- News and opinion channel closing much sooner, as rumours of a quick closure are confirmed.
TalkTV will end its short-lived life just days after reaching the second anniversary of its launch.
The News UK-owned news channel previously spoke of an “early summer” closedown of the channel, perhaps hoping to wrap up broadcasts after an early general election.
Updated advance TV listings confirm recent rumours that the channel will go off air much sooner. It’s last scheduled programmes on Freeview are due to run on the evening of 30th April.
From 1am on 1st May 2024, programmes are no longer available on Freeview.
Sky and Virgin Media have yet to confirm the exact time when they’ll remove the channel, which will morph back into an online-only visual feed of TalkRadio.
It’s understood the move to close TalkTV will allow News UK to focus on preparing multi-media coverage of the next general election on its remaining outlets and platforms.
TalkTV is closing after failing to break through in a competitive environment for news channels, and incurring losses that proved unsustainable for the Murdoch-owned company.
Local TV channels affected
The closure of TalkTV leaves local TV channels in locations including Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds, Liverpool and Newcastle without a sustaining service. They had begun to carry TalkTV on a regular basis last year. In turn that followed a successful pilot in the aftermath of the death of Queen Elizabeth II. It’s not been confirmed at this stage what will replace TalkTV on the local channels.
Ahead of the changes to TalkTV, local channels have been renamed back to their 2023 names.
For example, Birmingham TV, which became TalkBirmingham last year, has reverted back to being called Birmingham TV.
TalkTV was born out of TalkRadio TV, a visual radio feed carried on internet streaming platforms. TalkRadio became a radio simulcast of the TV service, which launched on 25th April 2022 on Sky, Freesat, Freeview and Virgin Media.
Meanwhile, Piers Morgan, the channel’s most high profile presenter, finished broadcasting his regular daily show on the channel back in February.
TalkRadio will now continue once again with a video feed and clips on online services.
By: RXTV Newsdesk | Image: talkTV | Updated: 12:15