ITV in talks to sell television business to Sky

ITV has confirmed that it is in preliminary discussions to sell its broadcasting services to Sky for £1. 6 billion, a step that may have a major effect on the UK's television landscape. The discussions were focused on ITV's Media and Entertainment division, which includes its free-to-air TV channels as well as the ITV X streaming service. The Sky, which is owned by US-based Comcast, is part of a broadcasting company that is owned in the United States, comes as the television indUStry faces fierce competition from Netflix and Disney+, which are among Netflix and Netflix The contract does not include ITV's production arm, ITV Studios, which produces hit shows such as Love Island and I'm a Celebrity. Get Me Out of Here.

Comcast, which owns Universal Studios, acquired Rupert Murdoch's Sky in 2018 and is a major player in the US media landscape. It owns NBCUniversal, which includes the NBC and CNBC channels, DreamWorks Animation, and Peacock's streaming service. According to BBC analyst Ian Whittaker, a combination of Sky and ITV would mean they would have 70 percent of the UK television market, which would be rejected by regulators under normal circumstances because of the dominance it would give them. However, he said that with increasing competition from the streaming services raising concerns about TV's future, a takeover could be seen as almost a rescue offer.

Sir Peter Bazalgette, a television executive and producer who served as chairman of ITV until September 2022 and is a shareholder in the company, told the Today program that the contract made sense given the pressure from streamers. Sir Peter, who asked whether a Sky-ITV link up will run up against antitrust abuses, said the authority must redefine what the advertisement market is. Not the traditional TV advertising industry, Google and Facebook's founder Meta should be regarded as the competitors, not the traditional television advertisement industry, according to him.

Free to air channels around the world are not seen to have a great deal of value,

he said, adding that "an inevitable consolidation of domestic broadcasters is going to occur throughout Europe.

Even though established broadcasters

the penetration rates have started to rise in the last few years

in the United Kingdom, Mr Whittaker said streaming was where the company's growth was strongest. He said that online gaming, which carried live events such as sports and news, was now available on YouTube. According to a recent report by media regulator Ofcom, YouTube has become the UK's second most watched media package, behind only the BBC. Large live sporting events that traditionally were shown on television can now be carried out by streaming giants like UEFA as a result of the huge streaming market. According to reports, ITV Studios, which produces programs for several platforms, including the BBC, Netflix, and Amazon, has been the subject of takeover talks in the past. Alan Bates vs. The Post Office, a hit TV show, and Netflix's most popular anime series One Piece. Following the announcement of the takeover talks, ITV's share price increased 15% at 78p, but it is still much less than the high of 258p in 2015. Liberty, one of ITV's largest investors, recently sold half of its 10% interest in the network. However, Liberty could be kicking itself at this point, according to Dan Coatsworth, an analyst at AJ Bell. He said it was a surprise that there was such an interest in ITV's TV channels, describing it as a ball and chain compared to ITV Studios, which he described as

the jewel in I TV's crown. Sky's best interest was

Christmas come early for executives and shareholders,he said, adding that ITV Studios could bean instant takeover target itself" as content-hungry streamers search for a hub to produce more programs to feed their platforms. ITV said on Thursday that its advertising sales would be 9% lower in the first three months of 2025, implying that advertisers were being cautious ahead of anticipated tax hikes in the Budget. In addition, the broadcaster revealed that it would make more than £35 million in cost savings, which would result in some programs being postponed until next year.