Sky Buys ITV: The Great British TV Plot Twist

In the age of Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, Prime Video and whatever app your smart TV is trying to make you download this week, British television has just served up one of its biggest plot twists in years.

Sky, owned by Comcast, has agreed a £1.6bn deal to buy ITV’s Media and Entertainment business, including its broadcast channels and ITVX streaming service. According to ITV’s own market announcement, the deal is worth up to £1.6bn, made up of £1.2bn in cash, Sky’s Love Productions business, valued at £200m and a further potential £200m payment in 2028 if advertising revenue targets are met. ITV Studios is not part of the sale and will become a standalone business.

That means the shows may stay familiar, but the channel behind them is about to change dramatically.

For viewers, the headline reassurance is simple: the likes of Coronation Street, Emmerdale, I’m a Celebrity and Love Island are expected to remain free to watch until at least 2034, when ITV’s current public service broadcasting licence obligations expire. Sky chief executive Dana Strong told the BBC that ITV’s programmes would remain free-to-air during that period, and said Sky would negotiate with ITV Studios to keep Coronation Street on ITV if audiences still want it in 10 years’ time.

The Guardian reports that Sky has also reassured viewers that popular ITV programmes and key sports events will not be moved behind a paywall. Sky has committed to spend £2.1bn on ITV Studios content between 2028 and 2032, helping protect the supply of the shows that make ITV feel like ITV.

There is another intriguing part of the deal too. Strong told the BBC that Sky intends to put some sport currently shown on Sky onto ITV for free, with the aim of building bigger audiences and fandom around the sports it covers. For viewers used to the hard divide between free-to-air moments and subscription sport, that could be a genuinely interesting shift.

But this is about much more than Corrie staying on the cobbles.

Sky said the UK media market is going through “profound and rapid transformation”, with scale now vital as broadcasters compete with global streaming giants and YouTube. Reuters described the deal as a major reshaping of the UK TV market, bringing together ITV’s public service channels and ITVX with Sky’s pay-TV operation, while noting that the combined business would have significant power in UK television advertising.

Former ITV chairman Sir Peter Bazalgette, who owns ITV shares, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the deal was “essential” for the survival of domestic broadcasters. His argument is blunt: without consolidation, Europe’s national broadcasters risk being overwhelmed by global streamers with far deeper pockets.

Wealth Club’s Susannah Streeter called the deal “a significant step in the reshaping of Europe’s media landscape”, warning that traditional broadcasters are having to move fast as audiences fragment across streaming, social media and online video.

The deal still needs regulatory approval, and scrutiny will be intense. But one thing is clear: this is not just a business story. It is a story about what British TV becomes next.

For now, the soaps stay free, ITVX stays in the game, and Sky gets a giant free-to-air front door. The streamers have changed the rules. Now British broadcasting is trying to change shape before the credits roll.