ITV hits such as I'm a Celebrity to stay free to watch after Sky takeover

ByFaarea Masud

Business reporter

Popular ITV shows such as Coronation Street, Emmerdale, I'm a Celebrity and Love Island will remain free to watch until at least 2034 following its sale to Sky.

The £1.6bn deal to buy ITV's media and entertainment divisions is one of the biggest takeovers in British media history. The companies say it will create a strong rival to global streaming giants.

Sky chief executive Dana Strong told the BBC that ITV's programmes would remain free-to-air at least until its public service licence obligations expire in 2034.

Some Sky sports coverage would be made available to watch for free on ITV, Strong added.

The sale includes ITV's broadcast channels and its ITVX streaming service. However, ITV's studio arm, which makes programmes such as Love Island and I'm a Celebrity, is not included in the deal.

The takeover means Sky will get access to millions more viewers, as well as scale and prominence on a free-to-air platform.

Strong told the BBC: "If viewers still love Coronation Street in 10 years' time, and I imagine they will, then we'll be negotiating with ITV Studios to make sure that ITV remains the home of Coronation Street, and we would love for it to remain free to air."

She added: "It's really hard to predict 10 years away, though, so we've got a five-year deal for all of the content that consumers love, and we'll start renegotiating those deals closer to the time," she added.

She said the broadcaster's intention was "to take some of the sport that is currently on Sky and put it onto ITV so that we can build audiences and fandom for across the world of sport that we cover."

In a statement announcing the deal, Sky said the UK media market was undergoing "a profound and rapid transformation, and as competition for audiences intensifies, scale matters more than ever in order to compete with global streaming giants and YouTube in the UK".

Former ITV chairman Sir Peter Bazalgette, who owns shares in ITV, said the deal was "essential" for the survival of the broadcasters.

"If we don't see consolidation between domestic broadcasters, we won't have any in 20 years time and it's the same for all the European countries because of the competition from the streamers," he told the BBC's Today programme.

"It's a good deal for viewers because it sustains, will sustain, ITV's investment – as its obligations are as a public service broadcaster – in international news, national news, regional news and all the programmes that its viewers love", he said.

Sir Peter added that consolidating channels in the UK would put them in a better position to compete against global players, as the sheer size of the US media market gave its firms huge financial firepower.

The takeover is still subject to approval from regulators, but when it is completed ITV Studios will become a standalone business.

Under the terms of the deal, ITV will receive £1.2bn in cash and Sky's Love Productions business, whose shows include Great British Bake Off, which is valued at £200m. ITV will also get a further £200m in 2028 if it meets advertising revenue targets.

Sky said it had also agreed to spend £2.1bn on content from ITV Studios over a five-year period.

Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, said the deal would be a "significant step in the reshaping of Europe's media landscape".

"Traditional broadcasters are having to change tactics fast in the battle for audiences whose attention is increasingly fragmented across streaming platforms, social media and online video, making advertising revenues harder to sustain," she said.