Comcast’s Sky has agreed to buy the broadcast channels and streaming service of Britain’s ITV for £1.6 billion (US$2.13 billion), creating a British champion to compete with global players YouTube, Netflix, Amazon and Disney.
Sky CEO Dana Strong said the deal, announced on Monday and confirming a Reuters story, was a “defining moment” in British broadcasting.
The combination of Britain’s biggest free-to-air commercial broadcaster, home of the soap opera Coronation Street, and subscription television company Sky would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, but the rise of YouTube and the streaming giants has left traditional companies exposed.
Regulators and lawmakers will now decide if they accept the companies’ argument that the radical change warrants more flexibility in how deals are assessed.
The merger of the public service channels of ITV, and the leading pay-TV business of Sky, founded by Rupert Murdoch in 1989, would account for about 70 per cent of the UK linear television advertising market, including contracts for third-party broadcasters, analysts have said.
Linear TV is a sector in structural decline as audiences move to streaming and digital content.