ITV buys Ireland's UTV for £100 million

ITV has snapped up another piece of the British Isles commercial television jigsaw, paying £100 million for the Ulster and Republic of Ireland broadcaster UTV.

The deal means that ITV will own 13 of the 15 regional licences for the Channel 3 network with only Scotland’s two licences outside its control.

UTV is the most watched channel in Northern Ireland and in January it launched a dedicated channel in the Republic, UTV Ireland, which is already the second-most-watched channel at peak times there.

But the Irish launch has been expensive and the station lost almost £12 million in the past year.

ITV chief executive Adam Crozier said: “We have a long-standing relationship with UTV, which has been the leading commercial broadcaster in Northern Ireland for many years thanks to its strong regional identity.”

Today’s deal follows on from a string of acquisitions made by Crozier largely in the world of programme-making including Mammoth Screen, the maker of BBC series Poldark.

Once it has sold its television business, UTV Media will rename itself to reflect its ongoing business in radio.

It not only owns Talksport but also has bought four digital licences, one of which it plans to use for the relaunch of Virgin Radio which it has licensed from Sir Richard Branson for 12 years.

The sell-off of UTV will also see ITV — which produces the X Factor — pick up the associated pension fund which, as of June, had a deficit of £3.2 million.

Richard Huntingford, chairman of UTV, said that the sale to ITV was the best way to maximise shareholder value in the rapidly consolidating world of television.