Broadcast article (in multiple parts)4 Dec 2025 09:46
“Pay-TV giant’s £1.6bn proposal to buy PSB’s broadcast and streaming assets centres on reach, complementary content and windowing possibilities
Sky’s proposed £1.6bn of ITV’s broadcast and streaming assets aims to create a “UK commercial streaming champion”.
That is the plan, according to a source close to the deal. They cautioned that there is “no certainty it will happen” but a senior Sky exec noted the potential to “put together quite a powerful force in the UK” to take on the might of global players, such as Netflix and recently merged Paramount Skydance.
An ITV broadcasting executive was similarly optimistic, sharing the view that consolidation seems inevitable, and the PSB’s stock exchange acknowledgement of preliminary discussions at £1.6bn suggests that while there is a lot of negotiation ahead, this if far from a hostile takeover approach.
From Sky’s perspective, it believes it can help with the macro issues ITV is facing –declining TV ad spend across the market – and that the two companies’ combined spending can help it compete with global giants.
In its Q3 financial results ITV revealed that, after some programming spend would have to be shifted to 2026, its content budget for 2025 stood at approximately £1.2bn. Sky’s figures are trickier to equate, because the company doesn’t break it down year-by-year, but it said it invests £500m a year in UK-originated creative content.
The race for greater scale is a key driver. A source highlighted that Netflix programme viewing figures are now sometimes on par with shows on BBC1, while a recent Ofcom report found that YouTube (14%) has overtaken ITV to become the second-most watched service in UK homes. ITV (12%), in third, is just ahead of Netflix (8%) while Sky’s proportion is 6%. “There’s an opportunity to provide genuine scale [by merging the businesses],” a source added.
“I see the logic for it. ITV’s cheap at the moment”
One former senior Sky exec told Broadcast that some sort of UK broadcasting consolidation has “been on the horizon for a while now” and that it feels necessary.
They added: “In the face of the global streamers, I don’t think we can sustain as many broadcasters and TV ad sales houses as we are right now. I see the logic for it. ITV’s cheap at the moment.”
Based on its share price, and Sky’s subsequent valuation, this appears true. Sky’s prospective £1.6bn offer is only a six times multiple on the media & entertainment (M&E) division’s EBITA for its last full-year results, which is at the lower end of recent industry deals.
M&E and ITV Studios’ contribution to ITV’s bottom line were broadly comparable in 2024, (£250m compared to £299m), with the former leaping by more than a fifth (22%) from 2023.
The multiple of six is less than half the almost 14x multiple that Comcast agreed when it bought Sky for £30bn in 2019, based on 2017 EBITDA of £2.15bn.
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