He may no longer be a fixture on British TV and radio, but he has a profitable online media empire. Can he hang on to it?

During the 2000s Russell Brand was ubiquitous in the British media, adopting a scattergun approach that saw him host his own BBC Radio 2 show, present Big Brother spinoff shows, work the chatshow circuit, tour his live comedy act, present documentaries, write a bestselling autobiography and even football blogposts for the Guardian, before heading off to Hollywood to briefly achieve global fame.

Nowadays he has a much smaller but still profitable media empire of his own, built on a set of online platforms that barely existed when he was at the peak of his fame. As a result he retains his direct access to his loyal audience, unlike in a previous era where he could be taken off air by an employer pending an investigation into allegations of sexual assault and rape – which Brand has denied.