GB News has claimed a major ratings victory as it became the UK’s most-watched “news” channel in key slots in July, overtaking both BBC News Channel and Sky News in a month that saw sparsely attended far-right parades in cities across the country, including this weekend’s day out in Manchester.
However, the Press Gazette reports that the total weekly reach for the BBC News Channel through July remained more than twice the size of GB News, while Sky News was almost double.
This means GB News appears to be engaging fewer people in total each month but the high average viewership means their audience stay watching for longer.
The full BARB figures for July have not yet been confirmed, and are therefore broadcast only, excluding on-demand platforms – meaning the BBC’s figures are likely to increase once iPlayer data is added in.
Sky News was the lead broadcaster for Youtube views, Press Gazette reports. Youtube is now the second-biggest service for in-home video viewing behind the BBC.
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GB News set out its aim to become “the number one news channel” in the UK by 2028 two years ago and recently announced plans to expand to the USA.
It said on Friday that it had “triumphed” in key ratings slots in July: breakfast, mornings, weekday evenings and the Sunday morning political shows.
Across the full day, from 6am to 2am, GB News had average views of 80,610 in July, according to BARB figures shared by the broadcaster. It said the BBC News Channel was on 78,650 while Sky News was on 67,000 on average.
In the breakfast slot, GB News presenters including Eamonn Holmes, Stephen Dixon, Ellie Costello and Anne Diamond had average viewing of 98,910 between 6am and 9.30am on Mondays to Sundays in July.
GB News said Sky News was on 71,560 in that time slot while BBC News Channel was at 41,250 – but it should be noted that the vast majority of BBC viewing is at Breakfast on BBC One.
Between 6pm and 11pm on weekdays, GB News said it had average views of 102,690 followed by BBC News Channel on 91,790 and Sky News on 75,500.
And for The Camilla Tominey Show between 9.30am and 11am on Sunday mornings, GB News said it had 123,900 average views, beating BBC News on 102,780 and Sky News on 78,980.
GB News previously claimed its average live TV viewership overtook Sky News for the first time in November.
Head of programming Ben Briscoe said of the July data: “This is a seismic moment, not just for us, but for British broadcasting. We are ending the dominance of the BBC News Channel and Sky News.
“And there’s more to come,” he added, pointing to the upcoming launch of a show from Washington DC in September which will take GB News “to an even wider audience”.
GB News editorial director Mick Booker said:“We’re now firmly on track to achieve our ambition of becoming the UK’s biggest news channel by 2028.
“GB News is winning because it is different, and because we place the community at the heart of everything we do. We focus on the stories that matter most to our audience and, as a result, our bold, fearless journalism is reaching more people than ever.”
The channel’s commercial arm is based in Manchester, should you be looking to expand your campaign messaging with its demographic.
