Of course, at some point Sky could decommission some ITV shows – or renegotiate their contracts. You don’t take over another company without believing there are savings to be made (and some are pointing to synergies that could be made on the tech platform side, with ITVX and Sky’s streaming services potentially merged in the future).
Longer term, Frost believes users of both current streaming platforms ITVX and NOW can expect to see more “integrated services, for example, bundling titles in terms of genre instead of channel, as a natural way to cut production costs, and to cross-advertise”.
But when it comes to programmes, they won’t be able to make significant changes to those beloved shows until the supply deal comes to an end.
Producer Patrick Spence thinks the deal is “exciting”. He won a BAFTA for Mr Bates vs The Post Office which was a huge hit on ITV in 2024, with around 15 million tuning in. He’s currently producing Two Birds, a thriller starring Sheridan Smith for ITV.
He’s also made dramas for Sky and told me ITV and Sky “are very good bedfellows in many ways”.
“When they get behind a show, they really get behind it,” Spence says. “They want to make water cooler shows that bring audiences together.”
He believes the deal is a sign that the regularly predicted end of so-called linear TV is overplayed.
“We get told so often about the death of broadcast TV,” he adds. “For producers it’s said we’re looking at a cliff edge where the only places that will be left for us to sell our programmes will be the streamers, or some version of BBC, ITV, Channel 4 all joining together.
“What I take away from this deal as a producer and an audience member is that Sky must really like and believe in ITV to be only buying the network. They think there is a business to be grown and driven that uses the audience reach and loyalty that the ITV network has.”
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