TalkTV is being shut down as a terrestrial TV channel.
The shocking move by News UK comes just weeks after its main presenter Piers Morgan left the channel, which will now be moved online. The former GMB host has now moved his Uncensored talk show to YouTube.
TalkTV boss Scott Taunton has told employees that they’re going to focus on streaming shows online. He said: “Two years ago, we would not have been brave enough to launch a channel without a linear presence, but audiences of all ages have moved fast and smartphones are now the primary device where news is consumed. We need to adapt to this as a priority.”
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He continued: “We are therefore intending that Talk comes off linear television from early summer and our focus will be on streaming. Talk will continue broadcasting as a livestreaming news and opinion channel, distributing through streaming platforms to include YouTube, Amazon Fire, Samsung, LG and others,” according to The Guardian.
(Image: Talk TV)
“A large proportion of our live viewing is already through streaming on televisions and we intend to continue to grow this. Clips will continue to be shared through social media. There is no doubt over Talk’s future as an audio and video channel, it just won’t be distributed on linear. Radio on DAB continues unchanged too,” the briefing added (via the Mirror).
Piers Morgan decided to leave TalkTV’s terrestrial home after being the face of the channel since it launched two years ago. He said last month that having a TV show at the same time every day is like “an increasingly unnecessary straightjacket” when he told his fans about the change.
(Image: Piers Morgan Uncensored/TalkTV)
“There’s something quite anachronistic about a show like mine still trying to create old fashioned TV for a pre-scheduled time slot each night for a relatively small audience – when we’re getting such gigantic audiences digitally,” Piers shared with Semafor website.
He explained that his chat with Rishi Sunak was watched by “viewed by more than 50,000 people on TalkTV but by more than five times as many on YouTube.”
Later, he told The Times: “I could happily interview Elon Musk for three or four hours tomorrow and the audience would lap it up. But the nightly restriction of having to go into a studio at 8pm when sometimes there is nothing happening and literally fill time? Nobody wants that.”
Piers said he looks up to The Daily Wire, which Ben Shapiro runs, as a good example of online news. Uncensored’s YouTube channel currently boasts 2.35 million subscribers.
Morgan’s talk with Bassem Youssef about Israel and Hamas has amassed 22 million views. And his chats with famous people like Andrew Tate, Kanye West, and Cristiano Ronaldo got 14 million, 8.7 million, and 5.7 million views each.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
