ITV confirms talks with Sky on sale of broadcast arm

(Sharecast News) - ITV on Friday confirmed it was in preliminary discussions regarding a possible sale of its broadcasting business to Comcast-owned Sky for an enterprise value of £1.6bn. It added that there could be no certainty on the terms of any potential sale of the business - which contains its TV channels and ITVX streaming service - or whether any transaction will take place.

ITV's largest single shareholder, Liberty Global, which jointly owns Virgin Media O2 with Spanish telecoms operator Telefónica, last month halved its 10% stake in ITV.

The UK broadcaster's value has slumped in recent years as streaming services such as Netflix have grabbed market share from traditional TV operators. ITV on Thursday said it was cutting £35m from its budgets amid a weak macroeconomic environment and advertiser uncertainty ahead of the government's Budget later this month.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com