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UK News which is known as more impartial than opinionated, undertakes a new era of news. Britain’s broadcast is a trusted, impartial coverage of national and international news. Damon Kiesow once said, “Readers are not going to pay for content if they feel like they’re doing all the work in the relationship.” Would the UK new news strategy in opinionated media achieve its goals in hearing the unheard?

After Ofcom interpreting its rules, two new news channels are signed off to air later this year, promising to bring a new tradition to news in the UK. In January 2021, Boris Johnson appointed the Daily Mail Group Editor Paul Dacre as Chair of OFCOM, aiming to strike down the BBC’s impartiality and establish his conservative views. Back in 2007, Dacre has attacked the BBC by citing, “Thus it exercises a kind of cultural Marxism where it tries to undermine that conservative society by turning those values on their head.” Later on, Dacre describes the Guardian, Times, The Independent, and the BBC as “subsidariat”. The support Dacre gets from the right-wing demonstrates GB News political viewpoint and proves the opposite agenda they follow to other institutions like the BBC.

GB News launched in 2021; secures £60 millions of funding’s and promises a “boldly different 24-hour television and digital news service”, favouring the political right, adapting Fox News US-style and thriving through opinion. GB News’s funded by Dubai-based investment group Legatum launched in 2007, and Paul Marshall (UK Brexit Campaign Founder). The channel aims to reach 96% of British televisions through Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media, YouView and Freesat.

Andrew Neil, the previous BBC broadcast journalist, is now the chairman and host of GB News. Neil joined GB News outlining, “I believe the direction of news debate in Britain is increasingly woke and out of touch with the majority of its people.” Angelos Frangopoulos, the former boss of Sky News Australia, explains “that their focus will be less on news and more on encouraging debate.” Sky News journalist Colin Brazier adds, “It will be an important punctuation mark in the evolving story of news broadcasting in Britain, and I’m thrilled to be there at the start. “GB News will lend an ear to some of Britain’s marginalised and overlooked voices, an audience I have always cared about.”

However, Robert Murdoch, the News Corp owner, aims for News UK TV to be less political than GB News. The channel competes with GB News to be first on-air. News UK TV seeks to develop the same criteria of opinionated news following the success achieved by Fox News US and Sky News Australia.

The station will be an evening-only streaming service as a traditional channel rather than online, running for 5 hours focusing on three main programmes: early-evening politics show, a daily political debate programme, and an evening news bulletin. Unlike GB News, News UK TV has not yet announced any staff names; however, the audience is to expect big names like Lord Sugar and Piers Morgan, who have been suggested as possible signees.

Both news channels believe there is a gap in the market for the audience who dislike the BBC’s output and feel unheard by their media. The question remains… Will both stations push against the boundaries of OFCOM, and to what extend? And will both GB News and News UK TV serve the unheard audience or cause more conflict?

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