ITV remains in talks over Sky TV deal as profits slip

Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, said: “ITV remains locked in takeover talks with Sky to sell its broadcasting and streaming arm.

“This keeps hopes alive for what could be the most significant deal in the UK media space for a long time.

“Getting a deal over the line would be transformational for ITV, leaving it free to focus its entire energy on content creation.

“Broadcasting is a tough industry and there is little visibility on advertising-related earnings.

“While linear TV viewing continues to be in decline, ITV has done a fantastic job of pivoting to the digital world with its streaming platform and that will be a key attraction to Sky.

“Sky clearly sees an opportunity to boost its position among UK audiences and strike bigger deals with advertisers.

“It is playing the consolidation game to build scale.

“Sky would get more channels to build into its ecosystem and potentially achieve substantial cost-savings by embedding ITV’s operations into its own.

“Quite who will want to buy ITV’s broadcasting business if Sky pulls out is unknown.

“Lots of people may want the studios arm, but the rest only has limited appeal and there are very few buyers for whom it would make logical sense to acquire.”