Piers Morgan, the outspoken presenter, delivered a blow to Rupert Murdoch’s British TV news channel with the damning assessment this week that his daily show had become an “unnecessary straitjacket”.
From next week, Morgan will no longer do his nightly show on the media mogul’s TalkTV channel at all, and will instead post Uncensored on YouTube channels owned by News UK, a subsidiary of the Murdoch family’s News Corp.
Morgan has hosted TalkTV’s most-watched show since the channel launched two years ago, striking a three-year deal reportedly worth £50mn. But even his power to attract celebrities and politicians only managed to achieve average viewer numbers of just over 50,000 last year for the channel.
The decision raises new questions about the future of TalkTV, with rival executives and analysts asking how much longer the channel can carry on without one of its biggest draws.
Media analysts have also viewed the move in the context of 92-year-old Murdoch’s decision last year to step away from frontline management of the group.
TalkTV was widely seen as Murdoch’s attempt to create an influential news channel to compete with the BBC and Sky. It was his first foray into the sector since the 2018 sale of Sky, which he set up in 1989.
“TalkTV should be an embarrassment as it makes roughly the same losses as Sky News but without the same exceptional reach, awards or impact,” said Claire Enders, media analyst.
Morgan’s show still generally has the smallest audience in its time slot of the four other main news channels in the UK — which also comprise Sky News, BBC News and GB News — according to Douglas McCabe at Enders Analysis.
“The problem from a business perspective is Piers’s show has had no ‘halo effect’ on the channel. For the rest of the schedule, on average Talk TV is a long way behind the other news channels.”
News UK insiders say that the decision to move Uncensored — which was jointly agreed by News UK boss Rebekah Brooks with Morgan — should be seen as part of the wider strategy to drive its digital and online activities.
This means a future of showing clips and interviews to a global audience over the internet, rather than — in the words of one executive — a show “constrained to a UK domestic audience”. Uncensored already has 2.3mn subscribers on YouTube, and Morgan’s biggest audience is now in the US, which makes up about a quarter of his views online.
Lachlan Murdoch, who took over last year running the business from his father, is also much more interested in streaming as the future for the company, according to company insiders. “The strategic play is to create a global digital audience with growing digital advertising behind it,” said one executive.
The interview of Vladimir Putin on Thursday by former Fox star broadcaster Tucker Carlson shows the sort of reach of news providers untethered from broadcast channels, according to those familiar with the company’s plan.
Morgan said in a statement that the “vast majority of our audience is on our YouTube channel which has seen explosive growth in the past year with 2.3mn subscribers and many millions of views for our big interviews and debates”.
He said this had generated increasingly strong revenue, “making the business case for this digital-first pivot not just compelling but imperative”.
Morgan’s interview with the UK prime minister this week — after which Rishi Sunak was attacked by opposition MPs for accepting Morgan’s £1,000 bet over the government’s Rwanda policy — was posted at 2pm on Monday, and had over 400,000 views.
Scott Taunton, News UK’s president of broadcasting, described it as “freeing” Morgan “from a scheduled show so he can create the right content to grow his already huge global online audience”.
He added that advertising revenues had moved online with the audience, and made clear that was where the future strategy for News UK lay.
“Creating professional, quality, TV-like video that does well digitally — via streaming services and social media — will be the focus of future investment for all our brands, including Talk.”
Where this leaves the linear TV channel is now open to question. Enders said it was unlikely to be shut in the run-up to a general election in the UK, which should be a ratings driver. “The question is how long can it last as the company makes the transition from one format to the next,” she said.
Company insiders say TalkTV is seen to have value in providing content to other parts of the online operations. Morgan will continue to contribute to the channel, even if his show will no longer be broadcast at a regular time, and he will use its studios.
Rupert Murdoch is also still very much an influential presence in the company, according to insiders, and was seen walking the office before Christmas in London.
The channel was set up to create “water-cooler moments” for the UK but is struggling to cut through in a British election year. The TV channel has featured presenters including former Conservative cabinet ministers such as Nadine Dorries.
But TalkTV’s centre-right position has been usurped in part by GB News, the Paul Marshall-backed channel, which is regularly drawing in more viewers with its blend of controversial commentators and shows fronted by Tory politicians.
Murdoch has “held discussions” over a potential deal in the past combining the two channels, according to two people familiar with the matter. There are no live discussions at present, they added.
Any deal between the two may also be wrapped up in the future of the Telegraph Media Group, according to Enders: Marshall is keen on the newspaper and Murdoch is eyeing its sister magazine, the Spectator, should a takeover of the newspaper group by RedBird IMI be blocked by ministers.
All of which bolsters analysts’ assessment that the biggest threat to TalkTV is not just the departure of its star but what that move says about the channel’s importance and reach in the national dialogue.
