Comcast's Sky agrees terms to buy ITV's broadcast and streaming business
Comcast-owned Sky has agreed terms to buy ITV’s broadcast and streaming operation for about £1.6 billion ($2.1 billion), according to reports . The transaction covers ITV’s network channels and its ITVX streaming service but not ITV Studios, the company’s production arm, which would remain separate. ITV Studios is separately reported to be acquiring Love Productions, the maker of “The Great British Bake Off.”
The deal had been moving toward completion in lawyers’ hands and could close within about two weeks, though legal complications could push that back. It would still require clearance from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority and the media regulator Ofcom, with the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, holding final say. Rival broadcasters Channel 4 and Channel 5 are expected to object on competition grounds.
The logic is consolidation against scale. As UK viewers shift from linear television to global streamers — Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ and YouTube — a combined Sky-ITV broadcast business would have more weight in advertising and content than either has alone. Keeping ITV Studios out of the deal preserves an independent supplier of programming to multiple buyers, which may also ease some of the competition concerns regulators will weigh.