Comcast’s Sky in early talks to acquire ITV broadcast business for $2.1bn

ITV in the UK has confirmed it is in preliminary discussions regarding a possible sale of its broadcasting business to Comcast-owned Sky for £1.6bn (US$2.1bn).

Carolyn McCall

In a statement, ITV said a deal has not yet been agreed and there is no guarantee the potential sale will take place. A further announcement will be made in due course if appropriate, the company added.

The deal for ITV’s media and entertainment (M&E) unit does not include ITV Studios, the production and distribution giant that has been a major revenue generator for the company in recent years.

ITV’s M&E unit, meanwhile, has seen declining revenue, as reported in the broadcaster’s financial results this week.

The deal would give US media giant Comcast and UK pay broadcaster Sky a free-to-air foothold in the UK, with ITV the country’s largest commercial network. It would also include ITVX, the ad-supported streaming service, as well as other free-to-air linear TV channels.

It comes after US cable giant Liberty Global last month halved its holding in ITV, selling 193.4 million shares for around £135m to reduce its stake in the broadcaster, which is led by CEO Carolyn McCall, from roughly 10% to about 5%.

This made independent investor Redwheel ITV’s largest shareholder, with approximately 6% of the company, and was viewed as Liberty Global potentially opening the door to a long-rumoured sale.

Comcast, meanwhile, appears to be in a major M&A drive, having reportedly hired Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to explore a bid for key Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) studio and streaming assets, joining Netflix in the race for the Harry Potter studio.

WBD president and CEO David Zaslav has said an “active” sale process is underway after the US media company posted strong studio results, middling streaming numbers and poor linear financials in the third quarter of 2025.

ITV is regularly involved in M&A speculation, both as an acquisition target and as an asset buyer, which ramped up earlier this year following reports several companies, including Banijay, were interested in a potential takeover.

McCall reportedly held talks last year with the company’s financial advisors about the potential merits of separating its two main business units, M&E and ITV Studios.

Such a move has been mulled in the past but has not come to fruition, in part due to the complication of separating the broadcast and channels business from the studio unit that supplies most of its content.

Like so many channel-owning media companies, ITV is managing significant decline in its linear business while simultaneously growing its direct-to-consumer offering with ITVX. The broadcast group’s share price has languished in recent years and a £1.6bn price tag for its M&E business is massively down on its worth a decade ago.

However, Comcast, via its UK asset Sky, would gain a broadcaster with a strong legacy and valuable sports rights to competitions such as the FIFA World Cup, coverage of which ITV shares with the BBC in the UK.