In the UK, Rupert Murdoch revolutionized the tabloids when he bought the Sun in 1969 and took it to the top of sales with funny and touting headlines, topless pin-ups and gritty gossip. The Australian mogul also started the pay-TV revolution in the same country, launching in 1989 what would become Sky, a satellite package made up of films and football. But, to revolutionize the continuous news channels, he had to cross the Atlantic. Fox News, a mix of far-right news and radical columnists, was not invented in the UK, even though the businessman had a news channel there, Sky News (which he belongs more). It has always remained relatively neutral, not following a very marked political line.
Is the situation about to change? GB News, supported by brexiters, is in the works. In addition to the American channel Discovery, at the initiative of the project, it is notably financed by Paul Marshall, the owner of a hedge fund who has participated a lot in the ideological reflection around Brexit, as well as by the investment fund Legatum, based in Dubai but linked to a liberal think tank in London. The president of the future channel is Andrew Neil, a former lieutenant of Rupert Murdoch, British star of the small screen, formidable interviewer, also pro-Brexit and conservative. According to the British media, GB News wants to recruit 120 journalists and has started the first hires.
“Appropriate impartiality”
But can this channel really be openly branded right on the Fox News model? The UK has strict TV neutrality laws. Ofcom, the media regulator, requires channels to respect “appropriate impartiality” (due impartiality ) and “the appropriate accuracy” of their information. It can impose fines, even if they are quite low, but above all it has the ability to exercise the “nuclear option”: withdraw the broadcasting license. A decision already applied, in 2012, to Press TV, an Iranian news channel.
Regulation, however, leaves some room for maneuver. Channel 4, for example, is clearly marked on the left in the UK. The other reason for the absence of a Fox News equivalent in the UK is that the market is already saturated with a conservative press. The Sun, The Daily Mail, The Daily Express (three tabloids), The Daily Telegraph and The Times are all identified on the right and represent three quarters of the prints.
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