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Joseph said “You can see the argument that maybe it’s actually not good for a widely used platform to be moderating in order to create the best environment for corporations to advertise."
“We could see Twitter relying less on advertising altogether,” Evans says, suggesting the platform could move over to a subscription model. That being said, he doesn’t believe much will change on the product side.
Tom said “The signing of Piers is an admission that they needed a tent pole for the whole thing. He has 8 million followers on Twitter and he really is a good draw. If you study the ratings numbers he really narrowed the gap [on ITV] with the BBC in the ratings. They dropped about 20 per cent after he left and on YouTube views around 40 per cent.”
Piers Morgan provides the tentpole supporting TalkTV, a new channel devoted to personality-led news, current affairs and entertainment. Three hours of polished, primetime programming will build on TalkRADIO’s existing video output, drawing from across News UK’s stable of brands.
Increasing competition in opinionated news and discussion formats, as well as the harsh economic reality of producing TV news means TalkTV is unlikely to be profitable in the mid-term. There will be high up-front costs for a bigger share of voice in the UK media.
However, TalkTV will bring benefits to News UK’s wider portfolio, take advantage of the news genres’ relative resilience in a robust TV ad market and provide high-quality video content that is now an inevitable part of being a multimedia news organisation.
Tom believes GB News had been a good test as to whether there was an untapped partisan TV audience, but says such a trend "doesn't appear to have materialised".
"If News UK are hoping for a wellspring of disenchanted viewers who are eager for more opinionated TV news then they might be a bit disappointed."
"GB News' average daytime viewership is less than a quarter of what its stated goal was before launch."
Francois said “The strategy was consolidation and it didn’t work. The fish he wanted to swallow were just too big.”
Douglas said “There’s probably a recognition that The Sun’s future is highly visual." The TV station is “a route that could address a number of different questions. It’s partly about finding out if the tabloid experience has to be, in the end, more of a video than a text-based news experience.”
Douglas said “the journalistic talent that is already inside the building in News UK can be deployed in ever more ways."
Tom said the genre is a great way for traditional platforms to set themselves apart from the streamers, who are experiencing problems of their own.
“Even as audiences move away from broadcast TV, you can imagine current affairs will be one of the more resilient genres."
