Sky’s proposed takeover of ITV was described by its CEO Dana Strong as “a defining moment for British media”. It’s certainly the clearest sign we’ve had yet that UK broadcasters are now primarily competing with Netflix, Amazon and Disney+, rather than each other.
By combining ITV, ITVX, Sky, Sky Sports and AdSmart, Sky will become the first UK broadcaster spanning free-to-air, subscription, streaming and addressable TV — a giant with around 70% of traditional linear TV in the UK and an estimated 44% share of the total UK TV ad market.
Despite the concerns about monopoly pricing, this deal is still what the market needs. It’s what advertisers need. It’s not just about the size and quality of what the new super broadcaster can offer advertisers, it’s about the fundamental changes in how advertisers can access premium audiences and the potential improvements in the planning and buying of premium TV and video.
Tackling fragmentation and media complexity is one of television’s biggest commercial challenges, and a combined Sky and ITV offers a single point of entry into premium UK video, which would allow agencies to plan, buy and optimise campaigns across a much broader inventory, without having to stitch together multiple commercial relationships.
It could do something else, too.
Buying audiences not channels
For decades, TV has largely been bought around channels and programmes, but Sky’s deal may accelerate the shift away from this and towards an audience-buying approach that would simplify planning, improve targeting and drive campaign effectiveness.
Audience buying has long been standard practice across digital advertising. Bringing Sky’s addressable capabilities together with ITV’s mass reach moves premium TV much closer to the audience-led buying models advertisers already used across Google, Meta and retail media.
However, the advantage that audience buying in premium TV would have over the digital platforms lies in the marriage of sophisticated audience targeting with professionally produced, brand-safe environments, rather than user-generated content.
The sheer size of Sky’s combined audience would be the key enabler of audience buying. But for advertisers, the value is not just in the creation of a larger audience — it’s in the bringing together two complementary viewer bases. ITV continues to deliver unrivalled mass reach through its free-to-air channels and broad demographic appeal, while Sky has built a strong position among younger, more affluent households through its premium entertainment, sport and streaming services. Together, they offer advertisers the ability to reach a broader and more balanced cross-section of UK consumers.
And with this larger and broader audience comes the potential for better audience insights and enhanced targeting. Sky contributes one of the UK’s most sophisticated addressable television advertising platforms through AdSmart, alongside household-level viewing data, broadband intelligence and subscriber insights built over many years. ITV brings one of the UK’s largest logged-in streaming audiences through ITVX, alongside the scale and frequency that only free-to-air broadcasting can deliver. Together, those assets add up to one of the richest first-party audience datasets in European television.
What if Sky creates the UK’s premium advertising marketplace?
The opportunities for advertisers around audiences, data, targeting and so on are quite considerable. But if Sky chose to, it could take things to a whole new level by creating the UK’s largest premium advertising marketplace.
Rather than simply combining inventory, Sky has the opportunity to integrate planning, targeting, measurement and campaign delivery across linear television, streaming and connected TV into a single commercial proposition.
ITV, ITVX, Sky and NOW could continue to exist as distinct consumer brands, but from a planning and buying perspective they could increasingly operate as one unified premium video marketplace. The opportunity is to combine the precision and accountability of digital advertising with the brand-building power of television.
Whether ITVX ultimately evolves, is integrated more closely with NOW or simply remains part of the wider ecosystem, is almost secondary. The bigger opportunity is creating a unified advertising marketplace that makes the complexity of premium television largely invisible to advertisers while preserving the value of each individual brand.
If successful, the combined proposition would position Sky not simply as the UK’s largest broadcaster, but as the country’s leading premium video advertising platform — one capable of competing much more directly with YouTube, Netflix and Amazon for video advertising budgets.
David Price, Managing Director, The Grove Media
