Loss-making GB News receives further funding
March 5, 2024
Operating losses at troubled right-leaning news channel GB News grew 38 per cent to £42.4 million (€49.6m) in the year to May 2023, the business has revealed in accounts filed to Annual Companies House.
The accounts for GB News Limited show 80 per cent year-on-year growth in revenue to £6.7 million, but also a 63 per cent growth in cost of sales as the broadcaster has continued to expand. In May 2023 GB News had 295 staff, an increase of 120 on May 2022.
In the year to May 2022 GB News reported losses over ten times greater than revenue (£31 million versus £2.97 million). In the most recent financial year losses were six times greater.
In response to the continued losses, GB News owner All Perspectives – the group backed by hedge fund tycoon Paul Marshall – has provided a further £41 million in funding to cover operating costs at the broadcaster, according to The FT.
Existing investors in GB News are also expected to inject further funds into the broadcaster this year to cover its losses, added the report. Other directors of All Perspectives include City executive Baroness Helena Morrissey and George Farmer, the son of ex-Conservative party treasurer Lord Farmer and a former chief executive of Parler (the conservative social media site) which has now closed.
GB News has consistently drawn the wrath of media regulator Ofcom for breaking broadcasting rules, the most recent example coming just this week.