Sky News political editor Beth Rigby has said that she welcomes the entrance of GB News and TalkTV into the market.
GB News became the first new news channel to launch in the UK in around two decades when it went live in June 2021, with TalkTV - an adapted version of talkRADIO - following suit in April last year.
The launches have provided added competition for Sky News, which has been on the air since 1989, but Rigby insists that the new stations are helping her channel to raise its game.
"The first thing I'd say, and I think [Sky News head John Ryley] would say this as well – competition is good," she told the Radio Times. "It's always good to be kept on your toes. It keeps you hungry. It makes you restless. It makes you a bit insecure.
"There's nothing wrong with any of that. You never want to be comfortable. The thing is, we're doing different things. GB News is primetime programming, its primetime stuff is opinion-led news, right? Sky News, we do something different.
"It's about being a quality journalist channel, where we're giving the news without opinion, that the view is trusted and our trust ratings are really strong at Sky News, according to Ofcom figures."
She added: "I think GB News has been a good thing and I think TalkTV has been a good thing. It's good to have innovation."
Rigby hosts her own show, Beth Rigby Interviews..., Thursday nights at 9pm on Sky News.
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