Lessor TV Channels Leaning To Scary Opinion Slim News Coverage
Michael Hedges November 28, 2022 Follow on Twitter
Forever and a day television has been the brightest spot for broadcasters and advertisers. News and public affairs played a large part in TV channel branding. Coincident with coronavirus lockdowns TV - news channels in particular - became bright spots, equally, in households. More TV news channels popped up. Now they are popping away.
 News programs on Bild TV are being cut back. From the first of the year the Bild Live and Bild am Abend shows will be discontinued as “part of a program reform,” reported Süddeutsche Zeitung (November 25). Several talk shows will migrate to YouTube. The channel’s focus will be on “documentaries and reports” created for the WeltN24 video brand extension of magazine Die Welt, said a statement from owner Axel Springer. "But we will continue to be live with our sports shows on Sunday and breaking news in big news."
Major German publisher Axel Springer established Bild TV as a brand extension of top selling right-wing tabloid Bild focused on live reporting. The channel was granted a broadcasting license in June 2021, taking to the airwaves two months later and on to satellite distribution. Chief executive Mathias Döpfner had long pined for acquisition of a significant German television outlet but repeatedly rebuffed by competition regulators.
The coming shift by Axel Springer had been telegraphed earlier in the month by Der Spiegel (November 9), citing poor audience delivery and high costs. Some German media watchers, including media portal Meedia (November 25), noted surprise that Bild TV chief editor Claus Strunz survived for an encore at the home office. All 80 Bild TV full-time staff members will be looking for work.
Popping up about the same time (June 2021) in the UK was GB News, also bent to the right-wing. Founders Andrew Cole and Mark Schneider, associates of Liberty Global chairperson John Malone, lasted less than a year. Originally, it was fronted by well-known former BBC TV host Andrew Neil. He was gone by the end of that summer, unflatteringly comparing GB News to Fox News, quoted by The Times (November 17 2021). Warner Bros Discovery, major shareholder being the aforementioned Mr. Malone, relieved itself of its investment in GB News in August. GB News is principally owned by an investment fund domiciled in Dubai.
During this same period News UK, subsidiary of News Corp, principally owned by the Murdoch family, gave TalkTV to UK viewers, popping up in April. There was little pretence of it being a news channel. Virtually all its content was hosted by commentators and columnists from reliably right-wing The Times as well as figures from UK tabloid Sun and US tabloid New York Post. One exception is famous gameshow host Piers Morgan, also paid as a Sun contributor. In recent BARB TV audience research Mr. Morgan’s show barely registered, reported iNews (November 5).
Infamous US right-wing channel Fox News, not a lessor operation and principally owned by the Murdoch family, appears to have reduced crime news coverage since the US mid-term elections. Several US media watchers, including the New York Times (November 27), suggest coincidence with the shift in right-wing political talking points from crime to personal economics as the country moves toward the 2024 Presidential elections. Crime news “surged” on Fox News in the run-up to the US mid-term elections, reported the Washington Post (October 6). Barely a week after those elections crime news coverage had dropped by half.
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