Comcast’s Sky Group has little interest in converting ITV’s free sports broadcasts into a paid opportunity on Sky’s satellite and streaming platforms, the company’s chief executive largely affirmed in a television interview on Monday.
Instead, Sky will look for opportunities to create synergies between the two broadcasters and their sports rights, preserving free access to premium events and franchises like Formula 1, Premier League and the men’s Rugby World Cup tournament, in addition to select matches from the FIFA World Cup men’s soccer tournament that are shared with the BBC.
“The protected sports absolutely stay on the free-to-air channels, first and foremost,” Sky CEO Dana White confirmed on Monday. “They will always be free. We’re really excited about that.”
Sky currently shares Premier League rights with ITV, in addition to other live soccer games from English Football League, Bundesliga and Scottish Professionals Football League. It also airs more than 3,000 events from other sports like cricket, motorsport, boxing, rugby and the National Football League (NFL) in the United States, most of which are shared with other broadcasters, including ITV.
Moving forward, White said there are opportunities to utilize some of ITV’s presentation style and technology on Sky’s multiplex sports networks, and to bring some of Sky’s coverage in other areas to ITV’s platforms, whether for free or through its subscription streaming service.
“We have the opportunity to work with sporting partners to put some of that onto the ITV platforms to build the stories and awareness and follower-ship of sport in the country,” White affirmed.
She offered no further insight into what that synergy might look like, but implied that ITV will help drive interest in Sky’s sports rights through storytelling, while Sky does the same for ITV’s sports through its sports journalism.
On Monday, Comcast confirmed reports that it was interested in ITV, agreeing to pay more than £1.6 billion (U.S. $2.1 billion) for the public broadcaster, its linear television channels and streaming platform ITVX. ITV Studios will become a separate business.
Comcast is in the process of spinning out Sky Group and NBC Universal into a standalone company, which will inherit ITV’s assets should the deal gain all necessary regulatory and shareholder approvals.
After transaction costs, ITV expects net cash proceeds of approximately £1.05 billion (U.S. $1.42 billion). The company said it intends to reduce ITV Studios’ leverage before returning roughly £950 million (U.S. $1.28 billion), or about 90 percent of net proceeds, to shareholders.
