Sky expected to buy ITV broadcast and streaming arms in major takeover

The pay-TV, broadband and mobile company, owned by the American company Comcast, has been in talks to buy ITV's media and entertainment business including ITVX since last year.

For Sky, buying the broadcast arm of Britain's most watched commercial public service broadcaster makes sense. It will get access to millions of people, as well as scale and prominence on a free to air platform.

Media additions

Crucially, this takeover won't mean your favourite ITV shows are suddenly moved behind a paywall.

Caroline Frost, TV and podcast editor at Radio Times, says ITV is required by law to provide a free-to-air service until at least 2034 due to the public service broadcasting licence.

"Gradually, though, content which might debut on free/live-to-air ITV might end up on a subscription platform," Frost says.

In the short to medium-term, the big shows - Coronation Street, Love Island, Emmerdale, I'm a Celebrity - won't look any different. You'll still find them on ITV and ITVX, and they'll still be made by ITV Studios - that's ITV's production arm, which owns more than 60 production companies in Britain and around the world.

They also make programmes including Line of Duty for the BBC, Rivals for Disney Plus, and America's most streamed show, Love Island USA.

ITV Studios isn't being bought by Sky. If the deal goes ahead, it will become a company in its own right (ITV Studios PLC), still owned by the current ITV shareholders. Part of the Sky takeover agreement is expected to be a "supply deal", in other words, that ITV Studios continues to make those ITV shows and that they remain on ITV.

Producer Patrick Spence thinks the deal is "exciting". He won a BAFTA for Mr Bates vs The Post Office which was a huge hit on ITV in 2024, with around 15 million tuning in. He's currently producing Two Birds, a thriller starring Sheridan Smith for ITV.

He's also made dramas for Sky and told me ITV and Sky "are very good bedfellows in many ways".

"When they get behind a show, they really get behind it. They want to make water cooler shows that bring audiences together."

Camilla Lewis, founder of Curve Media, behind Chess Masters: The End Game among other shows - argues "the streamers are realising the importance and power of parochial programme making".

Netflix didn't anticipate supremely British-focused drama Baby Reindeer would be so popular globally. Disney commissions Rivals, also very British in taste.

"There is a constant battle between LA and London as to what gets commissioned by the US streamers," Lewis adds. "But there is demand for British content which has influenced commissioners.

"A Sky-ITV company would be foolish to pivot away from commissioning programmes with a national identity. It wouldn't make business sense."

For many, Sky is best known for its Sports coverage (the majority of televised Premier League games are still shown on Sky Sports, for example, and it now has the rights to broadcast Formula 1 in the UK until 2034).

Part of the appeal of the takeover from its perspective is that, as a public service broadcaster, ITV can bid for the 'listed' crown jewel tournaments that have to be shown live on a free-to-air channel such as the Olympic Games, Grand National and British Grand Prix.

In return for the benefits, ITV must broadcast a defined amount of national and regional news and 85% of the content it shows during its peak schedule must be original programming.

There is though some disquiet at ITN, which has made news bulletins for ITV ever since the channel launched in 1955.

It also now makes Good Morning Britain and its contract with ITV has just been renewed until 2031.