ITV’s chief executive has ruled out the possibility of taking a stake in premium channel BT Sport. However, the commercial broadcaster said it was open to collaboration and committed to its own live sports coverage.
“It’s not the kind of acquisition we would do but collaboration, cooperation with BT Sport absolutely,” Carolyn McCall said following the broadcaster’s first-half results.
ITV was one of a number of potential partners mentioned in connection with a move after the telco confirmed in April it was in early discussions over the possible sale of a stake in its sports channel.
McCall would not be drawn on whether ITV would put in a bid of Channel 4, the public broadcaster that could be sold off by Britain’s Conservative government.
ITV reported its advertising market to have bounced back in the first six months of the year, including a 55% climb in AVOD.
Subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) has also increased further with over 3 million global subscriptions including 555,000 for BritBox UK which is up 10% in 6 months.
ITV is rolling out an improved look and feel for its ITV Hub on demand service. The redesign is already available on Amazon Fire and Samsung TV.
