Sky owner Comcast in talks to buy ITV’s broadcasting arm for about £2bn
The parent company of Sky is in talks to buy ITV’s broadcasting business for about £2bn, in a move that would upend the British television landscape,The US media company Comcast, which owns assets including Universal Studios and bought Rupert Murdoch’s Sky for £30bn in 2018, is in talks to buy ITV’s broadcasting arm, which includes its TV channels and streaming service ITVX,A deal would not involve its production arm ITV Studios – the maker of shows including Love Island, I’m a Celebrity and the hit drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office – which has been the subject of separate takeover talks,It comes two decades after James Murdoch made an audacious move to become the biggest shareholder in the UK’s largest commercial free-to-air broadcaster,Rupert’s youngest son acquired a 17.
9% stake in ITV for £940m in 2006.Sky, which took the stake to block a move by Richard Branson to buy ITV after the cable companies NTL and Telewest merged to create Virgin Media, was ultimately forced by regulators to sell its holding.ITV’s largest single shareholder, Liberty Global, which jointly owns Virgin Media O2 with Spanish telecoms operator Telefónica, halved its 10% stake in ITV last month.The broadcaster’s value has slumped to £2.5bn, about 75% below levels seen a decade ago, as the Netflix-led streaming revolution has hammered the stocks of traditional broadcasters.
On Thursday, ITV reported that it would “temporarily” cut £35m from its budgets as it deals with the poor macroeconomic environment and advertiser uncertainty ahead of the budget later this month.The company said it expected advertising revenues, which still account for most of its income, to fall by 9% in the key fourth-quarter advertising period in the run-up to Christmas.ITV is being advised by the banks Robey Warshaw and Morgan Stanley.The performance of ITV Studios has led analysts to argue that the production arm alone could be worth more than the broadcasting business, which includes some of the UK’s most popular channels.Since buying Sky at a premium in a bidding war in 2018, Comcast has written down the value of the business by billions of dollars, mainly due to the poor performance of European operations in Italy and Germany.
Sky UK, which controls rights to crown-jewel assets including most of the rights to the Premier League, remains highly profitable.In June, Comcast agreed to sell its German pay-TV business to RTL, the former owner of Channel 5 in the UK, for €150m.ITV, Sky and Comcast declined to comment.
Why doesn’t Lammy just bring in a new policy of accidentally jailing people? | John Crace
It was a message of defiance. A show of strength from the justice department. The system may be in crisis but there was leadership at the very top. There was one prisoner who was most definitely not getting an accidental early release. And that was the justice secretary himself
Reform UK suspends another member of Kent county council
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has suspended another member of its “flagship” county council in Kent as it held its first full meeting since the party’s councillors were thrown into crisis by a leaked meeting revealing bitter internal tensions.The departure of Isabella Kemp, who had also worked as a data protection officer at Reform’s HQ, means the party has lost nine of the 57 councillors elected during the local elections in May.Kemp said she had started the process of taking Reform UK to a tribunal for unfair dismissal. She said she had contacted the conciliation service Acas and the whistleblowing charity Protect.The latest turmoil comes after the Guardian published a recording of an incendiary internal meeting in which the council leader, Linden Kemkaran, told dissenting Reform UK colleagues they had to “fucking suck it up” if they did not like her decisions
Lammy says he was not ‘equipped with the details’ when facing questions on mistaken prisoner release at PMQs – as it happened
David Lammy has recorded a pooled interview about the prisoner release mistakes reveaved after yesterday’s PMQs. There were three main lines in the excerpt available so far.Lammy, the deputy PM and justice secretary, defended his decision to dodge questions at PMQs yesterday about whether there had been another prisoner let out by mistake. The Conservatives have strongly criticised him for this, with Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, saying that Lammy’s non-answer was “dishonest”, and Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, saying Lammy’s PMQs performance was “a disgrace” and “a dereliction of duty”. (See 9
Badenoch accused of ‘interfering’ in lobbying scandal linked to Cameron
Lex Greensill has accused Kemi Badenoch of “interfering” in an insolvency case “for political ends” as the last Conservative government sought to protect David Cameron from scrutiny for his involvement in a lobbying scandal.The financier, whose companies paid Cameron millions of pounds, claimed that the current Tory leader used her former ministerial position as business secretary to restructure an inquiry into his activities.Greensill alleged that the move was made to protect Cameron as he was elevated to the House of Lords in November 2023 and brought back into government as the foreign secretary.The allegations were made in a letter sent to the current business secretary, Peter Kyle, as Greensill contests the possibility of being disqualified from company directorships for up to 15 years.Greensill claimed the decision to omit Cameron’s involvement from the Insolvency Services’s inquiries meant the case against him should be dropped because it was “based on allegations that have no merit and little or no evidence”
Labour MPs revive ‘desperately needed’ soft left group to take on Reform
Senior MPs who were the architects of the Labour welfare rebellion are to revive a powerful caucus on the party’s soft left to influence the budget and beyond, in a move likely to further unnerve No 10.The former cabinet minister Louise Haigh and Vicky Foxcroft, a former whip who resigned to vote against welfare cuts, are to take the reins of the Tribune group with the aim of giving an organising voice to their wing of the party.Key figures in the group, which hopes it will attract more than 100 MPs to revitalise the caucus, were major players in Lucy Powell’s successful deputy leadership campaign.They also include the former minister Justin Madders, Sarah Owen, the chair of the women and equalities committee and Debbie Abrahams, the chair of the work and pensions select committee. Two other new MPs will also steward the group – Yuan Yang and Beccy Cooper
Lancashire’s Reform-run council plans to close care homes and day centres
Lancashire’s Reform-run council has been accused of “selling off the family silver” through its plans to save £4m a year by closing five council-run care homes and five day centres and moving residents into the private sector.One of the care home residents, a 92-year-old woman, said she would leave only by “being forcibly removed or in a box”.Another resident’s son, a Reform party member, said any move would “kill” his mother, and he vowed to quit the party if the closures went ahead.Questions are also being asked about a potential conflict of interest involving Reform’s cabinet member for social care in Lancashire, who owns a private care company with his wife.Reform UK took control of Lancashire county council (LCC) from the Conservatives in May, winning 53 of the 84 available seats
ITV shares surge as it holds talks to sell broadcast operations to Sky; world food prices fall – business live
ITV shares soar as it holds talks to sell television business to Sky
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