ITV confirms talks with Comcast

News of the potential acquisition for £1.6bn saw ITV’s shares jump by as much as 20% on Friday morning. The sale would include the broadcaster’s terrestrial TV channels and streaming service ITVX, but not the ITV Studios production arm.

In a statement first released to the London Stock Exchange, ITV said that it was in “preliminary discussions regarding a possible sale of its M&E business to Sky for an enterprise value of £1.6bn.”

It added: “There can be no certainty as to the terms upon which any potential sale may be agreed or whether any transaction will take place. A further announcement will be made in due course if appropriate.”

Reports of a potential takeover of ITV have surfaced throughout the year, including discussions with RedBird IMI in January and potential interest from Banijay back in April.

On 5 Nov, ITV released its Q3 trading update, citing that performance for the first three quarters of 2025 was “better than market expectations” and that ITV Studios was on track to deliver revenue growth of 13-15% for the year. While digital advertising was up 15% for the YTD (predominantly driven by ITVX), the company warned of a decrease in total advertising revenue (TAR), which was down 5% for the YTD. As such, ITV had identified £35m of “additional temporary savings in M&E for Q4”.

Carolyn McCall, ITV Chief Executive, said: “UK macro data is showing a softening economy, with increased uncertainty in the lead up to the UK Budget which is impacting the wider advertising market, and we are adjusting our costs to match this current reduction in demand. We do not anticipate these temporary savings to impact our ability to deliver our strategic plan.”

Last month, John Malone’s US media and telecoms group Liberty Global sold around half of its 10% stake in ITV for a reported £135m. Liberty said that it was “actively managing our Liberty Growth portfolio, disposing of certain assets while prioritising our scale-based investments. As part of that process, we are divesting part of our stake in ITV.”