<\/p>\n
In a bid to become Britain\u2019s largest commercial broadcaster, Comcast\u2019s Sky pay-TV business on Monday unveiled a $2.1-billion deal to buy ITV Media & Entertainment.<\/p>\n
ITV is a television powerhouse in Britain, with \u201cLove Island<\/a>,\u201d \u201cMidsomer Murders\u201d and the hugely popular<\/a> FIFA World Cup<\/a>. It operates a robust TV production studio and free-to-air channels that attract nearly 32% of the nation\u2019s ad-supported viewing. <\/p>\n ITV also has built a popular streaming service, which would round out Sky\u2019s portfolio of subscription services that include satellite TV, phone and broadband internet.<\/p>\n Both companies have prominent news channels, so the proposed combination is expected to draw intense scrutiny from British regulators who have previously expressed concerns about news diversity<\/a> amid a wave<\/a> of media consolidations<\/a>. <\/p>\n The deal comes as traditional TV program providers increasingly battle tech companies such as Netflix, Amazon and Google\u2019s YouTube for consumers. Gone are the days when British audiences largely tuned into the BBC or ITV, which launched 70 years ago as Britain\u2019s first commercial competitor to the dominant state-supported programmer.<\/p>\n ITV reaches nearly 40 million people weekly and boasts 16.5 million monthly digital users. Combined with Sky, the business would command about 20% of in-home viewing in Britain, second to the BBC and ahead of YouTube.<\/p>\n The proposed union would create a British advertising juggernaut with an estimated two-thirds of the TV ad market. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is a defining moment for British media and an opportunity to build a stronger future for two of the UK\u2019s most loved and trusted brands,\u201d Dana Strong, chief executive of Comcast\u2019s Sky Group, said in a statement. <\/p>\n \u201cITV will remain a public service broadcaster at the heart of British life, and we\u2019re excited about the future we can build together,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n ITV Studios, one of the world\u2019s largest TV program producers, is not included in the deal. It would remain a separate entity although, as part of the deal, Sky made a $2.8-billion agreement to buy programming from ITV Studios to support \u201cBritish programming, production and creative jobs across the UK,\u201d according to the company. <\/p>\n The partnership comes as U.S.-based producers increasingly set up projects in Britain to take advantage of generous tax rebates there.<\/p>\n Sky\u2019s proposed acquisition of the ITV linear and streaming platforms comes a week after Comcast announced that, after 15 years of stewardship<\/a>, it would spin off NBCUniversal<\/a> to become a separate publicly traded company next year. Sky would be part of NBCUniversal after that transaction is complete. <\/p>\n In a statement, Sky and ITV suggested that the proposed combination was a response to business headwinds. The combined entity would provide a \u201cdiversity of revenue streams,\u201d with advertising and subscription fees \u201cproviding a resilient and durable business model which will underpin its long-term success,\u201d the companies said.<\/p>\n The deal structure is complex. Comcast agreed to pay $1.6 billion in cash for the ITV Media & Entertainment division, and $267 million for the Love Productions studio. The unscripted \u201cLove Island\u201d is one of the biggest hits for Peacock, the Comcast-owned streaming service. <\/p>\n ITV also could collect an additional $267 million should it deliver on its advertising commitments.<\/p>\n The companies agreed to maintain ITV\u2019s linear channels and the ITVX streaming platform as free services that met the existing public service broadcasting commitments. <\/p>\n \u201cITV has successfully evolved in a rapidly changing media landscape \u2014 launching, and scaling, ITVX and developing ITV Studios into a major force in the global content market,\u201d Comcast shares, which have been depressed for months, fell 1.7% to $23.38 on Monday.<\/p>\n Rupert Murdoch launched Sky in 1989, and Comcast acquired the satellite TV pioneer seven years ago when Murdoch divested much of his entertainment empire, including the L.A.-based Fox entertainment properties to Walt Disney Co. Disney initially wanted to buy Sky<\/a> but Comcast jumped into the fray<\/a>, driving up the price for the Fox stable.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a bid to become Britain\u2019s largest commercial broadcaster, Comcast\u2019s Sky pay-TV business on Monday unveiled a $2.1-billion deal to buy ITV Media & Entertainment. ITV is a television powerhouse in Britain, with \u201cLove Island,\u201d \u201cMidsomer Murders\u201d and the hugely popular FIFA World Cup. It operates a robust TV production studio and free-to-air channels that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2490867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2490866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Comcasts-Sky-to-buy-Britains-ITV-in-21-billion-deal.com2Fa72Fa12F1d115d2c4261b55aa63ba551.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2490866"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2490868,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490866\/revisions\/2490868"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2490867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2490866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2490866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2490866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Carolyn McCall, the CEO of ITV, said in a statement. \u201cThis transaction builds on that momentum to deliver clear, tangible value for shareholders.\u201d<\/p>\n