reasonable discussion across any issue and something that veers into polemic or pure opinion without the necessary facts attached. i mean, the suggestion that there s some sort of agenda is absolutely wrong. so, that is fact. now, let s talk about where you ve got to because, as you rightly say, the launch is a while back now, 12 months. from the start, you were always clear that tv ratings were not the only metric of success. you were very open about your digital ambitions. two things i d like to understand there. one was your definition of success in the digital arena. and then how do you make money off it? those are good questions! so the fundamentals of gb news as a business is that it is a digital business at its core that has a tv station and a radio station attached to it, so it s kind of the opposite to the traditional establishment media landscape. from a digital sense, we have products that. we tell stories in different ways to suit
and a year on, well, it s still very much on air. just through the window here, there are many people journalists, producers working on the output as it goes on. and we re going to consider what s definitely been a tumultuous 12 months. i m joined by angelos frangopoulos, the ceo of gb news. thanks for being with us. thank you very much for having me, ros, and welcome to gb news. you re still going? we are going strong. in fact, it s been a tumultuous start, but i have to say it s been an exhilarating journey for the entire team and it has been something that really has been very typical of a start up, i think, particularly in the early days. tumultuous. there were probably other words being used as well. were there moments in that first week, that first month, where you thought, maybe this isn t going to hang together ? not at all, not at all. very typical of a start up that some things go right, some things go wrong, some people come through, some people don t. and the reality
that s what you were doing, wasn t it, placing opinion and often controversial opinion at the heart of the schedule? but opinion is not really about being controversial. it s about debating subjects and topics, and not all the opinion that was done on sky news australia was controversial. in fact, one of the first things we invested in was opinion around politics and proper coverage for the first time of australian politics on television. and that meant things like rolling news conferences, having panel debates, shows. and in fact, the first panel debate show on sky news australia was hosted by the former prime minister of australia, tony abbott, and the current prime minister of australia, anthony albanese. so, really, it s notjust about exploring issues for the sake of being controversial, it s about actually having a proper conversation. so you were looking for a point of difference for sky news australia. you re definitely looking for a point of difference for gb news, up again
it s not it is not it is, ultimately, we re a journalism business, but we have to be able to talk about issues in a very free and open way, and we do that. again, there are facts involved. the facts are checked, and they do go through a process. and if we get something wrong, we say we ve got it wrong just like any good journalism business. well, let s take a couple of examples on that. 0n the 30th of may on michelle dewberry s programme, you had a guest talking about climate change who said that sea levels weren t really rising sea levels are rising, the facts are are out there and yet, you didn t have a scientist on with that guest to correct it. or we could take mark steyn, another of your presenters. he s in the evening. michelle dewberry s a little bit earlier on. full fact, the fact checking operation, found that he was wrong to state that a covid booster increases your chances of hospitalisation and death. is it a concern to you that these kind of statements which aren
within weeks, andrew neil would be on holiday, never to return. within months, nigel farage would have his own prime time show. and a year on, well, it s still very much on air. just through the window here, there are many people journalists, producers working on the output as it goes on. and we re going to consider what s definitely been a tumultuous 12 months. i m joined by angelos frangopoulos, the ceo of gb news. thanks for being with us. thank you very much for having me, ros, and welcome to gb news. you re still going? we are going strong. in fact, it s been a tumultuous start, but i have to say it s been an exhilarating journey for the entire team and it has been something that really has been very typical of a start up, i think, particularly in the early days. tumultuous. there were probably other words being used as well. were there moments in that first week, that first month, where you thought, maybe this isn t going to hang together ? not at all, not at all. very typ