{"id":122742,"date":"2025-11-07T10:28:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T10:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/122742\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T10:28:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T10:28:07","slug":"sky-makes-2-1-billion-bid-for-itvs-networks-arm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/122742\/","title":{"rendered":"Sky Makes $2.1 Billion Bid for ITV&#8217;s Networks Arm"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tU.K. broadcaster <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/itv\/\" id=\"auto-tag_itv\" data-tag=\"itv\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ITV<\/a> has confirmed it has received a \u00a31.6 billion ($2.1 billion) bid from <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/comcast\/\" id=\"auto-tag_comcast\" data-tag=\"comcast\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Comcast<\/a>\u2019s pay-TV platform <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/sky\/\" id=\"auto-tag_sky\" data-tag=\"sky\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sky<\/a> for its media and entertainment unit. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe shock news \u2014\u00a0which would fundamentally change the British broadcasting landscape if it were to go ahead \u2014\u00a0would see Comcast take control of ITV\u2019s linear channels and ITVX streaming business, significantly expanding its U.K. TV foothold, having already acquired Sky for around $30 billion in 2018. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAccording to news reports, the bid from Sky centers on the potential creation of a U.K.-focused streaming giant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIn a short statement sent Friday morning, ITV said it noted \u201cthe recent\u00a0press\u00a0speculation and confirms that it\u00a0is in preliminary discussions\u00a0regarding\u00a0a\u00a0possible\u00a0sale\u00a0of\u00a0its\u00a0M&amp;E\u00a0business to Sky\u00a0for an enterprise value of \u00a31.6bn.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIt added: \u201cThere can be no certainty as to the terms upon which any\u00a0potential sale\u00a0may be agreed or whether any transaction will take place. A further announcement will be made\u00a0in due course\u00a0if\u00a0appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe discussions do not include ITV\u2019s production and sales arm, ITV Studios, which makes shows including \u201cLove Island,\u201d \u201cI\u2019m a Celebrity\u201d and the drama \u201cMr Bates vs The Post Office\u201d and has been the center of numerous recent takeover rumors. RedBird IMI and Banijay are understood to have expressed an interest in the unit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tConfirmation of the deal talks came shortly after ITV reported that it would \u201ctemporarily\u201d\u00a0shave $46 million from its budgets over the U.K.\u2019s \u201csoftening economy\u201d and advertiser uncertainty. It said it expected ad revenues to fall by 9% in the key fourth-quarter period in the lead up to Christmas. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tITV shares jumped 18% at the start of trading in London on Friday following news of a potential deal with Sky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.K. broadcaster ITV has confirmed it has received a \u00a31.6 billion ($2.1 billion) bid from Comcast\u2019s pay-TV platform&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[5000,156,7386,111,139,69,8861,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-122742","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-comcast","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-itv","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-sky","15":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}