What Sky buying ITV could mean for your favourite shows
Of course, Sky could take some ITV programs off the air or renegotiate their contracts at some point. You wouldn’t take over another company without believing savings would be made (and some point to the synergies that could be created on the tech platform side by potentially combining ITVX and Sky’s streaming services in the future).
Frost believes that in the longer term, users of both existing streaming platforms ITVX and NOW can expect to see more “integrated services, for example bundling titles together by genre rather than channel” as a natural way to reduce production costs and cross-advertise.
But when it comes to programmes, they won’t be able to make significant changes to these beloved shows until the supply agreement expires.
Producer Patrick Spence thinks the deal is “exciting.” He won a BAFTA for Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which was a huge hit on ITV in 2024, with nearly 15 million viewers. He is currently producing the thriller Two Birds, starring Sheridan Smith, for ITV.
He has also produced series for Sky and told me that ITV and Sky are “very good bedfellows in many ways”.
“When they get behind a show, they really get behind it,” Spence says. “They want to do water cooler shows that will bring audiences together.”
He believes the deal is a sign that the regularly predicted demise of so-called linear TV has been exaggerated.
“We hear about the death of broadcast television all too often,” he adds. “For producers, it is said that we are staring at the edge of a cliff where the only place we can sell our programs will be to broadcasters or some version of the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 combined.
“My takeaway from this deal as a producer and viewer is that Sky really have to love and believe in ITV just to buy the network. They think it’s a business that needs to be grown and driven, leveraging the viewer reach and loyalty that the ITV network has.”
