| Talk | |
| Type: | News broadcasting |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Area: | United Kingdom |
| Headquarters: | London, England, UK |
| Language: | English |
| Picture Format: | HDTV 1080i |
| Owner: | News UK |
| Parent: | News UK Broadcasting Ltd |
| Closed Date: | (closed on linear TV, moved to streaming service) |
| Founder: | Rupert Murdoch |
Talk (previously known as TalkTV) is an opinion-orientated streaming service launched on 25 April 2022, owned and operated by News UK. The channel initially broadcast on Freeview, Freesat, Sky, Virgin Media and was available via the Internet on YouTube, later deciding in the face of poor viewer ratings to become available as an internet-only service from 1 May 2024.
The channel transmits video simulcasts of TalkRadio programming in off-peak hours, but launched with three original programmes, The News Desk, Piers Morgan Uncensored, and The Talk.[1]
Australian-born American media magnate Rupert Murdoch originally entered the British television news market in 1989 with the launch of Sky News.[2] In 1996, Murdoch entered the US and Australian television news markets with Fox News and Sky News Australia.[3] [4] In the 2010s, the Murdoch family began to sell a number of assets, including 21st Century Fox and Sky Plc, the companies that owned those news channels at the time.
In January 2018, the Competition and Markets Authority issued a preliminary report recommending that Sky News be insulated from the remainder of Murdoch's assets, or divested, in order to preserve its editorial independence.[5] Murdoch retained control of Fox News[6] and Sky News Australia,[7] but Sky News UK was sold to Comcast, leaving Murdoch without a television news presence in the United Kingdom.[8]
In December 2020, Ofcom granted a licence to News UK, to operate a new linear television channel under the name News UK TV.[9] [10] [11] By April 2021, it was thought that News UK TV would become a streaming-only service which would operate for a few hours a night.[12] [13] [14] Rebekah Brooks said to News UK staff that "it was not commercially viable to launch a traditional news channel on linear TV".[15]
David Rhodes, formerly of CBS News and Fox News, joined News UK with the aim of a launching their streaming video news service in 2020.[16] In an interview with the BBC Radio 4's The Media Show, Andrew Neil claimed that he was approached to join News UK's television output by Rhodes before he joined rival GB News.[17] In April 2021 it was announced that Rhodes was to leave News UK in June.[18] Scott Taunton replaced Rhodes as News UK's CEO of broadcasting.[19]
By September 2021, plans for a service called News UK TV had been scrapped and talkRadio instead launched a video feed on smart/internet-connected TVs, with Mike Graham, Trisha Goddard, Julia Hartley-Brewer, Jeremy Kyle and Robert Rinder featuring as presenters on the service.[20] [21] The preceding months had seen its right-wing rival, GB News, launch as a linear television channel.[22] The 'Talk' brand and family of radio stations had previously been acquired by News UK in September 2016 as part of their purchase of Wireless Group.[23]
Later in September 2021, it was revealed that the "Talk" brand would be used for a linear television station launching in 2022.[24] This change of approach reportedly claimed after Murdoch was bemused by the channels on offer during the pandemic.[25] It was also announced that Piers Morgan would host a show on the channel.[26] [27] TalkRadio's Twitter account was renamed to TalkTV to coincide with the launch of the television station.[28]
After gaining a comparatively large viewership on opening night, viewers declined over the following days.[29] [30] [31] Several serving and former MPs and MEPs are currently employed as presenters on the channel including some who recently held positions within the previous Johnson cabinet. Ofcom's rules state that MPs can be presenters, but cannot be utilised as newsreaders.
In October 2022, Jeremy Kyle joined the network with a self-titled show; this was cancelled a year later. Tom Newton Dunn left the network in August 2023.[32]
News UK Broadcasting, TalkTV's parent company, made a loss of £34 million in the first year after TalkTV launched.[33] In July 2022, Richard Wallace, former editor of the Daily Mirror, was hired as Head of TV.[34]
In February 2024, it was announced that Piers Morgan's show would leave TalkTV but continue on YouTube. Though the figures are calculated differently, Uncensored had television viewer figures in the tens of thousands in comparison to YouTube videos with hundreds of thousands or millions of views.[35] Morgan was among a number of conservative hosts to move television talk shows to online formats.[36]
In March 2024, it was announced that TalkTV's linear TV channel would close in summer 2024 and that operations would become online only. The closure of the linear television was brought forward to 1 May 2024 and the service rebranded to Talk with the change to being a streaming service.[37] Between 1 May and 7 May the broadcast channel was gradually removed from Virgin Media, Sky, Freesat and DVB-T Freeview.[38]
The channel broadcasts from studios in The News Building in Central London.[24] The linear channel was launched on Freesat, Freeview, Sky, and Virgin Media on 25 April 2022.[39] [40] [41] [24] It can be viewed live on Samsung TV Plus and a TalkTV app can be downloaded on Samsung smart televisions.[42] It is also available on-demand.[24] [43] In March 2023, TalkTV launched on Amazon Freevee.[44] In 2024 the channel decided in the face of poor viewer ratings to become available on the Internet only from [northern hemisphere] summer 2024.[37]
When announcing Piers Morgan's programme, it was stated that it would also be carried by two other Murdoch-owned outlets: Fox Nation (a streaming service in the U.S. run as a companion to Fox News) and Sky News Australia.
