--- title: "Sky Nears a £1.6bn Takeover of ITV's Broadcasting Arm, With a £2bn Content Pledge" description: "Comcast-owned Sky has reportedly agreed terms to buy ITV's broadcasting and streaming business for around £1.6 billion, paired with a roughly £2 billion pledge to keep funding British television — a deal that would reshape UK media and test the country's rules on who can own its broadcasters." category: "Companies" category_url: https://boursel.com/category/companies author: "Hannah Blackwood" published: 2026-06-28T17:43:00.000Z updated: 2026-06-28T17:43:00.000Z canonical: https://boursel.com/article/sky-nears-a-1-6-billion-pound-takeover-of-itvs-broadcasting-arm-with-a-2-billion tags: ["sky", "itv", "comcast", "media", "m-and-a", "uk"] --- # Sky Nears a £1.6bn Takeover of ITV's Broadcasting Arm, With a £2bn Content Pledge Comcast-owned Sky has reportedly agreed terms to buy ITV's broadcasting and streaming business for around £1.6 billion, paired with a roughly £2 billion pledge to keep funding British television — a deal that would reshape UK media and test the country's rules on who can own its broadcasters. A landmark consolidation of British television is taking shape. **Sky**, the pay-TV and streaming group owned by US cable giant **Comcast**, has reportedly agreed terms to acquire **ITV's** broadcasting and streaming business — its TV channels and the ITVX streaming service — for around **£1.6 billion**, [according to reporting compiled by IBC](https://www.ibc.org/ott-streaming/news/sky-agrees-terms-to-buy-itvs-broadcast-and-streaming-unit/22794) and [Reuters](https://www.tradingview.com/news/reuters.com,2026:newsml_L1N42W134:0-comcast-owned-sky-reaches-terms-to-buy-itvs-broadcast-unit-sources-say/), with a formal announcement said to be close. Alongside it comes a **£2 billion commitment** to keep spending on British-made programming. ## What's being bought — and what isn't The deal would split ITV in two. Sky would take **ITV's Media & Entertainment arm** — the **free-to-air** channels (ITV1, ITV2 and the rest) that have anchored British TV for 70 years, plus the **ITVX** streaming platform. But **ITV Studios** — the production business that makes hit shows like *Coronation Street* and sells programs to broadcasters worldwide — would stay independent. (As part of the reshuffle, ITV Studios is reported to be buying Sky's stake in Love Productions, maker of *The Great British Bake Off*.) The split is significant: it would end ITV's decades-old **vertical integration**, separating the company that *makes* the shows from the one that *broadcasts* them. ## Why the £2bn pledge The headline number alongside the price tag is a **£2 billion content commitment**, reportedly a multi-year promise to keep commissioning British programming — including the soaps and dramas that ITV's channels depend on. That pledge isn't charity; it's politics. It is designed to reassure UK regulators and politicians that handing a flagship public broadcaster to an American owner won't hollow out home-grown production or the jobs behind it. ## Why now The logic is the same one squeezing traditional broadcasters everywhere: **streaming**. Netflix, Amazon and Disney spend billions on content and have pulled viewers and advertising away from old-line channels. Sky and ITV argue that combining ITV's mass free-to-air audience with Sky's streaming technology, data and subscriber base creates a stronger competitor against the US giants than either could be alone. UK advertising has been shifting online for years, pressuring the ad-funded broadcasters most exposed to it. ## The regulatory gauntlet This is where it gets hard. A deal of this kind would face scrutiny from the UK's competition regulator (the **CMA**), the media regulator (**Ofcom**), and the government, with the Culture Secretary holding a public-interest say. The most sensitive issue is **news**: ITV holds a large stake in **ITN**, which supplies news not only to ITV but to rival broadcasters — so regulators will probe whether a Comcast-owned ITV gives one foreign company too much sway over British news. Rivals dependent on advertising are expected to object on competition grounds, and Sky would likely have to guarantee ITV's **public-service obligations** — regional news, UK-originated shows — for years to win clearance. ## What it means For viewers and the industry, the stakes are real: a single owner spanning Britain's biggest free channels and a major streaming service would reshape the advertising market and the balance of power in UK media. Supporters say scale is the only realistic defense against the streamers; critics say it concentrates too much of Britain's screens and news in one set of foreign hands. With terms reportedly agreed but the deal not yet formally announced — and regulators still to weigh in — the figures here are the **reported terms**, and the months ahead will decide whether they survive contact with Britain's media-ownership rules. ## Sources - [Sky agrees terms to buy ITV's broadcast and streaming unit](https://www.ibc.org/ott-streaming/news/sky-agrees-terms-to-buy-itvs-broadcast-and-streaming-unit/22794) - [Comcast-owned Sky reaches terms to buy ITV's broadcast unit (Reuters)](https://www.tradingview.com/news/reuters.com,2026:newsml_L1N42W134:0-comcast-owned-sky-reaches-terms-to-buy-itvs-broadcast-unit-sources-say/)