What buying Sky ITV means to your favorite shows.

Of course, at some point Sky could drop some ITV programs – or renegotiate their contracts. They won’t take over another company without believing there are savings (and some point to possible synergies through tech platforms, as ITVX and Sky’s streaming services could merge in the future).

Longer term, Frost believes users of both current streaming platforms ITVX and NOW will expect more “integrated services, for example, tying titles by genre rather than channel, as a natural way to reduce production costs and promote.”

But when it comes to programming, you can’t make significant changes to those popular shows until the end of the supply agreement.

Producer Patrick Spence thinks the deal is “exciting.” In the year 2024 BAFTA winning Mr Bates vs Post Office on ITV, tuned to around 15 million. He is currently producing The Two Birds, a thriller starring Sheridan Smith for ITV.

He has done drama for Sky and told me that ITV and Sky are “very good bedfellows in many ways”.

“When you get behind a scene, you really get behind it,” says Spence. “They want to make water cooler shows that bring audiences together.”

He believes the deal is a sign that the end of what’s normally expected to be so-called online TV has been overplayed.

“We are often told about the death of broadcast TV,” he added.

“My takeaway from this deal as a producer and audience member is that Sky has to really love and trust ITV to buy the network. You think there’s a business that can take advantage of the audience reach and the loyalty of the ITV network.”