Key Points
- Comcast is interested in acquiring ITV’s linear television business.
- The deal would not include ITV Studios, the content production arm.
- ITV’s CEO says no deal is on the table just yet, and it’s business as usual.
Comcast has expressed an interest in acquiring certain assets of British public service broadcaster (PSB) ITV, according to a filing made with British financial regulators on Friday.
The affirmation came from ITV itself in a statement delivered to the London Stock Exchange, which cautioned the discussions between it and Comcast’s Sky Group were in its preliminary stage.
According to the statement, Sky Group is willing to pay £1.6 billion (around U.S. $2.15 billion) for ITV’s linear broadcast channels and cable networks business, which would greatly expand the number of free-to-air channels in Comcast’s portfolio.
The deal would not include ITV Studios, the content production business owned by ITV, which would be retained and operated as a standalone company.
In an all-staff email on Friday, ITV CEO Dame Carolyn McCall said employees should not assume too much from news media reports, since there was no definitive deal on the table.
“While we don’t have any more information we can share today, I want to reassure you we will be as open and transparent as possible,” she wrote. “At this stage, it’s very much business as usual.”
The revelation comes several months after Comcast announced an advertising pact with ITV, which was predicated on strengthening the linear TV ad market at a time when many budgets have shifted to streaming platforms. Channel 4, a commercial PSB that is publicly-owned, is also a participant in the arrangement.
In recent years, Comcast has been in more of a selling phase with respect to its European television businesses, which have weighed on some of its financial earnings. In Germany, Comcast offloaded Sky Deutschland to RTL Deutschland for $175 million after determining that portion of Sky Group was underperforming compared to its British business.
