There's a lot you can do in three years. A university degree. It's two-thirds of a term in office. If a marriage gets past three years, that's normally an encouraging sign. And at three years, that is the point at which a child is walking out of nappies and discovering the world.
Well, this week sees the three-year birthday of one particularly noisy toddler, GB News. This milestone is a remarkable achievement given our bumpy start and the fact that we've got more knockers than Playboy Magazine.
The channel didn't so much go on air on June 13, 2021. We rather fell on air with dodgy sound, technical glitches and cameras, seemingly with a mind of their own.
But the decision to get on air as quickly as possible and steal a march on our rivals was a masterstroke. The truth is that you'll never be ready to launch a project on this scale.
Mark Dolan defends GB News as the channel marks its third anniversary
GB News
And rather than spend months developing a polished and frankly rather boring product, we decided to publish and be damned. To begin connecting with viewers at the earliest opportunity, and to paraphrase one senior colleague to build the plane as we fly it and we're still building, we're still flying.
And yes, sometimes we crash. But as much as the establishment would like to have strangled us at birth with a concerted campaign to cancel GB News before it even started, which speaks volumes about their motivations, we are in rude health.
We've had billions of digital views on our own GB News app and on platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, which are the future of broadcasting.
We've become one of the fastest growing radio stations in the country.
Our website is in the top 20 for news in the UK, and we now regularly catch Sky News and BBC News in the ratings, including this show where I'm often beating Sky News.
In fact, this program enjoyed a watershed moment just two weeks ago when we peaked at 122,000 people at this exact time. All thanks to you. But this is just the beginning.
Establishment media is dying a slow death, partly because people consume television programs in a different way, and partly because the public, in my humble opinion, are looking for a more honest, authentic TV offering.
After a perceived anti-Brexit bias in the run up to and the aftermath of the referendum vote and one note coverage during the pandemic, which uncritically supported the case for masking, lockdowns and vaccine tyranny.
There is a growing appetite for a channel which looks at things differently, which is balanced and which widens the national conversation to reflect what you, the British people think and what you're actually talking about at home, at work, and most importantly in the pub. And despised as we are among many in the broadcasting establishment, of course we are, they can smell their own decay, we are ultimately winning the argument.
Advertising revenue is up, membership is thriving, costs are coming down, and our detractors worst nightmare is on the way. A commercially viable business that will serve its growing army of viewers and listeners from across the political spectrum.
If you don't want to be told what to think, this is the place for you. If you want to see the free and fearless competition of ideas played out in a fair, good humoured and balanced way.
This is the place for you if you want TV and radio, which is live, honest, a bit messy at times, but truly authentic, with presenters falling out on air and camera angles sometimes wrong.
If you want TV and radio, which is real, presented by a diverse roster of TV talent who live in the real world, then this is the place for you.
If you feel that Britain has many problems and many challenges, but is a successful, diverse and dynamic country which you ultimately love and always will. This is the place for you.
If you think our history is long and complex but ultimately glorious. Having gifted the world parliamentary democracy, the modern markets, economy and an end to slavery. This is the place for you.
If you believe in plain old common sense that the country has to live within its means that there are two biological sexes, and if you support Martin Luther King's dream of a tolerant, colourblind society, not one where race is the only lens through which we see the world, this is the place for you.
You might have noticed there's an election coming, and this presents the channel with a huge opportunity to hold whoever wins power properly to account.
And how will we do that differently to the others? Well, with a bit of wit, with a bit of natural spontaneity, with balance, with an open mind and with no agenda.
Which is why we are attracting an audience from all backgrounds, all classes, all cultures, all political persuasions, all ages. That is why we are called the People's Channel.
The people will decide on July 4, but a growing number of Brits have already chosen us. Governments will come and go. But thanks to you, GB News is here to stay. Happy third anniversary. Here is the next 30.
