“Sky buys ITV” is a convenient headline. It is also not quite what has happened.
Comcast-owned Sky is buying ITV’s Media & Entertainment business: the free-to-air channels, ITVX, the advertising relationship, the public prominence and the route to millions of British viewers.
It is not buying ITV Studios.
That is where the deal becomes more revealing. ITV is selling the part of the business that reaches British viewers every day, while keeping the global production and distribution company that makes and sells programs around the world.
Sky gets the front door. ITV keeps the engine room.
