ITV in talks to sell television business to Sky

ITV has said it is in “preliminary” discussions to sell its broadcasting business to Sky for £1.6bn, a move that could reshape the UK’s television landscape.

The talks focus on ITV’s Media and Entertainment division, which includes its free-to-air TV channels as well as the ITV X streaming service.

The discussions with Sky, which is owned by US-based Comcast, come as the television industry faces fierce competition from streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+.

The deal would not include ITV’s production arm – ITV Studios – which makes popular programmes such as Love Island and I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here.

On Thursday, ITV forecast that its advertising revenue would be 9% lower in the last three months of 2025, with advertisers cautious ahead of expected tax rises in the Budget.

Comcast, which owns Universal Studios, bought Rupert Murdoch’s Sky in 2018 and is a major player in the US media landscape.

It owns NBCUniversal, which contains the NBC and CNBC channels, DreamWorks Animation and streaming service Peacock.

Media analyst Ian Whittaker told the BBC’s Today programme that a combination of Sky and ITV would mean they had “70% plus” of the UK TV advertising market, which he said “in normal circumstances” would be rejected by regulators because of the dominance it would give them.

But he added that with rising competition from the streaming services raising questions over the future of TV, a takeover could be seen as almost a rescue deal.

Sir Peter Bazalgette, television executive and producer, who was chair of ITV until September 2022, and describes himself as a “longsuffering” ITV shareholder, told the BBC that the deal did make sense, given the pressure from streamers.

ITVs share price rose 18% on Friday following the news of the possible deal.

Sir Peter said when it came to the question of whether a Sky-ITV link up would run up against competition issues, he said the regulator needs to “redefine” what the advertising market is”.

He said Google and Facebook owner Meta should be treated as the rivals, not the traditional TV advertising market.

He added that the UK TV sector had been “very slow” in adapting.

“We could have had a strategy for public service media and its survival five or ten years ago” – but added that ITV could like “trigger” that strategy now.

Mr Whittaker said streaming was where the growth was for broadcasters – even though with established streamers “the penetration rates have started to level off in the past couple of years” in the UK.

He added that competition was also now coming from YouTube TV, which showed live events such as sports and news.

A recent report from media regulator Ofcom found that YouTube has become the UK’s second most-watched media service, behind only the BBC.

Big live sporting events, traditionally shown on television, may also increasingly move to streamers as sporting giants such as UEFA seek to cash in on the huge streaming market.

ITV Studios, which makes programmes for several platforms including the BBC, Netflix and Amazon, has reportedly been the subject of takeover talks in the past.

It made the hit TV series Alan Bates vs The Post Office, and popular anime series One Piece on Netflix.

News of the takeover talks prompted an 18% jump in ITV’s share price on Friday morning.