ANDREW Neil has suggested that GB News has become "Ukip TV" as most of the right-wing news channel's investors "love" Nigel Farage.
Neil walked away from GB News after presenting just eight shows on the channel and coming on as its chairman as the channel launched earlier this year.
Disputes over the direction Neil and other senior executives wanted to take the channel in ultimately led to the veteran broadcaster leaving which he has said he "couldn't be happier" about.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Neil, 72, spoke about his career in journalism and what he thinks about the direction of GB News as it moves towards big personalities and an ideological vision.
The former BBC presenter was the fledgling channel's most high-profile star when it endured a troubled launch in June but took a break just two weeks after launch and has now completely severed ties with it.
He told the FT that being offered the role of chairman at GB News was "really what clinched it" for him as he felt this would allow him to implement the vision he had for the channel. However, this was not meant to be.
READ MORE: Andrew Neil explains why he quit as GB News chairman
Neil said that broadcasting "lends itself to loud voices" and that the political views of more moderate hosts do not draw "drama and viewer satisfaction".
While happy to have left the channel, Neil said that GB News is not likely to collapse in the near future as the channel still draws viewers for Farage, whom he says most of the investors "love".
He said: “The investors, with the exception of Discovery [Inc, an American multinational mass media company], they all love Nigel Farage, they regard him as huge, a big, big character. They believe it will succeed and they’re ideologically driven.
"[The channel's] big challenge will be relevance, and just to stay on the radar.”
He said that while the opinions of hosts like Farage do draw an audience of "true believers", this approach "stops you reaching a wider audience because you’re just preaching to the believers".
He continued: "And I do think it gives you problems with advertisers . . . particularly in this sort of woke age when corporate executives are very keen not to be on the wrong end of Twitter or social media, I think, the more outlandish you are, the more difficult it is getting advertising.”
READ MORE: Continuing with GB News 'would have killed me', says Andrew Neil
Neil dubbed what GB News has become "Ukip TV" in the FT interview as he indicated he felt sorry for the staff that joined the channel as an operation led by him and now find themselves in a different environment and working hard to keep it going.
Neil had been in line to appear on Farage's show until January 2022 as part of an exit agreement but after the channel leaked "smears" about him to a newspaper, he vowed to "never again" work with GB News.
After weeks of talks with @GBNEWS, resulting in exit settlement, the channel then broke it by briefing Mail on Sunday with load of smears/lies then unilaterally cancelling exit deal. Leaving me free to do, say whatever I want + never again be on GBNews. Couldn’t be happier.
— Andrew Neil (@afneil) September 22, 2021
Last month Neil tweeted: "After weeks of talks with @GBNEWS, resulting in exit settlement, the channel then broke it by briefing Mail on Sunday with load of smears/lies then unilaterally cancelling exit deal.
"Leaving me free to do, say whatever I want + never again be on GBNews. Couldn't be happier."
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