{"id":914436,"date":"2026-09-29T19:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T19:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/914436\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T19:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T19:40:08","slug":"itv-boss-skys-content-chief-set-out-vision-for-acquisition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/914436\/","title":{"rendered":"ITV Boss, Sky’s Content Chief Set Out Vision for Acquisition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWith Comcast-owned Sky\u2019s $2.1 billion acquisition of ITV<\/a> currently winding its way through the regulatory process in the U.K., both parties are limited in how much they can say. Yet Sky\u2019s content chief Cecile Frot-Coutaz and ITV<\/a> CEO Carolyn McCall<\/a>, both speaking in separate keynote speeches at the Royal Television Society convention in London, managed to say quite a lot about what the deal means for the U.K.<\/p>\n

\n\tRead on for their comments on key aspects of the deal including content and news\u2026<\/p>\n

\t\tHow the deal happened\u2026\t<\/p>\n

\n\tFrot-Cotaz and McCall both acknowledged the television landscape has shifted immeasurably over the past decade. McCall said the Sky\/ITV acquisition \u201cwouldn\u2019t have gone through\u201d even six years ago, with the Competition and Markets Authority taking a much more bullish approach to consolidation in the past.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe transaction is very much a response to what\u2019s happened in the marketplace,\u201d Frot-Cotaz said. But she added, Sky are not just acquiring ITV to create a \u201crobust\u201d media company: \u201cwe think there\u2019s a lot of opportunity in it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFive years ago there was 200,000 hours of streaming content available to audiences \u2013 that has now more than doubled to 900,000, a figure that doesn\u2019t include YouTube, said the ITV boss. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re up against.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tContent is still king\u2026\t<\/p>\n

\n\tBoth Frot-Coutaz and McCall said Sky was committed to ITV content, not least because the deal terms include a content supply agreement with ITV Studios.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOne of the most important things to Sky was our content,\u201d McCall said in an attempt to allay fears amongst indie produces that cost savings will result in less money going into content. \u201cThere\u2019ll be more content because the sum of the two.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn her keynote Frot-Coutaz agreed: \u201cThe goal ultimately is to maintain the scale of the content offering.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tInvestment in tech\u2026\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe competition is ferocious,\u201d McCall said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just [being] bigger; it\u2019s also the investment. So you have to invest in technology. You\u2019ve got to continue to invest in AI. You\u2019ve got to continue to invest in efficiency, and most importantly, you\u2019ve got to have to enough money to constantly invest in content, because content is where it\u2019s at. That\u2019s what makes you all your money.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFrot-Coutaz echoed that. \u201cContent is super important, but you also need the technology that goes with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut technology costs money and for money you need scale. Hence the deal.<\/p>\n

\t\tCommitment to news\u2026\t<\/p>\n

\n\tA key concern around the acquisition is whether Sky will seek to consolidate its newsroom with ITV\u2019s. While ITV\u2019s public service broadcasting commitments \u2014 which includes nations, regional and national news \u2014 are protected until 2034, there is a large question mark over what will happen after that day.<\/p>\n

\n\tMcCall said that ITN, which makes ITV\u2019s news (it operates under a shared-ownership scheme comprised of four stakeholders, one of which is ITV) is a \u201cstrong news organization\u201d so asked \u201cwhy would you duplicate?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFrot-Coutaz maintained that Sky has made a \u201cvery public commitment to maintain Sky News and to maintain ITN news\u201d but refused to say whether that commitment would extend past 2034, when ITV\u2019s public service broadcast license expires.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhether that will allay fears remains to be seen. Watch this space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Comcast-owned Sky\u2019s $2.1 billion acquisition of ITV currently winding its way through the regulatory process in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":914437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,270925,75,2835,348],"class_list":["post-914436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-carolyn-mccall","tag-entertainment","tag-itv","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/914437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}