Last night at 8pm, a familiar face returned to British television. Then dulcet tones of journalist and political interviewer Andrew Neil purred out across the country as he introduced his take on the week's events.

But something had changed. The red and white graphics of the BBC - Neil's home for 25 years - had been replaced by navy blue.

This was the first broadcast of GB News, a new channel that hopes to make its mark in the country's TV landscape.

Alongside Neil, it features an eclectic line-up. Many are experienced TV news journalists, including Simon McCoy, Colin Brazier, and Alistair Stewart. But there are also pundits from other spheres, such as archaeologist Neil Oliver and sports presenter Kristy Gallagher.

Neil wants GB News to appeal to people who "may be a bit unhappy with the existing channels." It will be populist. It will be opinionated, like a late-night conversation in a pub. And it will support the "provincialConcerning the regions of a country outside the capital, often used to mean narrow-minded or unsophisticated. voice" over London insiders.

The channel's existence has already raised eyebrows. The Guardian's Anushka Asthana says: "Some fear this is going to be Britain's answer ton Fox NewsAmerica's biggest cable news channel, with an average total prime time audience of 2.6 million viewers. It is generally believed to have a strong right-wing bias., feeding the so-called culture warsA cultural conflict between groups in a society. in search of an audience."

GB News's founders, however, hope it will be more like talk radio or a tabloid newspaper: an unpretentious, unstuffy place that represents the views of ordinary people. Unlike Fox, it does not define itself as right-wing. One presenter, Gloria de Piero, is a former Labour MP.

Regardless of its positioning, one thing is clear. GB News is a broadside against the pre-existing British news media, especially the BBC.

The BBC is like a colossus in British television news. A poll last April found 75% of respondents watch BBC One's news coverage. Another survey last May saw 62% of adults choose BBC as the news source they trust, over 8% for Sky News and 5% for ITV.

According to its charter, the BBC is required to be impartial. Voices from one side of an argument must be countered with opinions from the other. This gives the BBC's news a level of objectivityFreedom from bias, as opposed to subjectivity. that other news sources lack.

It also places it at the centre of the national debate. As writer Martin Fletcher says: "The BBC is a unifying force, a counter to the present-day tsunami of misinformation."

Not everyone agrees. The BBC has been accused of bias from all corners. Right-wingers claim it spreads an out-of-touch liberal agenda while hoovering up public money. GB News anchor Dan Wootton summarises: "The BBC is staffed... by Guardian-reading, quinoa munchingA common right-wing stereotype in Britain holds that left-wing people favour eating quinoa, a South American grain, over more traditional British foods. lefties who despise what you and me stand for."

But some on the other side allege that it fails to take major progressive politicians like Jeremy Corbyn seriously, all the while giving marginal right-wing politicians like Nigel Farage a big platform.

Yes, say some. The BBC's pioneering director-general Lord Reith conceived it as a high-minded educational endeavour. This might have worked in the 1930s when television was only watched by a wealthy handful who reflected these values. But today's wider, more varied viewers deserve other options that better represent their own perceptions of the word. GB News could provide just that.

No, say others. The BBC is one of Britain's great cultural assets, an institution respected across the world. It makes some mistakes, but in general, it provides an excellent service. Its impartiality is the antidote to overheated opinion, fake news, and misinformation. It can get much closer to the truth than more biased news sources. We should never take this for granted.