Some TalkTV programming was also simulcast on local television channels around the UK. TalkTV had formed a partnership with Local TV on 1 January 2023, to provide selected hours throughout the day with simulcasts of TalkTV.[45] Local TV's chairman, David Montgomery, is a former executive at Murdoch's News UK.[46]
On 18 October 2023, it was announced that Local TV channels would be aligned with the TalkTV branding (including name and logo), with the channels remaining wholly-owned by Local TV Limited. With Birmingham TV becoming TalkBirmingham, Bristol TV becoming TalkBristol, Cardiff TV becoming TalkCardif, Leeds TV becoming TalkLeeds, Liverpool TV becoming TalkLiverpool, North Wales TV becoming TalkNorthWales, Teesside TV becoming TalkTeesside and Tyne & Wear TV becoming TalkTyne&Wear.[47]
On 24 April 2024 the channels reverted to their previous branding a few days before the closure of TalkTV on broadcast television.[48]
Initial ratings were very low with some shows, especially those broadcast in the evening, recording few viewers. In July 2022, the channel had the lowest viewership compared to similar news and opinion-based news shows.[49]
By 2023 some shows, particularly Piers Morgan Uncensored, achieved higher ratings than competitors: an hour-long February interview with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had an average of 120,000 viewers, while BBC News had 70,000 viewers and Sky News and GB News had 20,000 viewers in the same hour.[50] Morgan's interviews with Donald Trump and Nadine Dorries exceeded 300,000 average viewers, while Dorries' interview with Boris Johnson had an average viewership of 50,000.[50]
By June 2023, TalkTV had a total identified monthly audience (including sharing and streaming) of 2,135,000, with 14 minutes average daily viewing according to BARB.[51]
In a 2023 poll by YouGov, 9% of respondents ranked TalkRadio/TalkTV as a trusted news-brand, with 14% ranking it as untrustworthy and 23% categorising it as neither.[52]
With the appointment of Conservative MP Nadine Dorries as a presenter, Dorries was deemed to have breached the Government’s anti-corruption rules by not advising ACOBA about her role with the channel.[53]
Mike Graham received criticism in 2022 after making a false claim that Mind, a UK mental health charity, had been funding the legal fees of individuals seeking asylum in the UK; TalkTV later issued a public apology.[54] In 2023 TalkTV issued an apology and paid "substantial damages" to the charity Migrants Organise following defamatory claims made on Mike Graham's show that the organisation were "human traffickers".[55] The charity explained that the comments aired by TalkTV had "exposed [the charity] to hate and threats of violence".[55]
the regulator, Ofcom, have not found TalkTV to be in any breaches of standards; however, they have clarified rules on politicians presenting programmes following the influx of politicians to both TalkTV and GB News.[56] The broadcast of Piers Morgan Uncensored on 7 September 2022 received more than 100 complaints to the regulator Ofcom.[57] A broadcast of Dorries' programme on 24 March received 52 complaints to Ofcom while discussing Commons Select Committee of Privileges investigation into Boris Johnson's involvement in the partygate scandal.[58] During the broadcast she claimed that Johnson was being tried by a kangaroo court.[59]
In July 2023, Ofcom launched an investigation into a broadcast on 2 April regarding impartiality and politicians.[60]
That same month, The Guardian reported that TalkTV "offered tens of thousands of pounds" in order to secure an interview with the parents who alleged that Huw Edwards had paid more than £35,000 to receive sexually explicit pictures from their child. The allegations had been printed by TalkTV's sister brand, The Sun newspaper. A source told The Guardian that the interview is part of a planned three-part documentary series.[61] [62] When the interview was announced Edwards was receiving hospital treatment for depression.[63] Edwards had previously been suspended by the BBC, but London's Metropolitan Police noted that they had "no information to indicate that a criminal offence has been committed".[64]
In April 2024, Ofcom settled an investigation over comments made by a presenter against a Palestinian political official, warning TalkTV that it needed to take better care to ensure offensive comments were not aired on their channel.[65] [66]