Rupert Murdoch’s “TalkTV” debuts in the United Kingdom on Monday, aiming to stand out in a crowded news market by using his star interviewer’s familiarity with trash-talking former US President Donald Trump.
The network will premiere at 7:00 p.m. (1800 GMT) and will feature outspoken journalist Piers Morgan interviewing Trump for the show “Uncensored” after an hour of news and conversation.
After being questioned about his assertions that the 2020 US election was “taken” from him, the former US president appeared to storm out in a promotional video.
Morgan attempted to “unlawfully and falsely edit his long and tiresome interview with me,” Trump alleged in a statement. However, the journalist stated that “it will all be there” when the show is televised.
Morgan stormed off an ITV set in Britain after being confronted on-air by a colleague over his frequent attacks on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, which may not have affected ratings.
According to passages published by Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun newspaper, Trump agreed with Morgan’s suggestion that Harry was under Meghan’s control and predicted that the pair would eventually divorce.
TalkTV will be shown on normal television in the United Kingdom, as well as on streaming platforms including YouTube.
Morgan’s show will also air on FoxNation in the United States and Sky News in Australia, both of which are owned by Rupert Murdoch.
TalkTV will use a stable of journalists from Murdoch’s News UK operation, including The Times and The Sun, and will show video broadcasts of the group’s existing TalkRadio.
The company launched another radio station, Times Radio, in June 2020 as an alternative to the BBC’s news and current affairs station Radio 4.
The latest industry listening figures showed Times Radio’s audience fell by 21 percent over the last two quarters of 2021.
TalkTV itself will be up against another newcomer, the right-wing GB News, whose audience has steadied at a low base after a shaky start in June 2021.
– ‘Bash the BBC’ –
Murdoch and his editors have the advantage of the closeness to Britain’s Conservative government, which has been taking increasingly sharp aim at the BBC and at the commercial TV station Channel 4.
The Australian-born media mogul has long chafed at Britain’s broadcasting laws, which prevent the kind of pro-Trump, right-wing demagoguery seen on his Fox News channel in the United States.
But Morgan and parts of Murdoch’s media empire such as The Sun have found a rich vein of material in siding with Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s “anti-woke” cultural agenda.
Morgan said last year that Murdoch was “a constant and fearless champion of free speech”, and he wanted his show to be “a fearless forum for lively debate and agenda-setting interviews”.
Murdoch’s real aim with TalkTV is to “bash the BBC”, according to Jean Seaton, a media professor at the University of Westminster and official historian of the state-funded broadcaster.
“The BBC and public-service broadcasters stand in the way of News International’s strategic business interest,” she told AFP, adding that the UK government was sympathetic to Murdoch’s challenge.
“It’s about throwing British institutions under the wheels of a political imperative with no alternative vision.”
