Popular ITV shows including Coronation Street, Love Island and I'm a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! will remain free to watch until at least 2034 after Sky's £1.6bn takeover of the broadcaster's media and entertainment divisions, the company's chief executive has confirmed.
The deal, one of the biggest in British media history, sees Sky – owned by US telecoms giant Comcast – pay £1.2bn in cash initially for ITV's free-to-air channels and streaming platform ITVX, with a further potential £200m in 2028 depending on 2027 advertising revenues. As part of the transaction, Comcast will sell its Love Productions business – which makes The Great British Bake Off – to ITV for £200m.
“Sky's £1.6bn takeover of ITV's broadcasting arm guarantees Coronation Street and Love Island remain free until at least 2034.”
Sky chief executive Dana Strong told the BBC that ITV's programmes would remain free-to-air at least until its public service licence obligations expire in 2034. "All of those shows will remain on the free ITV service," she said. "Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Love Island, I'm a Celebrity, Ant and Dec. There is no plan or intention of putting those loved shows behind a paywall."
However, Strong added a caveat for the longer term: "It's really hard to predict 10 years away, though, so we've got a five-year deal for all of the content that consumers love, and we'll start renegotiating those deals closer to the time." The broadcaster has committed to spending at least £2.1bn between 2028 and 2032 on ITV Studios – which is not part of the takeover and remains a standalone listed company – as part of a long-term strategic partnership.
The deal does not include Scottish broadcaster STV. It also excludes ITV's studio arm, which produces shows such as Love Island and I'm a Celebrity, as well as the hit drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office. That business will continue as an independent entity on the London Stock Exchange.
Strong said Sky planned to make some of its own sports coverage available free on ITV. "We're happy to support both ITV News and Sky News," she added, though she acknowledged it was "a little hard to predict the future" regarding how long that commitment would last.
Sky described the acquisition as a chance to create a "UK-focused national streaming champion" to compete with US platforms such as Netflix, YouTube and Amazon Prime Video. ITV's chief executive, Dame Carolyn McCall, said the deal was necessary because "the entire market has changed and the change has been exponential". She noted that streaming hours in the market had risen from 240,000 five years ago to 800,000, not even including YouTube.
If approved – the deal faces 12 to 18 months of regulatory scrutiny – it would mark the end of 70 years of ITV as an independent public service broadcaster. ITV's board expects to return £950m to shareholders, with a further £65m put into escrow for the benefit of the ITV pension scheme.