Dana Strong, the chief executive of Sky, has said that ITV will remain a “deeply British” business after her company agreed a £1.6 billion ($2.1 billion) takeover of a crown jewel of UK broadcasting.
Sky’s acquisition of ITV’s television and streaming unit, which was announced early on Monday, will effectively put two UK public service broadcasters under the control of Hollywood.
Sky will be part of the NBCUniversal empire once the company is spun off from Comcast. Meanwhile, 5 is owned by Paramount, which is also hoovering up Warner Bros. Discovery assets in the UK.
On a call with journalists, Strong told Deadline: “Sky and ITV will remain deeply British. The entire strategy is around creating UK cultural moments that matter.”
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ITV CEO Carolyn McCall, who described the sale as “historic,” added that Sky is seen as a British business after being founded by Rupert Murdoch before being sold to Comcast.
“This deal is not about what’s happening in Hollywood. This is a deal about Britain. This is about investing in British content,” McCall said. “We think this is strengthening PSB because it keeps ITV protected and preserved.”
Both McCall and Strong used the same phrase to describe the merged company, a British “streaming champion,” in what is clearly a coordinated message about their ambitions.
On Sky becoming part of NBCUniversal, Strong continued: “We have a shared cultural heritage, NBC and Sky. We’ve both been passionate about bringing sports and entertainment events to consumers.
“We have a very strong partnership where we’ve already been working on key content together, so some of our biggest shows, like The Day of the Jackal and SNL UK, were all done in a co-production environment with NBC.”
Sky and ITV are combining to become the UK’s biggest commercial broadcaster so they can better compete with overseas tech giants, such as TikTok and YouTube, but they will have to make their case to regulators in a lengthy antitrust process.
McCall said the deal will take between a year and 18 months to get past competition authorities. The companies are expected to make the case that they are fishing in a UK-wide pool for advertisers, not just in the broadcasting space. Strong said Sky and ITV’s share of the British market will be 6.5%.
