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(New throughout, adds details on new channel)
By Paul Sandle
LONDON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Piers Morgan, the outspoken
British journalist and broadcaster, has joined Rupert Murdoch's
News Corp and Fox News Media in a global deal
that includes a new TV show in early 2022, newspaper columns and
a book contract.
Murdoch said in a statement on Thursday Morgan was "the
broadcaster every channel wants but is too afraid to hire".
"Piers is a brilliant presenter, a talented journalist and
says what people are thinking and feeling," he said.
The 56-year-old's TV show will air on weeknights on FOX News
Media's streaming service FOX Nation in the United States, Sky
News Australia and on talkTV, a new British channel that will
launch early next year.
TalkTV will debut less than a year after GB News launched in
June, aimed at challenging what it cast as the London-centred
consensus of the British media. It has since struggled to secure
large audiences, and its chairman and lead presenter Andrew Neil
announced his resignation on Monday.
Murdoch's new channel, which will be available on linear and
internet television, will feature presenters from his radio
stations talkRADIO, talkSPORT, Virgin Radio and Times Radio, and
newspapers The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times.
Morgan, who previously edited Murdoch's defunct News of the
World tabloid and hosted a show on CNN, resigned from British
broadcaster ITV's breakfast show after he said in March he did
not believe Prince Harry's wife, Meghan, when she told Oprah
Winfrey in an interview that she had endured racist and unkind
comments from members of the royal household.
More than 50,000 people complained about his comments, but
Britain's media regulator ruled that ITV did not break the
broadcasting code on the grounds that Morgan was challenged by
other presenters.
Morgan said he was thrilled to be returning to News Corp,
where he began his media career more than 30 years ago. He left
to edit a rival tabloid, the Daily Mirror, a job he held for
nine years until 2004 when he was sacked for publishing false
images of British soldiers abusing prisoners in Iraq.
As well as his TV show, Morgan will write columns in The Sun
and the New York Post, the company said, and HarperCollins UK
will publish his next book.
"Rupert Murdoch has been a constant and fearless champion of
free speech and we are going to be building something new and
very exciting together," he said.
"I'm going home and we're going to have some fun."
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Sarah Young, Michael
Holden and Steve Orlofsky)
