The Sky ITV merger reached the CMA on 23 July 2026. The regulator issued an invitation to comment on Sky UK’s proposed acquisition of ITV M&E Holdings, worth up to £1.6 billion. No formal investigation has started yet. Comments close on 6 August 2026, and that window is the only early chance for third parties to shape the case.
What has the CMA done?
Opened a public case page and asked for views. Nothing more, and the distinction matters.
An invitation to comment is the first part of the CMA’s information-gathering. It sits before a phase 1 investigation, not inside one. No statutory clock has started and no decision deadline exists.
The CMA is asking any interested party for initial views on what the deal could do to competition in the UK. It will use those views to frame the theories of harm it tests later.
ITV welcomed the case page opening and said it was working with the CMA, Ofcom and DCMS. Three regulators is a fair signal of the scale here.
What is the deal?
Sky UK, part of Comcast, agreed terms in July 2026 to buy ITV’s Media and Entertainment division from ITV plc.
Total consideration runs to £1.6 billion. That splits into £1.2 billion in cash, the transfer of Love Productions, and up to £0.2 billion in a performance-related earn-out tied to advertising revenue targets. A separate £2.1 billion content agreement with ITV Studios travels alongside it.
The combination joins Sky’s pay-TV, broadband and streaming operations with ITV’s free-to-air channels and ITVX. ITV Studios stays behind as a standalone production business. ITV’s channels and ITVX would remain free-to-air after completion.
Where will the Sky ITV merger be fought?
On market definition, almost certainly.
The parties will argue the deal should be judged against the whole advertising market. On that view, taking in broadcast television, streaming, social media and digital platforms, the combined business accounts for roughly 20% of UK advertising spend.
Define the market as television advertising alone and the figure reaches around 70%. ITV by itself holds about 32% of commercial viewing.
That gap between 20% and 70% is the case. Everything else follows from which number the CMA accepts.
Precedent is not comfortable reading for the parties. The CMA’s predecessor blocked a joint venture streaming service between the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 in 2009.
An invitation to comment is the point at which third parties can shape the CMA’s theory of harm, and the window is short. For commercial teams it is also a live worked example of how the CMA’s revised jurisdiction and procedure guidance is being applied to a transaction of real scale.
What happens next?
The CMA will update the case page when it formally starts its phase 1 investigation. Only then does a statutory timetable begin.
The parties expect the whole regulatory process to take a year to 18 months, which would put completion in 2027 or 2028. Ofcom runs its own review in parallel on public interest and broadcasting grounds.
Anyone with a stake, meaning advertisers, media agencies, rival broadcasters and streaming services, has until 6 August to write in. Representations made now cost little and reach the CMA before its thinking sets.
Why it repays watching
Two reasons beyond the parties themselves.
First, this is a clean teaching case. Anyone learning how a UK merger review actually begins can follow it from the invitation to comment through to a phase 1 decision, on a public case page, in real time.
Second, it tests how the CMA treats convergence. Traditional broadcast categories look increasingly artificial next to digital advertising, and the regulator has been under pressure to reflect that. This transaction forces the question.
The Legal Brief covered competition enforcement in the Court of Appeal in its report on Deckers v Up and Running, and the government’s competition reform plans in its King’s Speech 2026 round-up.
The CMA’s Sky / ITV merger inquiry case page carries the invitation and will record each stage. Its procedural framework sits in CMA2, the guidance on jurisdiction and procedure.