GB News viewer numbers slump after turbulent start
GB News has suffered a sharp drop in viewing figures since its launch amid a string of difficulties for the upstart news channel.
The station has pulled in just over 1m viewers in recent days, less than half the peak of 2.2m recorded on its first full day earlier this month.
GB News, which has positioned itself as a challenger news service targeting “marginal” voices across the UK, is hoping to draw viewers away from rivals such as Sky News and the BBC.
But while it has consistently beaten Sky News during Andrew Neil’s flagship 8pm show, its average audience is lagging behind its rival.
Sky’s daily audience has averaged between 2.5m and 3m in recent days, while the BBC news channel pulls in more than 4m.
The figures, compiled by BARB and seen by the Telegraph, will pile more pressure on the right-leaning channel after a turbulent launch.
The venture has been hit by an advertising boycott that has seen brands including Kopparberg, Nivea, Ikea and Grolsch pull ads from the network.
It has also been beset by technical difficulties and been the subject of hundreds of Ofcom complaints over its opinion-led coverage of the Covid pandemic.
Neil last week said he was taking a break from GB News for a “few weeks”, admitting it had got off to a “rocky start”.
Former Sky News presenter Colin Brazier will take over Neil’s primetime show until his return before the end of the summer.
GB News’ average audience was roughly 33,000 last week, down from 42,800 in its first week on air.
Figures for last week showed just 32,000 people tuned in for Great British Breakfast on Thursday and Neil’s show only attracted 31,000.
This lagged behind Welsh language shows on S4C such as Pobol y Cwm and was just a fifth of the audience for Patrol Pawennau, the Welsh language version of Paw Patrol.