Lisa Nandy signals intervention in Sky's ITV takeover

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has said she is "minded to intervene" in Sky's proposed takeover of ITV's media and entertainment division. The £1.6 billion deal, agreed in July after months of discussions, would merge ITV's terrestrial channels and its streaming service ITVX with Sky — the biggest television transaction in Britain in decades.

Media mergers in Britain come with a door that ordinary takeovers lack. The culture secretary can step in on public-interest grounds, plurality of ownership being the usual vocabulary, and "minded to intervene" is the signal that formal proceedings are likely. Nandy's announcement moves the deal's fate into the government's hands, alongside whatever the competition authorities make of it.

The concentration involved is considerable. Sky, owned by the American media group Comcast since 2018, is Britain's dominant pay-TV platform; ITV is its largest commercial broadcaster. The merged entity is intended, in the deal's own terms, to challenge the global streaming giants. The price of that challenge — £1.6 billion for the country's biggest TV transaction in decades — says a good deal about the state of terrestrial broadcasting.

The argument for scale is defensive: only a domestic giant, the reasoning runs, can hold ground against American platforms. The remedy on the table is concentration under American ownership.

The power Nandy is signalling has its own logic. "Plurality" is the word ministers reach for when they review media ownership; in practice it means every media group's expansion plans rest on the government's goodwill. A state that regulates broadcasters also decides who may own them.

Sky and ITV agreed their terms in July. What becomes of them depends on what the culture secretary decides she is minded to do.