Sky agrees £1.6bn ITV Media & Entertainment takeover
July 6, 2026 10.42 Europe/London By Julian Clover


Sky has agreed to acquire ITV’s Media & Entertainment division in a £1.6 billion deal that would create one of the UK’s largest commercial broadcasters and streaming businesses while leaving ITV Studios as a standalone production company.

The transaction, subject to regulatory approval, would combine Sky’s pay-TV, broadband and streaming operations with ITV’s free-to-air channels and ITVX streaming platform. Sky said the combined business would account for around 20% of all in-home television viewing in the UK, second only to the BBC and ahead of YouTube.

The deal follows a wave of consolidation across the global media industry. Comcast recently announced plans to separate NBCUniversal and Sky into a standalone publicly listed media company, while Paramount is pursuing its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, a deal currently under scrutiny from regulators in both the UK and European Union.

Sky said ITV1, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4, ITV Quiz and ITVX would all remain free-to-air following the acquisition, with all public service broadcasting obligations maintained. ITV Studios, however, is excluded from the transaction and will continue as an independent company, supported by a new £2.1 billion, five-year content supply agreement with Sky.

Dana Strong, Group CEO of Sky, described the deal as “a defining moment for British media”.

ITV Chief Executive Carolyn McCall said the sale would unlock shareholder value while preserving ITV’s public service role.

The companies expect to generate around £200 million in annual cost savings within three years, primarily through technology, marketing and content efficiencies.

In an interview with Sky News, Strong was keen to emphasise that popular shows such as Coronation Street, Love Island and I’m a Celebrity, would continue to be broadcast free-to-air and hinted at the possibility that some sports coverage will find its way from Sky onto ITV. “We’ll work with our sporting partners to supercharge the sports offering on ITV.” This weekend Channel was relaying Sky’s coverage of an international cricket match, a deal one can imagine might go the way of ITV4 in future.

As part of the transaction, Sky will acquire ITV’s Channel 3 licences, including UTV, and inherit the associated public service broadcasting commitments through to 2034. ITV News and Sky News will continue to operate as separate editorial organisations, while Sky will become an indirect 20% shareholder in ITN.

It would appear illogical for Sky to permanently run two UK news operations. In 2018, Sky and Comcast committed to Sky News for a period of 10 years, while the current deal with ITN to supply news to the ITV Network expires in 2030.

Strong sees strength in ITV’s regional coverage. “We think news is a really big opportunity for us because we think we can supercharge regional news, the accessibility and essentially the awareness of the regional news. I think there are so many stories happening around the UK. And ITV does a brilliant job covering that. We want to bring those into the digital platform and really bring those into more light and have them be much more accessible front and centre”.

The acquisition represents one of the biggest changes to the UK broadcasting landscape in decades, bringing together the country’s leading commercial free-to-air broadcaster with its largest pay television operator. It also reflects the wider trend of consolidation as broadcasters seek greater scale to compete with global streaming platforms including Netflix, Disney+ and YouTube.