Nearly a year after breaking out of Rupert Murdoch’s media universe, Piers Morgan appears to have found new investors for his own budding empire online.
Morgan, a former Daily Mirror editor and CNN host, is finalizing a roughly $30 million fundraising round to turn his “Piers Morgan Uncensored” show into an entire “Uncensored” brand with an approximately $130 million valuation, according to a Sky News report. The investors include the New York-based bank, the Raine Group, and Theo Kyriakou, who runs the Greek-based Antenna Group. The fundraising effort would also place Raine co-founder Joe Ravitch on the board.
Spokespeople for the Raine Group and Antenna Group did not respond to immediate requests for comment.
Morgan has also signed with WME, which will work to help him expand his “Uncensored” brand.
“I am very excited to be teaming up with the world’s preeminent talent agency to further accelerate the stupendous growth of UNCENSORED as a global show and brand,” Morgan said in a statement.
The first extension of the brand includes a new weekly show, “History Uncensored,” helmed by former CNN host Bianca Novillo, that will question the “official” version of select historical events.
“Expect fresh perspectives delivered with the social media savviness, quality production, and journalistic rigour which makes PMU a smash hit,” Morgan said in a statement. “This is the next step in the Uncensored evolution.”
With the investing round, Morgan aims to grow the “Uncensored” brand beyond YouTube into a fully-fledged media business. The YouTube channel has more than 4 million subscribers, and it plans for future shows to tackle subjects like sports, true crime, and the British Royal Family, according to a source familiar with the plans.
Morgan left Murdoch’s News UK in January and took his Uncensored brand to YouTube, building a network bolstered by Morgan’s interviews and, at times, raucous discussions that have brought together the likes of Young Turks co-founder Cenk Uygur and former White House staffer Katie Miller.
