The UK government has formally moved Sky’s takeover of ITV’s broadcast and streaming business from commercial negotiation into regulatory review. On Wednesday, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy filed a Public Interest Intervention Notice asking Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate the deal.
Two reviews, two lenses
Ofcom’s review will focus on public-interest questions, including the need for free expression of opinion in news media and a sufficient plurality of views in each UK news market. It will also consider the availability of a wide range of broadcasting and on-demand programmes across the country.
The CMA will run a parallel competition review. Nandy’s office said the companies had submitted their representations on the concerns, and she decided to issue the notice after considering them.
The asset behind the scrutiny
ITV agreed in July to sell its media and entertainment arm to Sky for £1.6 billion. The sale covers ITV’s terrestrial channels and streaming service ITVX. Production arm ITV Studios would continue as a separate company.
Sky is the largest pay-TV operator in the UK and has been expanding into broadband and mobile. Comcast acquired Sky in 2018. The deal would combine that distribution strength with ITV’s position as Britain’s largest commercial free-to-air broadcaster.
Sky CEO Dana Strong called the agreement “a defining moment for British media.” ITV CEO Carolyn McCall framed it as creating “a U.K. champion” with the scale to compete with global streaming platforms. Critics, and now regulators, are focused on the market power that scale could carry.
What media buyers should watch
The notice is a signal that clearance will be tested, not automatic. If the deal clears with conditions, those remedies could shape ad inventory, data access and negotiation power across pay-TV, terrestrial and streaming reach.
- Audit current reach overlap across Sky and ITVX inventory before the next plan cycle.
- Model three scenarios: clearance, block, or clearance with public-interest conditions.
- Track Ofcom’s plurality framing alongside the CMA’s competition test, because both will shape the outcome.
The deciding phase
The source does not set a timeline. What matters now is the regulatory design: any conditions attached to approval may matter more to planners than the clearance itself.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
