ITV sells TV channels and streaming service ITVX to Sky for £1.6 billion

ITV on July 7, 2026 agreed to sell its media and entertainment division to Sky, a subsidiary of American conglomerate Comcast, for a sum of up to £1.6 billion. The deal reshapes the map of British television: Sky acquires the ITV channels and ITVX streaming service, while ITV itself transforms into a purely production business.

What's included in the deal

The subject of the sale is ITV's broadcasting division in its entirety. Sky acquires television channels under the ITV brand — Britain's oldest commercial broadcaster, founded in 1955 — as well as the ITVX streaming platform, launched in December 2022 as a replacement for the previous ITV Hub service. ITVX was positioned as the main competitor to Netflix and Disney+ in the free streaming segment: basic access without subscription, premium content — for a fee.

• Buyer — Sky, 100% owned by Comcast (USA)
• Sum — up to £1.6 billion, with probable earnout component
• Assets — ITV channels and ITVX streaming service
• ITV after the deal — production studio without its own broadcast and platform

Why ITV decided on the business split

British terrestrial television is experiencing a systemic structural crisis. The audience is steadily migrating to streaming, linear viewing on schedule is declining, advertising budgets are following viewer attention — television advertising is losing share to digital platforms and targeted formats.

Against the backdrop of these tectonic shifts, maintaining broadcasting infrastructure was becoming increasingly expensive, and competing with Netflix or Amazon Prime Video in streaming with a limited budget was becoming increasingly difficult. A split into broadcast and production businesses is the classic industry response in such situations.

ITV Studios, the production division of the group, created such global formats as Love Island, Loose Women and Coronation Street. Rights to them are sold to dozens of broadcasters around the world and generate licensing income independent of the state of the British advertising market. By keeping the studio, ITV receives predictable diversified revenue, while transferring expensive distribution to someone with the scale to finance it.

What Sky gains from the acquisition

Sky already holds a dominant position in British pay television: more than ten million subscribers, its own Sky News channel, a powerful sports lineup. Adding ITV channels and ITVX streaming significantly strengthens the company's position in the entertainment content segment.

For Comcast — the American parent holding of Sky, which also owns NBCUniversal — the deal strengthens European positions and adds rights to popular British formats to the global content portfolio.

What changes for viewers

In the short term, little will change for audiences: the ITV channels and ITVX platform will continue to operate in the usual manner. An open question is what Sky will do with ITVX in the medium term: integrate it into its ecosystem, merge it with Now TV, or keep it as a standalone product.

At the market level, the deal signifies further consolidation of British television. After its closure, Sky, together with the BBC and Channel 4, will form the core of domestic broadcasting — but now under the control of an American conglomerate.

What this means

The sale of ITV's broadcasting wing to Sky is yet another confirmation that the era of traditional terrestrial television as a self-sufficient business is ending. Where once a broadcaster was a unified whole from soundstage to antenna, production and distribution are now diverging across different companies, following the logic of specialization and consolidation of capital.