TV Live Forum

I wonder how long Rupert Murdoch will allow for Piers to settle into his new show, and how low to ratings have to reach before they end Piers contract? Or has Murdoch and Co realised this would happen, and are happy with low ratings in the UK for the short term, as long as online presence and international audiences are good?

(05-05-2022, 08:16 PM)JK1985 Wrote: [ -> ]I wonder how long Rupert Murdoch will allow for Piers to settle into his new show, and how low to ratings have to reach before they end Piers contract? Or has Murdoch and Co realised this would happen, and are happy with low ratings in the UK for the short term, as long as online presence and international audiences are good?

Are the international audiences and online presence any good? It's not exactly setting social media alight except for people talking about the bad ratings. 

Problem is they've essentially built and promoted a channel  around one person and one show. If that show isn't performing then they've not got much choice but to make it work. News UK's parent company has deep pockets to throw everything they can at it. But there will be a limit eventually 


It's interesting to look back at what the situation was a year ago, when News UK abandoned their plans for TV because they didn't think it would be financially viable:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/a...tv-channel

Piers' deal with NewsUK involves him writing a weekly piece for The Sun, another one for the New York Post & he's in the process of doing another book which will be published via HarperCollins - so I think they've ensured they get enough value out of him even if the TV work doesn't quite go to plan.

Plus, of course, they'll have pooled an amount of budget for Uncensored from Fox Nation & Sky News Australia.

I don't think they'll give up very easily. Like noted above, they have deep enough pockets to see something through for a decent amount of time. It's not sink or swim

(05-05-2022, 08:45 PM)Ash101 Wrote: [ -> ]Piers' deal with NewsUK involves him writing a weekly piece for The Sun, another one for the New York Post & he's in the process of doing another book which will be published via HarperCollins - so I think they've ensured they get enough value out of him even if the TV work doesn't quite go to plan.

Plus, of course, they'll have pooled an amount of budget for Uncensored from Fox Nation & Sky News Australia.

I don't think they'll give up very easily. Like noted above, they have deep enough pockets to see something through for a decent amount of time. It's not sink or swim

I would bet that Piers will stick with News Corp but he'll be free to do projects for other broadcasters. He's meant to be doing more true crime docs but his production company could pitch those to say ITV or Channel 5.

I think we can safely discern a few things from Talk TV's launch.

1. You can't build an entire TV channel around a single programme. Even if it were the best show on television, it would only serve to highlight the relative lesser quality of the rest of the output.

2. As a format, NewsTalk, whether on radio or TV, is meant to be topical. The same actually applies to Sports Talk and Hot Talk as well. Talk TV have basically hamstrung themselves by tying themselves too closely to an "anti-woke" agenda, meaning they can't really adjust their output to appeal to a broader audience without annoying some of their current fanbase. GB News also proved that.

3. If you're using some kind of sustaining service, then a single locked off camera shot for hours at a time does not make for watchable television. You do need even a basic 2 or 3 camera setup to give you something to work with.

Oops!

Whatever it is, it's incredibly subtle.... or I'm just not very observant this time of the morning

(07-05-2022, 07:09 AM)Inspector Sands Wrote: [ -> ]Whatever it is, it's incredibly subtle.... or I'm just not very observant this time of the morning

Glad you said that… I stared at it for a good few minutes and thought it was just me.

Worth noting that the TV simulcasts of talkRADIO are (in some cases) presumably outperforming or equalling what The News Desk/The View gets. All low numbers of course, but the radio shows are doing it with vastly less budget and many, many, many fewer staff.

(07-05-2022, 11:59 AM)soupie Wrote: [ -> ]Worth noting that the TV simulcasts of talkRADIO are (in some cases) presumably outperforming or equalling what The News Desk/The View gets. All low numbers of course, but the radio shows are doing it with vastly less budget and many, many, many fewer staff.

I'd assume the staffing levels are similar to LBC. So that's a producer, someone to answer the calls and like GB News a "pilot" who runs everything else both audio and visually in the gallery.

I have stumbled across 'Mike & Kev's Saturday Night Talkaway', which is rather amusing as background noise if you're just surfing t'interweb.  

I rather like the graphics on the channel as a whole. Very slick.

https://twitter.com/MediaGuido/status/15...7493108738

No mention of The View, but Piers (58,800) was apparently beaten on audience for 15 minutes by Mark Steyn & matched share across the hour. Not a great look when you think of personal profile & the ad campaign for Piers.

If it wasn't for the fact that Morgan is sold overseas, I think they'd be more tweaks to that show to make it more UK friendly.

Having the likes of Tomi Lahren who is unknown outside the niche alt-right community in the UK and other Fox News/Nation contributors isn't going to bring in the numbers.

(10-05-2022, 01:07 PM)London Lite Wrote: [ -> ]If it wasn't for the fact that Morgan is sold overseas, I think they'd be more tweaks to that show to make it more UK friendly.

I watched some yesterday and there seemed to more UK centric content creeping in. With a discussions about Insulate Britain, Irish Nationalism, Mel B (who despite her US profile is probably going to be more for the UK audience) and a discussion on the future of the monarchy albeit with the input of Megan McCain. Piers will still use phrases like ‘UK lawmakers’, but I think that so Piers can keep up the pretence of having a meaningful audience overseas.

Talking of Mel B, she seemed to have appeared on a couple of episodes of ‘The Talk’ last week. Also on Friday the giant logo at the back of virtual set had been replaced by a logo on a screen on Friday but was back to the original set yesterday.