GB News has become Britain’s most-watched news channel for the first time, overtaking both BBC News and Sky News across multiple time slots in July 2025, marking a seismic shift in the UK broadcasting landscape just four years after its launch.
The People’s Channel recorded an average of 80,610 viewers throughout July, ahead of BBC News Channel‘s 78,650 and Sky News’s 67,000, according to official BARB ratings released on Friday. The milestone represents the first time the BBC News Channel has been overtaken by GB News for an entire month.
Ben Briscoe, GB News’s Head of Programming, declared the achievement “a seismic moment, not just for us, but for British broadcasting,” adding: “We are ending the dominance of the BBC News Channel and Sky News.
The channel’s victory extended across several key viewing periods, including breakfast programming, weekday prime-time slots, and the prestigious Sunday morning political segment. GB News Breakfast averaged 98,910 viewers with a 3.57 per cent share, putting it 38 per cent ahead of Sky News and significantly outperforming BBC News Channel’s breakfast offering.
During prime-time weekday evenings between 6pm and 11pm, GB News attracted 102,690 average viewers compared to BBC News Channel’s 91,790, representing a 12 per cent lead. The channel’s dominance was particularly pronounced during Sunday mornings, where The Camilla Tominey Show secured 123,900 average viewers, 21 per cent ahead of the BBC.
The breakthrough comes as GB News prepares for significant international expansion, with plans to launch a new Washington DC bureau and broadcast two hours of nightly programming from the United States starting in September. The new show, titled “The Late Show Live,” will be hosted by presenter Bev Turner from a studio near the White House.
This expansion underscores our commitment to live news at a time when many rivals are scaling back,” Briscoe noted, highlighting the channel’s contrarian approach to industry trends.
GB News’s digital presence has also experienced remarkable growth, particularly in the American market. GBNews.com was named the fastest-growing news website in America by Similarweb’s Digital 100 rankings, with a staggering 420 per cent growth in its US audience over the past year, now attracting nearly 2.6 million monthly US users.
The channel’s success represents a dramatic turnaround from its troubled launch in June 2021, when technical difficulties and the high-profile departure of founding chairman Andrew Neil threatened to derail the venture. Since then, GB News has steadily built its audience by positioning itself as an alternative to mainstream broadcasters.
Mick Booker, GB news‘s Editorial Director, expressed confidence in the channel’s trajectory: “We’re now firmly on track to achieve our ambition of becoming the UK’s biggest news channel by 2028. GB News is winning because it is different, and because we place the community at the heart of everything we do.
The broadcaster’s rise has not been without controversy. It has faced multiple investigations from media regulator Ofcom over impartiality concerns, particularly regarding the use of serving politicians as presenters. However, in March 2025, Ofcom dropped its remaining investigations following a High Court decision that overturned the regulator’s previous rulings.
Industry observers note that GB News’s success reflects broader changes in British media consumption patterns. The channel has particularly strong performance in Red Wall regions, with viewership in the north-east up 17 per cent, the north-west up 14 per cent, and Yorkshire up 12 per cent in recent quarters.
The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025 recently ranked GB News as the fourth-largest news media outlet in the UK based on weekly reach across television, radio, and print, climbing from eighth place the previous year. The report positioned GB News ahead of established broadcasters including Channel 4 News and Channel 5 News.
GB News’s radio operation has also seen substantial growth, with audience figures increasing by 63 per cent over the past year. The station overtook Times Radio in official RAJAR ratings, with total weekly listening hours topping 3.315 million in the second quarter of 2024.
The channel’s presenters, including Nigel Farage, Eamonn Holmes, Michael Portillo, and Jacob Rees-Mogg, have become significant draws for viewers seeking opinion-led content alongside traditional news coverage. Farage celebrated the ratings victory on his programme, declaring: “We have been the number one news channel in the UK this week. It’s only taken us three years to get here.”
As GB News consolidates its position, questions remain about the long-term sustainability of its business model and whether it can maintain momentum against well-resourced competitors. The BBC and Sky News have yet to respond publicly to being overtaken in the ratings.
The Washington DC expansion, set to launch in September, will test whether GB News can successfully export its formula internationally whilst maintaining its appeal to British audiences who have driven its domestic success.
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1 comment
It’s about time we had a medal channel that followed The News,and told us what is going on in our own country. Without being censored by this useless government. WITHOUT BBC telling the government’s lies. We need to know the truth,not fairy stories told by starmer and his cabinet. So go GMB news.tell it how it is.
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