<div id="readability-page-1"><div><div><div><div><p>When tennis star Aryna Sabalenka spoke out against the inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s sport last week, the comments made headlines around the world.</p><p>“It’s not fair,” the Belarusian said. “The woman has been working her whole life to reach her limit and then she has to face a man, who is biologically much stronger, so for me, I don’t agree with this kind of stuff in sport.”</p><p>Sabalenka’s intervention in the trans debate was a major scoop. But the world number one in women’s tennis was not talking in a post-match interview, nor had she agreed to a sit-down with a major media outlet.</p><p>Instead, the tennis star was speaking to Piers Morgan on his YouTube show Uncensored.</p><p>The interview was released at a fitting time for Morgan as he takes the first step in expanding his Uncensored channel.</p></div></div><div><div><p>After breaking out alone on YouTube, the outspoken broadcaster is hoovering up support from deep-pocketed investors to help fund his ambitions for a new online media empire.</p><p>It comes after Morgan, formerly a national newspaper editor, enjoyed a chequered history in the world of broadcast TV.</p><p>After helming programmes for both ITV and CNN, the journalist’s career on traditional television ended dramatically in 2021, when he stormed off Good Morning Britain following a row with a co-host over the Duchess of Sussex.</p><p>After parting ways with ITV, Morgan launched his Uncensored show on TalkTV, the ill-fated start-up launched by Rupert Murdoch’s News UK in 2022.</p><p>Just two years later, he took his Uncensored channel off air and onto YouTube, casting off what he described as the “unnecessary straitjacket” of traditional broadcast schedules.</p><p>He quit Murdoch’s empire altogether at the start of this year.</p><p>Now, Morgan pulls in large YouTube audiences by chairing often ill-tempered debates and conducting sprawling interviews with high-profile celebrities and politicians. His Uncensored channel has already racked up 4.3 million subscribers.</p><p>For the 60-year-old journalist, the logic is simple: YouTube is the future.</p><p>“My kids are 32, 28, 25 and 14, and none of them watch television, none of them read print newspapers, none of them listen to vinyl music,” he says. “They are the digital generation, and the primary place that they go to is YouTube.”</p><p>While Morgan insists YouTube is “becoming the new television”, the unbridled nature of his shows has drawn criticism, not least from traditional media outlets.</p></div></div><div><div><p>A review in this newspaper branded Morgan’s recent interview with Cristiano Ronaldo, which stretched for more than two hours, “painfully obsequious”.</p><p>Morgan bristles at the suggestion that he could do with an editor.</p><p>“A lot of these big names are coming to me because they do like the fact that we will put it out uncensored, unedited,” he says. “It’s got a kind of raw, real, authentic feel to it.</p><p>“And I think that’s a good selling point. People don’t want to feel like they’re watching edited, carefully crafted stuff. Young people like it to be unfettered, uncensored, unedited.</p><p>“Now that will be anathema to a lot of conventional, traditional journalists, but my message to them is you can either resist this tidal wave and be engulfed by it, or you can ride the wave.”</p><p>Morgan is now planning to go further.</p><p>History Uncensored, a spin-off YouTube channel fronted by former CNN presenter Bianca Nobilo, launched last week. The inaugural episode is a deep dive into the trials of Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg in the 1940s.</p><p>It is one of a number of spin-off channels planned under Morgan’s Uncensored brand dedicated to specific subjects such as crime, sport, music or the Royal family.</p><p>The blueprint is Goalhanger, the production company co-founded by Gary Lineker, which is behind “The Rest Is” family of podcasts.</p></div></div><div><div><p>Morgan speaks highly of Lineker’s company, particularly The Rest is History, “because that’s the one that makes the most money”.</p><p>He also praises a recent deal struck to stream a daily edition of The Rest is Football on Netflix during next year’s World Cup.</p><p>Will the aspiring media mogul seek a similar deal? “We’re very open-minded,” he says.