Sky agrees to acquire ITV Media & Entertainment, creating a commercial streaming champion for the UK

Sky has reached an agreement to acquire ITV Media & Entertainment from ITV plc for a total consideration of up to £1.6 billion, a move intended to establish a commercial streaming champion in the United Kingdom. The deal combines Sky’s pay-TV and broadband infrastructure with ITV’s free-to-air broadcasting and its ITVX streaming platform to better compete against global giants like YouTube and Netflix. This consolidation is expected to secure the long-term future of British public service broadcasting while creating a scaled UK-based platform for advertisers and content investment.

Sky, a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, will pay £1.2 billion in cash and transfer ownership of Love Productions to ITV plc, with an additional £0.2 billion performance-related earn-out to complete the acquisition. As part of the transaction, Sky has also committed to a £2.1 billion content supply agreement over five years with ITV Studios to support British programming and creative jobs. The deal includes the acquisition of ITV’s Channel 3 licenses, which are safeguarded until 2034, ensuring that ITV’s public service broadcasting commitments and regional news remain intact and free-to-air for audiences.

The merger aims to address the rapid transformation of the UK media market, where scale is increasingly necessary to compete with international streaming platforms and YouTube. By combining ITV’s reach of 40 million weekly viewers and 16.5 million monthly digital users with Sky’s portfolio, the new entity will account for approximately 20% of all in-home viewing in the UK. This positioning places the combined business second only to the BBC in terms of domestic audience share, creating a more resilient business model through diversified revenue streams across advertising, subscriptions, and connectivity services.

Operational efficiencies are a key driver of the acquisition, with Sky expecting to generate approximately £200 million in annual run-rate cost synergies by the end of the third year post-closing. These savings are slated to come primarily from marketing, technology platforms, and non-UK content. Despite the integration, Sky and ITV have emphasized that ITV News and Sky News will maintain distinct editorial voices. Furthermore, the deal promises more free-to-air sport on ITV services and enhanced streaming technology to improve content discovery and the overall viewing experience for UK audiences.