Piers Morgan is leaving Rupert Murdoch’s media empire to take control of his Uncensored YouTube channel, three years after signing a multimillion-pound deal focused on leading TalkTV, which shut its traditional TV channel last summer.

Morgan and News UK, which owns the Sun, Times, TalkSport and Times Radio, struck a deal that gives him ownership of the Uncensored media brand through his production company, Wake Up Productions.

The deal includes a four-year partnership in which News UK retains a commercial interest and revenue share in the YouTube business, which has 3.6 million subscribers, as Morgan looks to expand its reach with an initial focus on the US.

Morgan said: “Owning the brand allows my team and I the freedom to focus exclusively on building Uncensored into a standalone business – editorially and commercially – and in time widening it from just me and my content. I have had a great time working back at News UK and am delighted we will continue to be partners.”

Scott Taunton, the head of broadcasting at News UK, said the deal showed how the company needed to be “innovative about how we partner with superstar journalists and connect them to global audiences via our established brands”.

Morgan was hired by News UK in 2021 in a wide-ranging deal that included fronting a primetime evening show on TalkTV, writing columns for the Sun and New York Post and a book through the Murdoch-owned publisher HarperCollins.

However, after soaring costs and low ratings he announced last February that he was leaving his daily evening show to focus on his Piers Morgan Uncensored YouTube channel, which was launched in 2022.

At the time the 59-year-old said the commitment to a daily show with a fixed schedule had become an “increasingly unnecessary straitjacket”.

A month later, News UK announced that TalkTV would be shutting its linear TV channel and become an online-only service.

The channel got off to disappointing start with “zero viewers” during primetime broadcasts, meaning its audience was too small to register on the official rating agency Barb.

In December 2023, it reached 2 million viewers, significantly behind its rival GB News, on 2.87 million, and little challenge to the dominance of Sky News, on 8.5 million, and the market leader, BBC News, at 11.4 million for the month.

It is understood that Morgan will continue to write periodically for the Sun and New York Post, and complete his book for HarperCollins this year.