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Talk (previously talkRADIO and TalkTV) is a right-leaning talk radio and free ad-supported streaming television channel in the United Kingdom. Based in London and owned by News Broadcasting, a subsidiary of News Corp., it is the sister station of national stations Talksport (originally known as Talk Radio UK), Talksport, Virgin Radio UK and Times Radio.
As of December 2023, the station has a weekly audience of 725,000 listeners according to RAJAR. Talk employs a number of presenters described as Shock jock.
In January 2018, Talkradio underwent a revamp to its weekday and weekend schedule in a bid to boost ratings and make the station more news-focused. On 9 June 2020, Talkradio moved from DAB to DAB+, and the DAB signal ceased transmission on 26 June.
In a 2023 poll by YouGov, 9% of respondents ranked TalkRadio/TalkTV as a trusted news-brand.
In January 2018, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority issued a preliminary report recommending that the Sky News TV channel be insulated from the remainder of Murdoch's assets, or divested, in order to preserve its editorial independence as a condition of 21st Century Fox's proposed acquisition of Sky. Murdoch retained control of Fox News and Sky News Australia, but the Murdoch-owned share in Sky plc – the parent company of Sky News UK – was sold to Comcast after it won a bidding war giving it majority ownership of Sky, leaving Murdoch without a television news presence in the United Kingdom.
David Rhodes, formerly of CBS News and Fox News, joined News UK with the aim of a launching their streaming video news service in 2020. In an interview with the BBC Radio 4's The Media Show, Andrew Neil claimed that he was approached to join News UK's television output by Rhodes before he joined rival GB News. In April 2021 it was announced that Rhodes was to leave News UK in June. Scott Taunton replaced Rhodes as News UK's CEO of broadcasting.
Later in September 2021, it was revealed that the "Talk" brand would be used for a linear television station launching in 2022. This change of approach reportedly came after Murdoch was bemused by the channels on offer during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was also announced that Piers Morgan would host a show on the channel. Talkradio's Twitter account was renamed to TalkTV to coincide with the launch of the television station.
After gaining a comparatively large viewership on opening night, viewers declined over the following days. In 2023, several serving and former MPs and MEPs were employed as presenters on the channel including some who recently held positions within the previous Johnson cabinet. Ofcom's rules state that MPs can be presenters, but cannot be utilised as newsreaders.
News UK Broadcasting, TalkTV's parent company, made a loss of £34 million in the first year after TalkTV launched. In July 2022, Richard Wallace, former editor of the Daily Mirror, was hired as Head of TV.
In March 2024, it was announced that TalkTV's linear TV channel would close in summer 2024 and that operations would become online-only. The closure was brought forward to 1 May 2024 and the streaming service rebranded to Talk. Between 1 May and 7 May the broadcast channel was gradually removed from Virgin Media, Sky, Freesat and DVB-T Freeview.
On 18 October 2023, it was announced that Local TV channels would be aligned with the TalkTV branding (including name and logo), with the channels remaining wholly owned by Local TV Limited. Thus Birmingham TV became TalkBirmingham, Bristol TV became TalkBristol, Cardiff TV became TalkCardif, Leeds TV became TalkLeeds, Liverpool TV became TalkLiverpool, North Wales TV became TalkNorthWales, Teesside TV became TalkTeesside and Tyne & Wear TV became TalkTyne&Wear.
On 24 April 2024, the channels reverted to their previous branding a few days before the closure of TalkTV on broadcast television.
By 2023 some shows, particularly Piers Morgan Uncensored, achieved higher ratings than competitors: an hour-long February interview with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had an average of 120,000 viewers, while BBC News had 70,000 viewers and Sky News and GB News had 20,000 viewers in the same hour. Morgan's interviews with Donald Trump and Nadine Dorries exceeded 300,000 average viewers, while Dorries' interview with Boris Johnson had an average viewership of 50,000.
By June 2023, TalkTV had a total identified monthly audience (including sharing and streaming) of 2,135,000, with 14 minutes average daily viewing according to BARB.
Mike Graham received criticism in 2022 after making a false claim that Mind, a UK mental health charity, had been funding the legal fees of individuals seeking asylum in the UK; TalkTV later issued a public apology. In June 2023 TalkTV issued an apology and paid "substantial damages" to the charity Migrants Organise following defamatory claims made on Graham's show that the organisation were "human traffickers". The charity explained that the comments aired by TalkTV had "exposed the to hate and threats of violence".
the regulator, [[Ofcom]], have not found TalkTV to be in any breaches of standards; however, they have clarified rules on politicians presenting programmes following the influx of politicians to both TalkTV and GB News. The broadcast of ''Piers Morgan Uncensored'' on 7 September 2022 caused more than 100 complaints to Ofcom. A broadcast of Dorries' programme on 24 March led to 52 complaints to Ofcom while discussing the Commons Select Committee of Privileges investigation into [[Boris Johnson]]'s involvement in the [[partygate]] scandal. During the broadcast she claimed that Johnson was being tried by a [[kangaroo court]].
In July 2023, Ofcom launched an investigation into a broadcast on 2 April regarding impartiality and politicians.
That same month, The Guardian reported that TalkTV "offered tens of thousands of pounds" in order to secure an interview with the parents who alleged that Huw Edwards had paid more than £35,000 to receive sexually explicit pictures from their child. The allegations had been printed by TalkTV's sister brand, The Sun newspaper. A source told The Guardian that the interview was part of a planned three-part documentary series. When the interview was announced, Edwards was receiving hospital treatment for depression. He had earlier been suspended by the BBC, but London's Metropolitan Police noted that they had "no information to indicate that a criminal offence has been committed".
In April 2024, Ofcom settled an investigation over comments made by a presenter against a Palestinian political official, warning TalkTV that it needed to take better care to ensure offensive comments were not aired on their channel.
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