to host shows on the platform.
GB News said its average monthly reach according to BARB was 2.32 million in the 2021/22 financial year, an average linear audience share of 0.3%. A spokesperson said this figure had risen to 2.84 million by February this year.
Former Manchester City player Joey Barton found guilty of assaulting his wife
Danny Jones
Ex-footballer Joey Barton has officially been found guilty of assaulting his wife following his two-day trial in the capital this week.
Barton, who played for Manchester City, Newcastle United, Queens Park Rangers and a number of other clubs, was convicted at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, 25 March, following an incident back in June 2021.
The former midfielder left his wife, 37-year-old Georgia Barton (McNeil), with a bleeding nose and a bruise on her forehead following a drunken row at their home in London.
Barton is said to have grabbed and pushed her to the floor before kicking her in the head. Married in 2019, the two have four children and are thought to still be together.
The 42-year-old was still employed in professional football as the manager of Bristol Rovers at the time, but he was ultimately sacked in October 2023.
His wife called 999 at the time, telling police that he had hit her, but later retracted her statement.
Born in Huyton, Merseyside, the chief magistrate Paul Goldspring recognised that the one-time England has a history of violence.
He was given a 12-week suspended prison sentence, meaning he won’t serve time unless he commits another offence and has been ordered to pay £2,138.
Since dropping out of mainstream football, in particular, Barton has come under heavy criticism for allegations of racism, sexism and controversial right-wing politics; he even started an ‘anti-woke’ podcast called Common Sense with Joey Barton.
Back in June of last year, he was ordered to pay £35,000 in damages to settle a libel claim with presenter Jeremy Vine after a series of inflammatory comments made online.
The Radio 2 presenter sued Mr Barton earlier this year, after the former footballer wrote a series of posts suggesting Mr Vine had a sexual interest in children.
He also accused of threatening fellow former pro, Eni Aluko, after a torrent of abuse regarding her punditry online – the ex-England international even went so far as to say she no longer felt safe staying in the country.
Blackpool Pleasure Beach to close five iconic rides after £2.7m loss
Daisy Jackson
Blackpool Pleasure Beach has announced it’s closing five of its rides for the season, as well as reducing its opening hours, after reporting a pre-tax loss of £2.8m.
The beloved North West attraction has been pulling in families and thrill-seekers since it opened in 1896, famed for rides like the Big Dipper – a classic wooden rollercoaster – and The Big One.
Despite being such a popular tourist attraction, finances are biting for Blackpool Pleasure Beach, and it’s reported that five rides will close for the 2025 season.
The news comes almost exactly a year after it announced the heartbreaking closure of Grand Prix after 64 years.
The theme park has said that visitor numbers still haven’t fully recovered from the pandemic, leading to altered opening times to ‘maximise efficiency and cost’.
Five ‘less popular’ rides will be closed this year – Red Arrows Skyforce, Eddie Stobart Convoy, Alpine Rallye, Thompson Carousel, and Gallopers.
Blackpool Pleasure Beach said that 2025 is an ‘exciting but transformational’ year for the theme park.
In a statement, they said: “This year we’ve made the decision to close some of our smaller, less popular rides during the 2025 season: Eddie Stobart Convoy, Alpine Rallye, Thompson Carousel, Gallopers and Red Arrows Skyforce.
“The smaller rides were already being run on reduced opening times and our rider data showed that they have some of our lowest throughput, while Skyforce is 10 years old this year.
“After a great deal of thought, it was clear to us that the right decision is to make changes which will allow us to reinvest into a bigger and better future.”
Blackpool Pleasure Beach recently announced where some of that reinvestment is heading – and it’ll see an exciting new £8.72M ride opening.
The Gyro Swing will be the largest of its kind in the UK, leaving riders ‘completely weightless’ as they dangle from a spinning pendulum that swings 120 degrees and reaches 138 feet at its highest point.
Recent accounts show that Blackpool Pleasure Beach made a loss of £2.8m in the last financial year, compared to a £789k loss the year prior.
Georgina Pellant -
10th March 2023 
