GB News is jointly owned by hedge fund manager Sir Paul Marshall and investment firm Legatum, under the umbrella of a holding company, All Perspectives Ltd, which is headquartered in London.

[5] On 25 September 2020, it was announced that Andrew Neil, who had presented live political programmes on the BBC for 25 years,[18] would leave the corporation after leading its coverage of the 2020 United States presidential election.

He said that he had been in discussions to continue working on the BBC in a new format after the cancellation of his programme The Andrew Neil Show, but that these talks had "not come to fruition" and he had accepted the post of chairman of a new television news channel.

In a statement, Neil said that the channel would "champion robust, balanced debate and a range of perspectives on the issues that affect everyone in the UK, not just those living in the London area", and GB News was addressing a perceived gap in the market for "the vast number of British people who feel underserved and unheard by their media".

[24] The first presenters and journalists announced in the recruitment drive were Dan Wootton,[25] Colin Brazier,[26] Darren McCaffrey, Tom Harwood,[26] Michelle Dewberry,[27] Inaya Folarin Iman,[28] and Alex Phillips.

[32] Later staff announced as joining the channel prior to its launch were Liam Halligan,[33] Andrew Doyle,[34] Rosie Wright,[35] Simon McCoy,[36] Kirsty Gallacher,[37] Alastair Stewart,[38] Neil Oliver,[39] Gloria De Piero,[40] Mercy Muroki,[41] and Isabel Webster.

[80] In January 2023, GB News announced that the Conservative MP for North East Somerset and former Brexit Opportunities Minister Jacob Rees-Mogg would join the channel as a presenter.

[88] In October 2023, it was announced that Conservative politician Boris Johnson, a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, would be joining GB News in a presenting role.

[92] In November 2023, it was revealed that ownership of shares in the channel had been handed out to a number of people including some of the network's presenters such as Nigel Farage, Arlene Foster, Eamonn Holmes, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Neil Oliver, Camilla Tominey and Dan Wootton.

[93] In 2023, former Channel 4 journalist Michael Crick – who regularly featured on Jacob Rees-Mogg's programme on GB News[94] – spoke to Neil Oliver on his show, discussing freedom of speech.

[104] Several serving Members of Parliament are currently employed as presenters on the channel, including some who recently held positions within the previous Johnson and Truss cabinets.

[113] In August 2023, GB News had a total identified monthly audience (including sharing and streaming) of 2,786,000, with a nearly 1 minute average daily viewing according to BARB.

[114] In October 2023, GB News was banned from the Welsh Senedd's internal TV system, with a spokesperson for the presiding officer claiming the channel was "deliberately offensive, demeaning to public debate and contrary to our parliament's values".

"[137] While acknowledging the channel to have an explicit right-wing political leaning, BBC media editor Amol Rajan also stated that "the validity of [the Fox News] comparison is limited".

"[148][150] Jemima Kelly wrote for the Financial Times, "GB News is so tedious, so lacking in nuance, so whiny and frankly so low-quality, it is actually making me more sympathetic to the cause of those they deem 'woke'.

[153] In June 2021, following the station's launch, several brands including Vodafone, IKEA, Kopparbergs Brewery, Grolsch, Nivea, Pinterest, Specsavers and Octopus Energy paused their advertising on the channel, expressing concerns over its content.

[154][155][156] The Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, criticised Stop Funding Hate and what he described as "a vocal Twitter minority" for calling for the advertising boycott.

The channel, known for its outspoken approach, chose to seek new revenue streams following substantial financial losses in its first year and ongoing controversies, including breaches of impartiality rules and run-ins with the broadcasting regulator Ofcom.

The article noted that GB News' four-week audience reach was slightly up in early January to 2.2 million, compared to a low point in November 2021.

Frangopoulos added that BARB figures showed the channel's fastest growing areas were in Red Wall regions across the north-east (+17% in Q4 so far), the north-west (+14%), and Yorkshire (+12%)'.

[193] PinkNews and The Argus reported that social media users criticised an "alternative" BBC Match of the Day programme, aired on the channel on 11 March 2023, as being homophobic because it mocked Brighton and its LGBTQ+ community.

[200] Zoe Williams, columnist on The Guardian newspaper, has suggested that commercial success is of little relevance to the channel, with backers of the parent company prepared to cover its losses—£42m for the year ending in May 2023—and effectively make large donations to politicians for presenting programmes aligned with their views.

[105] As of October 2023[update] Ofcom have found GB News to have breached their licence on six separate occasions, five of those being considered as "significant", although the regulator did not impose any sanctions such as fines or a request for an on-air clarification.

[209] On 6 March 2023, Ofcom announced that it had found the Mark Steyn programme, aired on 21 April 2022, in breach of broadcasting rules for a materially misleading interpretation of official data about COVID-19.

[84] In February 2023, Steyn revealed on his website that his GB News programme had been cancelled and that the channel had made an offer which he 'had to refuse' because it would have ended his 'right to free speech on air'.

[204] In July 2023 Ofcom launched an investigation regarding a potential breach of rules that prevent politicians from acting as newsreaders regarding a broadcast made by Conservative MP Rees-Mogg.

[223] On 27 September 2023 GB News suspended Laurence Fox and £600,000 pa, Dan Wootton[224] and launched an internal investigation into their "totally unacceptable" misogynistic comments about a female journalist that were broadcast on the channel the night before.

[226] Wootton's column with MailOnline had previously been paused regarding "a series of allegations", but DMG Media said "following events this week" (regarding the incident on GB News) that they had terminated his contract.

Ofcom's statement on the 4 March, expressed "significant concerns about GB News' editorial control of its live output" citing its "offence rules".

[224][231] Ofcom decided not to pursue a full impartiality investigation into a broadcast by Lee Anderson on 29 September where he interviewed fellow Conversative Suella Braverman, which had 1697 complaints.