</p><p>“If I can get my sports channel up and running before the World Cup, maybe we can do a deal if we get the right casting, the right people. I think there’s no limit to it.”</p><p>He stresses, however, that while Goalhanger is UK-focused, Uncensored will be aimed at American audiences.</p></div></div><div><div><p>Morgan describes the model as a pyramid with him, unsurprisingly, at the top. Other hosts and presenters will then operate independently under the Uncensored umbrella.</p><p>And for all his criticism of legacy media, Morgan hasn’t cut ties with traditional TV altogether.</p><p>He recently struck a deal with Paramount-owned Channel 5 to air a weekly Uncensored highlights show, offering another avenue to publicise the YouTube channels alongside his vast social media following.</p><p>Crucially, however, Morgan hopes to expand the Uncensored brand beyond just his personal brand.</p><p>“I could build out a very successful business on my own just doing Piers Morgan Uncensored with all the spin-off commercial stuff, live shows, tours, books,” he says.</p><p>“I could build out a whole thing just for me, but that’s very reliant on me.</p><p>“What I want to do is build out an Uncensored vehicle, brand, network – whatever you want to call it – which becomes much bigger than me as an individual, so that it becomes something of real value.”</p><p>Morgan says he will look to hire a mixture of well-known names and up-and-coming talent. Yet, he is insistent that the venture will remain politically neutral.</p><p>“I don’t want to have politically partisan people who are known to be very hyper-partisan,” he says. “I don’t want to be boxed into hard Right or hard Left or any of that kind of thing.</p></div></div><div><div><p>“I want people who are uncensored, not afraid to express opinions, but don’t come at it from a politically partisan place.”</p><p>Morgan is now finalising a funding round worth around $30m (£22m) to support the expansion, with backing from US investment bank Raine and Greek media mogul Theo Kyriakou at a valuation of around £100m.</p><p>Joe Ravitch, Raine’s co-founder and a prolific media dealmaker, is joining Uncensored’s board.</p><p>Michael Kassan, the advertising bigwig previously embroiled in a legal row with former employer United Talent Agency over claims he racked up millions of dollars in expenses, including on private jets, is also acting as an adviser.</p><p>The case was settled this year.</p><p>Morgan’s channel is already thought to generate significant revenues through advertising, but investors will see further opportunities to expand the venture commercially.</p><p>This could include offering subscriptions in exchange for exclusive additional episodes, as well as launching live events similar to recent sell-out Goalhanger events at the O2 Arena and Royal Albert Hall.</p><p>Although Morgan has undoubtedly proven the concept of his own show, some observers question whether the brand will carry weight without him at the helm.</p><p>While Lineker is the high-profile face of Goalhanger, he acts largely as an executive producer. Morgan, who does not shy away from the limelight, is arguably more integral to the Uncensored brand.</p><p>“How thin can Piers Morgan spread himself?” says media analyst Alex DeGroote. “He will need to put a bit of his own personal stardust on all these franchises, but that’s going to require time and effort.”</p><p>He adds: “It’s one thing having your own show, it’s another thing having a business.”</p><p>If Morgan is worried about over-stretching himself, he does not show it.</p><p>With characteristic aplomb, Britain’s most outspoken journalist has set his sights on becoming a new media mogul for the YouTube age.</p><p>“I believe that within four or five years you’ll see that Uncensored has become one of the biggest media brands in the world,” he says.</p></div></div></div></div></div>

<p>Piers Morgan is expanding his YouTube channel, Uncensored, into a £100m media empire. After leaving traditional TV, Morgan's channel has gained 4.3 million subscribers. He plans to launch spin-off channels on topics like history and sports, targeting American audiences. Despite criticism, Morgan believes in the future of uncensored, unedited content. He also struck a deal with Channel 5 for a weekly highlights show, aiming to grow beyond his personal brand.</p>

How Piers Morgan plans to build a £100m YouTube empire