Piers Morgan set to join new Murdoch-backed TV channel
Piers Morgan will join News Corp and Fox News Media for the launch of its new channel early next year after signing a global deal, according to reports.
The new channel, touted as a “global TV show”, will air in the UK, the US and Australia on weeknights and cover a wide range of genres, from “proper hourly news bulletins” to sports, entertainment, debate, opinion and documentaries, according to the media business.
Alongside fronting talkTV, Morgan will write two weekly columns in the New York Post and The Sun for online audiences and present a true crime documentary series.
Publishing house HarperCollins, which is part of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, has signed world rights to a new book by Morgan.
News Corp shares have risen 3 per cent following the news.
News UK, which owns the Times and Sun newspapers, said its new channel talkTV will draw on a a mix of content and presenters from the company’s “stable of household brands” which include talkSPORT and Virgin Radio, as well conduct a recruitment drive for new talent.
talkTV will be streamed live and made available across News UK’s various websites and apps, social media and on linear TV.
Chief Executive Rebekah Brooks said News UK was committed to “providing choice for television and streaming viewers”.
“Taking advantage of modern technology,” she added, “we can produce high quality shows at low cost.”
“talkTV will provide a rich mix of entertaining and informative shows,” said News UK broadcasting CEO Scott Taunton, who has led the launch of the new channel.
The media behemoth set up new TV studios in its London Bridge headquarters.
The launch of talkTV comes less than six months after it was reported that News UK had scrapped its plans to launch a TV news channel, following a review which deemed the project “not commercially viable”.
“Whilst there is consumer demand for alternative news provision, the costs of running a rolling news channel are considerable, and it is our assessment that the payback for our shareholders wouldn’t be sufficient,” Rebekah Brooks wrote in a memo to staff, which was seen by the Spectator.