Given the announcement dropped on the day of England’s 3-2 World Cup round-of-16 victory over Mexico, and in the early hours of the morning to boot, you may have been forgiven for missing it.The news was that Sky had agreed to buy UK broadcaster ITV’s media and entertainment arm, including its free-to-air channels and streaming service, in a deal worth up to £1.6billion (US$2.1 billion).It’s important to note the transaction has not yet been completed and is subject to regulatory approval, and if it goes through, completion is not expected until the second half of next year — but it would represent a major shakeup in the UK television industry if it does.In its press release detailing news of the deal, Sky said the partnership would “create a commercial streaming champion for the UK”. But what does it all mean for televised sport? And how could it impact the way football is shown and consumed by audiences in Britain?The Athletic spoke to numerous industry experts to try to find out.What’s in this for both Sky and ITV when it comes to sport?“For Sky, if we focus on the sports perspective, you’re looking at two main positives,” Dan Harraghy, a sports media analyst at Ampere Analysis, tells The Athletic.“Firstly, being able to move certain bits of content, or certain matches, onto ITV channels can act as a bit of a shop window for Sky coverage.“Then, with the reach of something like an ITV, being able to move content there attracts more eyeballs and therefore you’re going to generate greater ad revenue, so the advertisers are going to really like that.“So there is a kind of a monetisable play there, as well as a strategic one. It also creates quite a strong offering when the combined entity goes into rights negotiations, because I think a lot of rights holders do value the combination of revenue with reach.”For ITV, meanwhile, the major benefit is access to Sky’s greater financial resources.ITV said it can “already reach around 40million people every week and serves more than 16.5m monthly digital users. Combined with Sky, the business would account for around 20 per cent of all in-home viewing in the UK, second to the BBC and ahead of YouTube”.In terms of revenue, Paolo Pescatore, a media and technology analyst at PP Foresight, tells The Athletic that Sky generated £10.4billion in revenue in 2024, compared with £2.1bn for ITV’s media and entertainment arm. “That makes Sky roughly five times the revenue scale of the ITV business it is acquiring, even though ITV brings significant incremental mass-audience reach,” Pescatore explains.Meanwhile, Harraghy says that in terms of financial resources, Sky spends around £2billion annually on sports rights, while Ampere Analysis estimates ITV has paid roughly £200m this year.Sky Sports’ coverage of the opening Premier League game of the new season last Friday (Michael Regan/Getty Images for Premier League)“You’re part of an entity that has deeper pockets,” Harraghy says. “Being able to work in conjunction with Sky, when negotiating rights, for example, puts you in a position of strength.”Tim Westcott, who leads Omdia’s research on TV and video programming and channel distribution, tells The Athletic he wasn’t surprised by the news, as ITV has been the subject of takeover speculation for some time. “But most people probably thought the main interest was in ITV studios, rather than the broadcasting bit, because the broadcasting has really not been growing at all in terms of revenue,” he says. As part of the deal, Sky will acquire channels ITV1, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 and ITV Quiz and streaming service ITVX. It will also become an indirect 20 per cent shareholder in ITV when the purchase is finalised. The £1.6billion deal consists of £1.2bn in cash, Sky-owned Love Productions (maker of shows including The Great British Bake-Off, valued at £200m) and up to £200m in performance-related earn-outs.Asked about the thinking behind the deal, Westcott says Sky was eager to develop its advertising sales, but generally has relatively small audiences compared with ITV.