{"id":575700,"date":"2026-07-08T20:33:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T20:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/575700\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T20:33:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T20:33:12","slug":"the-get-big-or-die-era-of-european-tv-has-arrived","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/575700\/","title":{"rendered":"The Get-Big-or-Die Era of European TV Has Arrived"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThere\u2019s a version of this story European broadcasters have been trying to sell regulators for close to two decades: let us merge, or watch us disappear. On July 6, Sky<\/a> and ITV<\/a> finally got the chance to test whether, this time, anyone believes them.<\/p>\n

\n\tComcast<\/a>-owned Sky confirmed Monday <\/a>it has agreed a \u00a31.6 billion ($2.1 billion) deal to acquire ITV\u2019s broadcasting and streaming operations, bringing together Britain\u2019s largest pay-TV operator with its largest commercial free-to-air broadcaster. Sky CEO Dana Strong called it \u201ca defining moment for British media<\/a>.\u201d ITV chief executive Carolyn McCall framed it as the creation of \u201ca UK champion with the scale and resources to better compete with global streaming platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe deal excludes ITV Studios<\/a> \u2014 the production arm behind Coronation Street and Love Island<\/a> \u2014 which will be separated as a standalone, London-listed content business. ITV and ITV Studios will remain, for now, closely entwined. Sky has committed to at least \u00a32.1 billion ($2.8 billion) in programming spend with ITV Studios between 2028 and 2032. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Love Island USA\u2019 season eight.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBen Symons\/Peacock<\/p>\n

\t\tScale or Die\t<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the Sky-ITV deal is not primarily about content or IP<\/a>. It\u2019s about scale. It\u2019s the latest and most significant entry in a wave of consolidation sweeping European broadcasting. Legacy players \u2014 squeezed by Netflix and Amazon on the audience side, and YouTube, Facebook and TikTok on the advertising side \u2014 have all been coming to the same conclusion: We need to get bigger, or we\u2019ll fade away.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Sky-ITV deal feels like part of an inevitable Europe-wide push for scale among traditional TV players,\u201d PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore tells The Hollywood Reporter. \u201cBroadcasters can no longer afford to think only in national silos while Netflix, YouTube, Amazon and Disney operate with global technology, global data and global balance sheets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe BBC appears to agree. On July 8, just two days after the Sky-ITV deal was announced, new BBC director-general Matt Brittin said the British public broadcaster was in talks with commercial network Channel 4 to combine their streaming offerings into a single British \u201csovereign platform\u201d to compete with US-backed offerings. <\/p>\n

\n\tRegulators, in the UK and Europe, who in the past blocked efforts by national broadcasters to scale, appear to have accepted these new legacy mergers as inescapable.<\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier this year, Germany\u2019s RTL, the country\u2019s leading commercial broadcaster, secured approval to acquire Comcast\u2019s German pay-TV business, Sky Deutschland. Last year, the Berlusconi family\u2019s MediaForEurope (MFE) group received regulatory clearance to take control of ProSiebenSat.1, Germany\u2019s second-largest commercial broadcaster, adding to a pan-European broadcast conglomerate that already includes network assets in Spain (Telecinco, Cuatro) and Italy (Mediaset). In March, MFE also increased its stake in Impresa, owner of Portugal\u2019s leading private free-to-air network, SIC. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMediaForEurope CEO Pier Silvio Berlusconi<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto by sportinfoto\/DeFodi Images\/DeFodi via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\t\tThe French Alternative: Don\u2019t Fight Netflix, Join Them\t<\/p>\n

\n\tConsolidation may also not be the only answer for broadcasters in the new digital age. France has become the leading test case for another strategy, in which legacy networks join with platforms instead of trying to fight them. <\/p>\n

\n\tOn June 19, Netflix and TF1 launched what they described as a first-of-its-kind distribution partnership, making TF1\u2019s five live channels and more than 30,000 hours of on-demand programming available through Netflix\u2019s interface in France. Public broadcaster France T\u00e9l\u00e9visions signed a similar carriage deal with Amazon\u2019s Prime Video. France T\u00e9l\u00e9visions president and CEO Delphine Ernotte Cunci called the move \u201ca historic step forward\u201d for the group\u2019s public service visibility. Amazon has since announced similar carriage deals with commercial broadcaster M6 in France and in Spain with national public broadcaster RTVE.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhether broadcasters choose to merge with each other or move in with the platforms, the underlying diagnosis is the same. It appears that European regulators are increasingly deciding that, in the market for eyeballs, global streaming platforms and digital advertising giants are the primary threat to competition, not TV consolidation. Network hookups that would have been unthinkable a generation ago now look like an economic necessity.<\/p>\n

\t\tBeen There, Blocked That\t<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a sense, Sky and ITV are replaying an old script, just hoping for a different ending. Nearly 20 years ago, Sky\u2019s predecessor BSkyB quietly built a 17.9 percent stake in ITV for around \u00a3940 million ($1.2 billion) \u2014 a blocking maneuver aimed at derailing a rival bid from cable operator NTL\/Telewest. UK competition authorities eventually forced BSkyB to sell most of the stake down.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe last time British broadcasters tried to join forces on a major scale was back in 2007. ITV, together with the BBC and Channel 4, tried to launch Project Kangaroo, a joint video-on-demand venture designed to create a national streaming champion before the Americans arrived. It failed. The Competition Commission blocked it in 2009, concluding the broadcasters\u2019 dominant share of UK-originated content would restrict competition in the nascent VOD market.<\/p>\n

