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Piers Morgan, the outspoken British presenter, has bought out his eponymous YouTube-based media venture from News UK almost a year after the shelving of Rupert Murdoch’s TalkTV broadcasting business.
Wake Up Productions, Morgan’s production company, will acquire the ‘Piers Morgan Uncensored’ show, which broadcasts on YouTube, with plans to further grow and diversify the Uncensored brand in the fast-growing US market.
News UK will retain a commercial interest in the digital news business for the next four years, the British media group said in an announcement on Wednesday morning.
Morgan said that “owning the brand allows my team and I the freedom to focus exclusively on building Uncensored into a standalone business, editorially and commercially, and in time, widening it from just me and my content”.
He said that the recent US election showed that YouTube was “an increasingly powerful and influential media platform”.
Morgan’s biggest audience is already in the US, where rightwing pundits such as Tucker Carlson have carved out lucrative online audiences for their own platforms and away from the traditional broadcast channels that built their names.
Morgan has also agreed a deal with Red Seat Ventures, the media talent company that has produced shows for rightwing commentators such as Carlson and Megyn Kelly, to sell and grow sponsorship and other revenues for the Uncensored brand in the US.
Piers Morgan Uncensored has more than 3.6mn international YouTube subscribers and has featured interviews with Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Benjamin Netanyahu.
Morgan’s contract with News UK ended last year — with the media group also closing down its TalkTV linear broadcaster — leading to questions about his next steps.
He stopped broadcasting on TalkTV last February, moving his Uncensored show to News UK’s YouTube channels, and in effect sealing the end for Murdoch’s two-year linear TV venture. Morgan had hosted TalkTV’s most-watched show after striking a three-year deal in 2022 reportedly worth £50mn.
Scott Taunton, EVP and president of news broadcasting for News UK, said: “The changing media landscape means we have to be innovative about how we partner with superstar journalists and connect them to global audiences via our established brands.”
The closure of TalkTV marked a shift by News UK to digital and online channels for its media businesses, which include the Times and the Sun newspapers, such as showing news clips and interviews over the internet.
