ITV Cuts £25M From Q4 Content Spend as Sky Sale Stays on Track

By Grace Kim

ITV is cutting £25 million ($33.4 million) from its fourth-quarter content spend, and CEO Carolyn McCall says the broadcaster's £1.6 billion ($2.1 billion) sale of its Media & Entertainment business to Sky is "progressing as planned."

The cut lands on the exact business ITV is trying to sell. Comcast-owned Sky agreed in July to buy the unit, which covers ITV's channels and the ITVX streamer. ITV still expects the deal to close in the second half of 2027. What remains after the sale is a standalone global content group built around ITV Studios, the producer of "The Gentlemen" and "Line of Duty."

On Nov. 4, U.K. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy issued a Public Interest Intervention Notice (a formal step that triggers regulatory scrutiny of a takeover) on the deal, as Variety reported. That opens the way for the Competition and Markets Authority and media regulator Ofcom to examine the sale and report back to her.

"This is an expected and important milestone in the regulatory review process, and we are pleased that it is moving at pace," McCall said.

Why is ITV cutting spending now?

The U.K. ad market has gone soft, and ITV depends on it. The company now expects total advertising revenue to drop around 5%–10% in the last three months of 2026 and roughly 2%–3% across the full year versus 2025. Advertising revenue slipped 1% over the nine months to Sept. 30 and fell 8% in the third quarter alone. ITV said it still beat rival broadcasters but missed its earlier guidance.

ITV blamed three factors:

• ongoing economic uncertainty;
• ad money moving toward global streamers;
• the U.K.'s new restrictions on advertising for less healthy food, which took effect Oct. 1, 2025.

The response is spending discipline. Alongside the £25 million programming cut, ITV will hold back £5 million ($6.7 million) of discretionary spending outside programming, bringing the total temporary fourth-quarter reduction in Media & Entertainment to £30 million ($40 million). The full 2026 content budget now sits at about £1.2 billion ($1.6 billion).

"While the outlook for advertising remains muted, we are firmly focused on self help and mitigating actions, while continuing to execute our strategic priorities to drive performance across both businesses," McCall said.

What do the numbers show?

The nine-month picture splits cleanly. Media & Entertainment revenue slid 1% to £1.43 billion ($1.9 billion). Digital revenue rose 7% to £461 million ($615 million), but that couldn't cover the drop in linear advertising. Streaming hours jumped 29% to 2.15 billion, with ITVX setting viewing records on the soccer World Cup's final matches plus "Trigger Point," "Big Brother" and "Love Island." Eight of this year's 10 most-watched series among commercial broadcasters and streamers aired on ITV.

Group revenue dipped 1% to £2.76 billion ($3.7 billion). ITV Studios eased 1% to £1.33 billion ($1.8 billion): sales to ITV's own channels and streamer rose 4% on new and returning scripted and unscripted shows, offsetting scheduling changes to soap and daytime output, while revenue from outside buyers fell 4%. Back-catalog distribution income kept growing.

McCall said the studio's nine-month figures matched expectations. "As previously guided, production deliveries and licensing deals are heavily weighted to Q4 this year and despite this, we have a greater proportion of our full year Studios revenue secured than at this point last year," she said.

What does this change for viewers and the industry?

For audiences, expect a thinner slate in the final quarter of this year — the £25 million programming cut is real money against a £1.2 billion annual budget. For the industry, the message is that ITV wants to arrive at the 2027 closing table with its ad-funded business trimmed but intact, and its studios arm doing the heavy lifting.

The studio's record supports that. It made five of the U.K.'s 10 most-watched dramas in the third quarter: "The Gentlemen" for Netflix, "Ludwig" Season 2 and "Vigil" Season 3 for the BBC, and "The Blame" and "The Dark" for ITV. "The Blame" is the most-watched drama of 2026 so far.

Fourth-quarter deliveries include "SuburraMaxima" for Netflix, "Love Island US: Beyond the Villa" Season 3 for Peacock, "Hell's Kitchen" Seasons 25 and 26 for Fox, and "Line of Duty" Season 7, "The Last Detectives" and "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾" for the BBC. High-margin licensing deals through the Global Partnerships unit will add to the total.

ITV still expects the studio to post good full-year revenue growth that outpaces the market. Because of the year's revenue mix, its EBITA margin (earnings before interest, tax and amortization) should land at the lower end of a 13%–15% range.

Meanwhile, ITV has bought back £81 million ($108 million) of stock under its £100 million ($133 million) buyback program — a signal, alongside McCall's "self help" language, that management sees value in the company regardless of when the Sky deal clears.