\n\tThree years later, Netflix landed in Britain<\/a> and immediately took off. YouTube proved even more disruptive. Last year YouTube passed ITV to become the second-most-watched media service in the country, behind only the BBC.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t ITV CEO Carolyn McCall <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of ITV<\/p>\n

\t\tNew World, New Rules? \t<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s this new market reality that makes regulatory approval for the Sky-ITV deal more likely. While analysts \u200bcalculate a merged Sky-ITV would control around 70 percent of the UK television<\/a> advertising market, the companies will argue that regulators need to take a broader view, looking at the entire business of online video and digital advertising, a market dominated by the likes of Google, Meta and Amazon.<\/p>\n

\n\tUK media analysts Enders Analysis made a similar point in a note on the deal, arguing that \u201cthe most pressing issue in regulatory clearance will be defining the relevant ads market: a \u2018broadcaster-only\u2019 definition is an anachronism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMcCall has made exactly that argument publicly, telling reporters <\/a>that on a broader video-advertising measure, \u201cSky and ITV combined would be about 20 percent of advertising, it\u2019s very low.\u201d Depending on how you measure it, the combined market share of the two broadcasters in the UK is below that of YouTube alone.<\/p>\n

\n\tNot that everyone buys that spiel. Rival broadcasters Channel 4 and Channel 5 \u2014 both reliant on advertising revenue and lacking Sky\u2019s pay-TV cushion \u2014 are expected to raise competition concerns. <\/p>\n

\n\tThere are structural questions too: ITV holds a 40 percent stake in ITN, which supplies news to Channel 4 and Channel 5 as well as ITV itself, raising questions about how independent that arrangement can remain once ITV\u2019s channels sit inside Sky. Both companies say ITV News and Sky News will continue operating as separate editorial units, and that ITV\u2019s public service obligations will be upheld in full. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe broader argument for the Sky-ITV deal is that this is not consolidation for its own sake, but a necessary response to a market utterly transformed by platforms that barely existed the last time British broadcasters discussed hooking up. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe deal feels less like opportunistic consolidation and more like an acknowledgement of market reality,\u201d says Giao Pacey, a partner at London media and entertainment law firm Simkins LLP. \u201cTraditional broadcasters are increasingly competing for audience attention and advertising revenue against global streaming platforms and digital-first content providers. Their ability to operate at scale is becoming a key determinant of their success.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSky CEO Dana Strong<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Getty<\/p>\n

\t\tWhere Brussels Leads, Will London Follow?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tTo understand why Sky believes this deal can succeed where earlier attempts failed, it helps to look beyond the UK. In Germany in 2011, RTL and ProSiebenSat.1 \u2014 the country\u2019s two dominant commercial broadcasters \u2014 proposed a joint venture, informally dubbed \u201cGermany\u2019s Hulu,\u201d<\/a> to launch a shared online video platform. The federal cartel office blocked it, ruling that the project would strengthen the broadcasters\u2019 already powerful position in television advertising. The companies appealed and lost, with courts finding that they controlled the overwhelming majority of German broadcast advertising.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the time, both networks argued that the duopoly analysis was already outdated \u2014 that U.S. streamers would soon enter the local market and transform competition. They were right. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video arrived in Germany in 2014. As in the UK, the streamers, and then YouTube, emerged as the dominant force in online viewing. <\/p>\n

\n\tFifteen years on, regulators are reaching different conclusions. In April, the European Commission unconditionally approved RTL\u2019s acquisition of Comcast\u2019s Sky Deutschland <\/a>business, a deal that closed June 1. The Commission found that the transaction would not significantly reduce competition, citing pressure from global streaming platforms and the changing nature of the media market. RTL chief executive Thomas Rabe called the approval \u201ca milestone\u201d that would \u201cstrengthen the competitiveness of European media companies\u201d \u2014 language that echoes almost precisely what Sky and ITV are now saying about their own proposed merger.<\/p>\n

\t\tToo Big to Fail, Or Too Late to Matter?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tScale alone might not be enough to save legacy broadcasters. A merged Sky-ITV would get \u201ca larger share of a challenged TV market,\u201d notes Madison and Wall principal Brian Wieser, representing \u201croughly \u00a32.3 billion ($3 billion) in advertising revenue as of 2025, or around 44 percent of total television ad revenue.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tBut Weiser warns that the deal \u201cdoes not change the broader structural pressure facing television.\u201d He estimates the combined U.K. advertising revenue for Sky and ITV \u201cfell by 7 percent year-over-year in 2025, even as the overall advertising market grew by 10 percent.\u201d While he forecasts the digital TV market to grow by 11 percent this year, the linear TV business \u201cwill remain under pressure and drop 8 percent,\u201d says Wieser. \u201cThat divergence helps explain why further consolidation is likely.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTwenty years ago, European broadcasters desperate to scale \u2014\u00a0to get big or die \u2014\u00a0\u00a0got turned down by regulators not yet convinced this new-fangled internet was all that. This time, even the watchdogs have realized the world has changed. The real question is not whether more mergers are coming, but whether this scaling up is too little too late to save legacy TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a version of this story European broadcasters have been trying to sell regulators for close to two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[265],"tags":[7419,18,117,19,1452,17,2770,31293,5073,4657,1238,128],"class_list":["post-575700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-comcast","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-international","tag-ireland","tag-itv","tag-itv-studios","tag-love-island","tag-sky","tag-television","tag-tv"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116886268767511368","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}