Operating losses at GB News grew 38% to £42.4m in the year to May 2023, the business has reported.
Annual Companies House accounts for GB News Limited show 80% year-on-year growth in revenue to £6.7m, but also a 63% growth in cost of sales as the broadcaster has continued to expand. In May 2023 GB News had 295 staff versus 175 in May 2022.
The latest figures mean GB News investors have shouldered total losses of £76m since the channel launched in 2021. In the financial year to May 2021, as it was preparing to launch, its losses were £3m.
In the year to May 2022 GB News reported losses ten times greater than revenue (£31m versus £2.97m). In the last financial year losses were instead six times greater.
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Its directors wrote in the report that they are “satisfied with the results for the year and expect growth in the future performance of the Company”.
The biggest shareholders of GB News are hedge fund entrepreneur and schools campaigner Sir Paul Marshall and Legatum Ventures Ltd, a company connected to the pro-free market think tank and investment group Legatum.
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GB News says it wants to be 'UK's largest news channel by 2028'
GB News has repeatedly argued since launch that its digital reach, rather than its traditional BARB (TV) or RAJAR (radio) broadcast audience figures, is the real measure of its success. In line with this its directors wrote in the new accounts that in 2023 its "most significant growth has been in digital…
"Unique views and page views on the group's website and app have increased by more than five-times and four-times respectively compared to May last year, whilst reach on Facebook and Youtube has tripled with aggregate subscribers across all the major social media platforms increasing by over one million to nearly 2.5 million subscribers.
"This encouraging usage data is highly supportive of the Company's stated ambition of becoming the UK's largest news channel by 2028."
Digital revenue did grow sharply over the year, nearly quadrupling from £564,000 in the financial year ending in May 2022 to £2.17m in 2023. However, this revenue stream is still smaller than general advertising revenue, which grew 41% year-over-year to £4.2m.
GB News has been the subject of a partial advertiser boycott since it launched in August 2021. In September former Sky News editor John Ryley called for that boycott to end, saying it was "an insult to the British people" and that it “represents a threat to free speech".
In November GB News launched a paid membership scheme which gives members access to paywalled content. That revenue stream will not be visible in the broadcaster's accounts until next year.
On Monday Ofcom said it has "significant concerns" about GB News' editorial controls over live broadcasts, and required the channel to submit "further detailed information" about its Broadcasting Code compliance. It came as Ofcom rapped the channel for broadcasting "unambiguously misogynistic" comments by former presenter Laurence Fox and failing to then apologise for the remarks.
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