{"id":835468,"date":"2026-07-31T10:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T10:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/835468\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T10:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T10:59:09","slug":"itv-to-hand-shareholders-100m-after-striking-1-6bn-sky-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/835468\/","title":{"rendered":"ITV to hand shareholders \u00a3100m after striking \u00a31.6bn Sky deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

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ITV<\/a> has said it will hand \u00a3100 million to shareholders following Sky\u2019s \u00a31.6 billion deal to buy the company\u2019s media and entertainment business.<\/p>\n

It came as ITV reported a boost to advertising revenues from the World Cup, helping to offset a \u00a320 million hit from recently introduced rules about advertising less healthy foods.<\/p>\n

Boss Carolyn McCall<\/a> said the company had delivered a \u201csolid\u201d performance over the first half of 2026.<\/p>\n

It comes after ITV struck a deal, earlier this month, to sell its media and entertainment division to Sky<\/a>, in a move which will create a major competitor to the global streaming giants.<\/p>\n

The sale includes ITV\u2019s terrestrial TV channels and streaming service ITVX<\/a> but does not include its production arm, ITV Studios, which makes shows including I\u2019m A Celebrity and popular dramas, such as Mr Bates Vs The Post Office.<\/p>\n

On Friday, ITV said it would start a share buyback programme to hand \u00a3100 million to shareholders following the deal.<\/p>\n

It said the move is part of an early return of \u00a3950 million in total cash returns set to be secured from the \u00a31.6 billion deal.<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s board also confirmed a half-year dividend worth about \u00a360 million.<\/p>\n

Bosses at ITV revealed the company saw total group revenues increase by 2% to \u00a31.89 billion for the six-month period, compared with a year earlier.<\/p>\n

The media and entertainment arm being sold saw revenues rise 2% on the back of a 3% increase in total advertising revenues.<\/p>\n

Advertising revenues accelerated in the second quarter after a boost linked to the World Cup, which \u201cdrove strong advertising and sponsorship demand\u201d.<\/p>\n

Revenues grew despite pressure from the introduction of less healthy food (LHF) regulations on advertising last year, which had a roughly \u00a320 million impact over the past half year.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, pre-tax profits increased by 16% to \u00a378 million for the half-year.<\/p>\n

Ms McCall said: \u201cITV delivered a solid first half performance and we remain on track to deliver our full-year guidance, including good revenue growth in ITV Studios and strong, profitable digital revenue growth within media and entertainment.<\/p>\n

\u201cITV Studios\u2019 H1 performance reflects the year-on-year phasing of our production slate, with revenue, profit, and margin weighted as usual towards the second half of the year as previously guided.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis reflects a significant volume of large deliveries and high-margin licensing deals in H2, over which we have good visibility.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":["post-835468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835468","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=835468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}