TalkTV to close down television channel and go online only

TalkTV will be taken off air in the summer and move online, it has been announced, weeks after Piers Morgan left his daily show on the channel.

Morgan said he was leaving to focus on the Uncensored YouTube channel, saying that daily, fixed TV schedules had been “an increasingly unnecessary straitjacket”.

A statement from Scott Taunton, TalkTV’s president of broadcasting, said in a briefing to staff: “Two years ago, we would not have been brave enough to launch a channel without a linear presence, but audiences of all ages have moved fast and smartphones are now the primary device where news is consumed. We need to adapt to this as a priority.

“We are therefore intending that Talk comes off linear television from early summer and our focus will be on streaming.”