Rupert Murdoch, the media titan known for Fox News and News Corp, has hit a snag with TalkTV, his U.K.-based right-wing TV venture.
After just two years on air, TalkTV—who hired Piers Morgan as its flagship presenter—is pulling the plug on television broadcasting. It will shift focus solely to online operations, denting Murdoch’s ambitions to rival heavyweights BBC and Sky News.
Unfortunately, TalkTV failed to resonate with audiences in a media landscape dominated by social media and smartphones.
“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,” Scott Taunton, TalkTV’s president of broadcasting, said to his staff, according to multiple media outlets.
TalkTV’s parent, News UK, which also publishes The Times and The Sun and is wholly owned by Murdoch’s News Corp, was launched to be a “new voice” in British media.
Murdoch’s idea was to replicate the success of Fox News in the U.S. with opinion-driven reporting in the U.K.
But financial woes, competition, and the popularity of online formats eventually caught up with TalkTV’s lofty plans.
News UK’s revenues in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2023, were $933 million, down 7% from the previous financial year, according to News Corp’s filings.
It’s unclear where TalkTV’s finances stand. However, sources told the Financial Times that Lachlan Murdoch, who took over the media business from his father, Rupert, last year, preferred to invest in digital avenues rather than the loss-making media arm.
The closure of TalkTV’s broadcasting unit, set to take effect this summer, comes less than a month after its primetime talk show host Morgan announced his departure to pursue YouTube success.
He complained about mainstream TV imposing an “increasingly unnecessary straitjacket,” The Times reported in February. Morgan’s Uncensored was TalkTV’s best-rated broadcast show.
TalkTV has also failed to click with viewers like some of its rivals, such as GB News, which was launched in 2021 with a similar mission of contesting the London-centered British media.
GB News has hit its fair share of challenges as it reported a whopping 40% loss amounting to £42 million ($53.4 million) in the year to May 2023. However, it has seen its online audience thrive.
“There is no doubt over Talk’s future as an audio and video channel, it just won’t be distributed on linear,” Taunton said in the memo.
As TalkTV pivots to online platforms, too, it said it will use a variety of modes to reach its audience, including through streaming platforms like Amazon Fire.
TalkTV has roughly 814,000 subscribers on YouTube.
News UK didn’t immediately return Fortune’s request for comment.
