{"id":759260,"date":"2026-06-25T11:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T11:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/759260\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T11:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T11:40:08","slug":"sky-agrees-on-terms-to-buy-itvs-broadcast-and-streaming-unit-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/759260\/","title":{"rendered":"Sky Agrees on Terms to Buy ITV’s Broadcast and Streaming Unit (Report)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSky<\/a>, the Comcast-owned U.K. pay-TV operator, has agreed on terms to buy British broadcaster ITV<\/a>\u2019s media and entertainment division, which is its network arm. Reuters reported<\/a> the development on Thursday, citing two people familiar with the negotiations.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs part of the \u00a31.6 billion ($2.1 billion) deal, ITV Studios \u2013 the standalone production unit \u2013 would acquire \u201cThe Great British Bake Off\u201d producer Love Productions. The transaction could be valued between \u00a380 million and \u00a3120 million based on comparable deals, and an earn-out, the sources said. ITV Studios is not part of the Sky acquisition.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe deal had shifted in a positive direction in the past week, Reuters said, and was now being finalized by lawyers, according to the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

\n\tITV declined to comment when reached by Variety. Representatives for Sky and Comcast did not immediately respond to request for comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tFollowing the Reuters report, ITV shares rose 2.9% on Thursday, giving the group, which comprises its broadcast and streaming unit and ITV Studios production company, a market \u200cvalue of \u00a33.1 \u2060billion ($4.08 billion).<\/p>\n

\n\tReuters reported last month that the transaction would include a payout dependent on the ITV unit\u2019s performance of about \u00a3200 million ($264 million).<\/p>\n

\n\tReuters\u2019 sources claimed that the deal could be closed in the next two weeks, but one cautioned that the timing could slip due to legal complications.<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, even then, it won\u2019t be a done deal. The U.K.\u2019s Competition and Markets Authority and media regulator Ofcom both need to approve it, and the final decision lies with the British government\u2019s culture secretary, Lisa Nandy. Rival broadcasters Channel 4 and Channel 5, which are both dependent on advertising revenue, are likely to oppose the deal on competition grounds. Another issue is ITV\u2019s 40% stake in ITN, which supplies news output to Channel 4 and Channel 5 as well as ITV.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe deal creates a merged company that can better compete with Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ in the U.K. streaming market. ITV has been focusing increasingly on boosting the reach of its streaming platform, ITVX, as audiences and advertisers continue to drift away from its linear channels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sky, the Comcast-owned U.K. pay-TV operator, has agreed on terms to buy British broadcaster ITV\u2019s media and entertainment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":759261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,6207,12773,427],"class_list":["post-759260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-itv","tag-sky","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}