News UK is launching a video series linked to the Sunday Times Culture Magazine as it experiments with different formats ahead of the TalkTV launch.
The Sunday Times Culture Show will be a weekly show presented by ex-Popworld presenter Miquita Oliver and the newspaper’s former media and entertainment correspondent Grant Tucker (both pictured).
News UK Broadcasting has commissioned media production house Whynow, which Tucker joined last year as executive editor, to produce the show.
The show, which will go live on Youtube and the Times website at 2pm on Friday, marks a continuation of News UK’s foray into video products linked to its existing brands. It follows similar ventures into audio last year with the launches of Times Radio and the daily Stories of Our Times podcast.
It has already been doing more video visualisation using its new broadcast studios at its London Bridge headquarters, including vamping up Talksport’s Youtube channel and soft-launching Talkradio TV.
Times Radio programme director Tim Levell, who is commissioning executive for the new show, said: “The Times and The Sunday Times are renowned for their trusted, quality journalism.
“Times Radio, and hugely successful podcasts like Stories of our Times, have created new and much loved audio opportunities for existing and new audiences to get closer to the brands. This partnership with Whynow provides a new and innovative way for culture-lovers to engage.”
News UK is planning to launch TalkTV in early 2022 with a flagship primetime show hosted by Piers Morgan.
[Read more: TalkTV in-depth briefing including GMB boss poached to work with Piers Morgan again as jobs drive begins]
However Press Gazette understands that streaming shows launched in the next few months, including the Sunday Times Culture Show, will not necessarily end up on TalkTV and that the company is currently in experimentation mode.
Whynow’s Albertine Rae is executive producer of the show while Sunday Times editor Emma Tucker and the newspaper’s executive editor and culture editor Ben Preston, a former Radio Times editor, will give editorial direction.
Preston said: “Culture in all its forms is supremely important to the readers of The Sunday Times. The Culture Show brings a new dimension to our unsurpassed cultural coverage.”
The first episode will feature comedian David Baddiel talking about how his social media addiction inspired his new tour and will go behind the scenes at the contemporary art scene’s Frieze Festival, while Sunday Times columnist and TV critic Camilla Long will give tips on what to watch.
Picture: News UK
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