Exclusive: Rupert Murdoch’s News UK has put unspecified employees into a consultation process as part of its plans to restructure its studio division following Piers Morgan’s departure.
Deadline understands that staff have been told their jobs are at risk amid a “rightsizing” effort at the news studio. News Studio is the division that runs the YouTube channel Piers Morgan Uncensored and produces video content for brands such as The Sun and The Times.
Morgan has until March on his contract, at which point he will be managing his own YouTube channel. The former CNN presenter may decide to continue producing his uncensored show at the News Studio facility at News UK’s London headquarters, but no agreement is yet in place.
News Studios insiders have expressed concerns about the entire department being shut down, but News UK sources denied this. Instead, the company plans to refocus its workforce on its video ambitions with titles like “The Sun,” producing its online political show “Never Mind The Ballots.”
“While the News Studio remains a key production facility for all News UK brands, we are proposing to right-align the News Studio team to meet the needs of the wider business.” News UK Relations said the person.
News Studios is overseen by Richard Wallace, who spent 10 years as Simon Cowell’s right-hand man at Syco. Mr Wallace moved into a news studio role after News UK closed TalkTV as a TV channel last year.
News UK has invested heavily in two state-of-the-art TV studios in buildings in London Bridge, one of which is home to Piers Morgan Uncensored. News UK Broadcasting, the subsidiary that owns TalkTV, posted a loss of £53.7 million ($65.6 million) in its latest financial statements.
“The job losses are the latest in an unfortunate saga of an expensive and failed experiment that began at Talk TV,” said a person familiar with the news studio restructuring. No wonder newspaper colleagues are furious at the money wasted, from thousands of pounds for guest appearances on shows to millions of pounds for studios. ”
Morgan’s departure was announced last week. He agreed to take control of Uncensored through his Wake Up Productions production company and signed a four-year revenue-sharing agreement with News Corporation.
“I thoroughly enjoyed my time back at News Corp., and I’m pleased to continue to be a partner,” said Morgan. “Owning the brand will allow my team and I to focus on building Uncensored into an independent business, both editorially and commercially, and over time grow the brand out of just me and my content. It will be.”
