James Heale
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Might British television be ready for the shake-up that Fox News once gave America? Of the 50 most-watched television shows here, every single one is from the BBC, ITV or Channel 4. Surely there is room for more competition? Rebekah Brooks, who runs Rupert Murdoch’s News UK, has long been sceptical about the costs involved. She told staff in an email last year that ‘while there is consumer demand for alternative news provision, the costs of running a rolling news channel are considerable and it is our assessment that the payback for our shareholders wouldn’t be sufficient’.
Murdoch persuaded her to think again. He launched Times Radio two years ago and has a weekly reach of about 700,000. ‘We’re happy,’ insists one of the Times Radio founders. ‘It’s a tool to market the Times; radio is cheap and it’s worth the money.’ It’s perhaps more of a tool to retain readers: about two-thirds of Times Radio listeners already subscribe to the newspaper.
TalkTV was finally launched by News UK to much fanfare last month, bolting a trio of new shows on to the existing Talk-Radio station . Morgan, Sharon Osbourne and the former Sun political editor Tom Newton Dunn are the stars around which it is based. The early consensus of the pundits is that it is not a success: as initial interest has faded, there’s been a corresponding drop-off in linear TV ratings. While executives publicly point to better worldwide online figures, privately some fear for the network’s future.
This is perhaps hardly surprising considering its inauspicious start. Despite News UK’s riches and a flawless technical launch, insiders hint at a dysfunctional set-up characterised by endless meetings, canned shows and uncertainty about what TalkTV is for. Murdoch is said to be relaxed, seeing the channel as a long-term project.
A key point of internal contention concerns TalkTV’s own identity. Is it catering to the tastes of Sun or Times readers? Both papers run near-daily adverts promoting the same channel. Most of TalkTV’s advertising has been built around Morgan, who is rumoured to be on a £50 million three-year deal. Of 65 TalkTV adverts which ran in the Murdoch press over five weeks, 59 were for Morgan. ‘People are going to tune in and be really surprised, not just by our balance and our total lack of right-wingery,’ says Newton Dunn.
The big gamble of both GB News and TalkTV is on there being a future for a traditional TV station, rather than a YouTube channel or other online platform. The trends for younger age groups watching broadcast TV don’t present many reasons to be optimistic. Ten years ago, people aged 16 to 24 spent almost three hours a day watching traditional TV. Now it’s barely an hour.
Crucially, both channels have made the decision to focus on opinion and debate, rather than news and analysis. This approach is cheaper, but it also feels more combative: more American. Could television in Britain be about to change? Already the culture secretary Nadine Dorries has decided to privatise Channel 4, with the BBC licence fee likely to be abolished in 2027 – if the Tories are still in power. A whole world of possibilities might yet be opened up.
Because you read about broadcasting
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