‘The UK Requires Some Media Free of US Control’: Comcast’s Bid for ITV Starts to Focus Minds

The prospect of Comcast purchasing ITV has sparked apprehensions about the impact on British public service broadcasting, a fact that the broadcaster's new chief executive, moving from a key role at Sky, will be all too well aware of.

Sky’s advertising chief, Priya Dogra, will now be tasked to take a leading role to thwart her ex-company's takeover plan to defend Channel 4.

The envisaged union of Sky and ITV’s TV business would leave Channel 4 a much smaller player in the realm of TV and digital ad sales, fueling debate of the need to revisit some form of alliance with the BBC for future viability.

Primary Concern: The Future of News

However, it is the likely impacts on the future of news provision that are causing the most present anxiety for many within the television industry.

The unexpected announcement last month that Comcast, which controls assets including Universal Studios and bought Rupert Murdoch’s Sky for £30bn in 2018, is financially rational. Traditional broadcasters are facing a profound survival challenge as audiences and revenues continue to swiftly shift to global digital players such as Meta, Google, Amazon, and Netflix.

“Comcast’s move for ITV is causing nervousness among media watchers, with especial focus for news provision.”

However, the potential £1.6bn takeover of ITV’s television business and streaming service, which would end 70 years of autonomy, is riddled with regulatory, political, and competition issues.

At a stroke, Comcast would control Sky News and ITV News—including its extensive regional news operation—and become the largest shareholder in ITN, which produces news for ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5.

While Comcast’s 40% stake in ITN would not be a dominant share—other shareholders include the owner of the Daily Mail, Thomson Reuters, and Informa—it would still be heavily involved in the news output of most of the main commercial broadcasters.

“If a deal materialises, the fate of ITN is an interesting one that will concentrate attention politically,” comments one senior TV executive. “Effectively, they will be involved in the news output of all the biggest non-BBC channels.”

Financial Commitments and Regulatory Scrutiny

Comcast pledged to keep funding Sky News for a decade, increasing its funding annually in line with inflation, as part of its 2018 takeover of Sky. As that assurance draws closer to expiring, concerns have been raised about whether the US company will continue to fully fund Sky News, which has an annual budget of £100m but is thought to operate at a deficit of as much as £80m.

It is believed that any deal to buy ITV would include guarantees not to seek permission from media regulator Ofcom to change the conditions of its public service broadcast licence, which includes duties to national and regional news.

“There are definitely questions about media diversity,” says Stewart Puvis, a former ITN chief executive. “Theoretically, Comcast could, say, merge Sky and ITV News and use its position as a 40% shareholder in ITN to assert control... I would hope Comcast appreciate ways of solving these problems.”

A System Under Threat

British TV executives have previously highlighted the risk posed to the UK’s system of public service broadcasters (PSBs) by large parts of the industry being acquired by US corporations.

Recently, Ofcom published a report warning that public service television, such as news provision and UK-focused content, risks becoming an “threatened entity” as viewers migrate to US online platforms and streamers.

The watchdog also revealed data showing that YouTube had overtaken ITV to become the UK’s second most-watched media service, behind only the BBC, with it and Netflix now the two most popular first TV destinations among young people.

A Call for Collaboration

There are those who believe that a Sky takeover of ITV, against the backdrop of the viewer shift to mostly US digital companies, heralds the need for closer partnership between the UK’s biggest broadcasters.

“The UK wants and needs its own part of mass media which isn’t US controlled,” says a second broadcasting executive. “It’s a national strategic imperative. I think the government needs to work out how the boards of the PSBs have a new part to their remits that requires them to collaborate.”

Given that advertisers follow eyeballs, a combination of Sky and ITV could create a British TV and streaming giant, with the two companies’ sales houses controlling a dominant share of total ad spend on traditional TV and broadcasters’ streaming services.

Regulatory Hurdles

Any deal will prompt an investigation by the UK competition watchdog. Sky is hoping the regulator will widen the scope of the ad market to include the impact of giants like YouTube and Facebook.

“I think it will get passed,” says Alex DeGroote, a media analyst. “Comcast will do everything it can to say it will maintain the PSB status quo... But you don’t buy to ultimately keep everything the same. ITV plus Sky would give them a hugely dominant position in the TV ad market.”

Structural Challenges of Channel 4 and the BBC

Channel 4, which relies on advertising for the vast majority of its income, now faces a eroded BBC as a potential partner and a formidable commercial threat from a combined Sky-ITV.

“We may at some point end up in that situation because of the deep cumulative cuts to the BBC’s funding and because Channel 4, too, has a core budgetary challenge,” says Patrick Barwise, an emeritus professor at London Business School. “Channel 4 has repeatedly outperformed forecasts, but that is just postponing the problem. It’s now beginning to run out of road.”

The continuing debate emphasises a wider dilemma for British media: how to safeguard a domestic voice and a robust public service ecosystem in an ever more globalised and digitally dominated landscape.