10-02-2023, 06:28 PM
(10-02-2023, 05:32 PM)Globaltraffic24 Wrote: ...Very much the view I hear where I work. GBN threw money around to try and recover from its poor launch . Its workflows and staffing are very (new) traditional and its imported some bad ideas from old TV newsrooms, executing them without much in way of craft skills in production.
I’m not target audience and I don’t watch the channel much at all, but it would be nice to see another outlet shine and provide an alternative to the established channels. The reality is that it won’t happen under everyone’s favourite Australian boss. The moment it was announced Angelos was joining, I knew the whole operation was doomed. To put it bluntly - he’s a pound shop populist producer. His time at Sky News Australia was a disaster but he claimed it a success because he pulled the ratings from dashes to some semblance of an audience. His main failure is always a complete lack of strategy beyond shock and awe and a complete unwillingness to push the financiers further up the tree to spend some money. All the cash is spent on talent but nothing on set design, creative content and production teams.
Where next for GBNews? I think we all know the answer to this and that’s what’s prompting us to talk about it now. I hold firm on the belief that it will be off the air before the end of 2023. The shift in social strategy (which looks like much of the stories are being farmed out to PA and other agencies) and the news coverage about budget pressures suggests the money has finally dried up.
It's paralysed by the launch issues so reluctant to try significantly new things In case they "break" the channel. I've heard of some bizarre unnecessary routines in production that are treated almost as superstition. Just get someone in to retemplate the automation ffs. That's why what we see is generally very basic and similar. Despite hiring many competent freelance directors, its not their job to fix wider issues.
End result is the excess costs of production, expensive 3rd party supplier choices, very low revenue.
Most the industry spotted the CEOs email on staffing is a rip off of old BBC memos about duplication between shows etc; rather than a meaningful attempt to understand how his channels actually produced and what its audience actually want.
The big risk for them is to come: It may NOT be the only News/Talk channel in UK. TalkTV would probably be long gone, but it's a fact that other operators are looking at the UK.
Just because News UK failed with talk, and GBN is underperforming doesn't exclude others - News Group etc have a reputation they're incapable of successful new launches (too big, too corporate) GBN is viewed as a vanity project which made odd business choices (not rare, startups fail all the time) This isn't speculation, the media business I work with operates in this area; and (I've checked) I'm not spilling secrets - the Ad sales houses and big agencies (and others) have met with a number of parties so it is a known possibility. What hepelnd next is a mix of economy and politics that will determine if the UK is a viable market, French style.
That's enough GBNEWS for me