Piers Morgan’s Uncensored Media Company

Piers Morgan, the broadcaster and journalist, is raising tens of millions in funding from heavyweight investors to transform his YouTube-based company Uncensored into a broad-based global media company. Sky News can reveal that Mr. Morgan is in the process of completing a fundraising campaign for Uncensored of around $30m, which will give the game a pre-money valuation of around $130m.

New Investors

The new investors are believed to include The Raine Group, the New York-based merchant bank, and Theo Kyriakou, the media mogul behind Greece’s Antenna Group, owner of a stake in London-based digital company The News Movement. According to insiders, Michael Kassan, a marketing veteran, will advise the company on advertising-related issues and may also invest privately. Several family offices from around the world are also reportedly in talks to become shareholders in Uncensored.

Expansion Plans

Joe Ravitch, the prominent American banker and Raine co-founder who has advised on the sale of football clubs Chelsea and Manchester United in recent years, is set to join Uncensored’s board as part of the capital raising. The move comes almost a year after Mr Morgan announced his departure from Rupert Murdoch’s British empire in a deal that gave him full control and ownership of his uncensored YouTube channel. Allies of Mr. Morgan said this weekend that some details of the fundraising would likely be confirmed publicly in the coming days.

Valuation and Growth

While the size of his personal stake in the company was unclear this weekend, insiders said the emergence of a $130 million valuation would mean Mr Morgan’s economic interest would be worth tens of millions of pounds on paper. “The goal is to grow the company into a billion-dollar company within a few years,” said a person involved in discussions with investors. “Given the large number of viewers now being driven to digital channels and the commercial opportunities there, this is definitely achievable.”

Diversification and Hiring

The former Mirror editor, whose career has also included stints at ITV, CNN in the US and Mr Murdoch’s global media groups News Corporation and Fox, is currently drawing up plans to transform Uncensored into a more diverse digital media group. This is also expected to include the launch of a number of “verticals” associated with the Uncensored brand, including channels covering topics such as history, sports and technology. Mr Morgan is reportedly already in talks with prominent figures to take the reins of some of these new areas. It is also expected to hire a managing director to drive growth across the Uncensored business.

Global Audience and Content

His desire to build a YouTube-based global media network has been fueled by the size of the global audience he has attracted for some of his recent work, including interviews with soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo and former tennis world number one Novak Djokovic. Both athletes have collaborated with Mr. Morgan by posting portions of their exchanges on social media platforms, attracting hundreds of millions of views. Mr. Morgan’s access to President Donald Trump, whom he has interviewed multiple times, is also likely to be a factor in the timing of Uncensored’s expansion strategy.

Industry Trends and Competition

While many "legacy" news and media networks continue to be hamstrung by excessive cost bases, Mr. Morgan’s decision to go it alone and focus on developing the "Uncensored" brand reflects his belief that the news and media industry is ripe for disintermediation through channels tied to prominent and sometimes controversial individual journalists and anchors. The YouTube channel Piers Morgan Uncensored has 4.3 million subscribers, about half of whom are from the USA. However, of the remaining 50%, only a minority are British, with a significant proportion based in the Middle East, South Africa and parts of Asia.

Future Plans and Partnerships

Under the agreement he reached with Mr Murdoch in January this year, Mr Morgan has a four-year revenue sharing agreement which will see News UK receive a share of advertising revenue from Piers Morgan Uncensored until 2029. Mr Morgan had returned to Murdoch’s media empire in January 2022 on a three-year contract that included writing regular columns for The Sun and New York Post and hosting shows on the company’s now-defunct television network, Talk TV. He also recently published a book called "Woke Is Dead," published by Mr. Murdoch’s book subsidiary, Harper Collins. As part of his new arrangements, Mr Morgan also signed a deal with Red Seat Ventures, a US-based agency that works with prominent media figures and influencers to help them pursue commercial opportunities through sponsorships and other revenue streams.

Conclusion

Mr. Morgan positions himself as a "ringmaster" who is not ideologically narrow-minded. His plans come at a time of ongoing upheaval in the global media industry, with Netflix this week agreeing a landmark $83 billion deal to buy Hollywood studio Warner Bros. In the UK, Sky, the Comcast-owned immediate parent of Sky News, is in talks to take over ITV’s broadcasting business, while the Daily Telegraph newspaper could soon become a partner of the Daily Mail if a planned £500m deal is successful. Mr Morgan said: "I am delighted that some of the global media industry’s most experienced and successful players, such as Joe, Michael and Theo, share my ambitious vision for Uncensored.” “This is the future of modern media.”