UTV sell TV business to ITV

They owned it for quite a while (six years in fact) and at one point they tried to buy the whole lot, but Canwest wanted too much money for it. A few years down the line (in the mid 00's) ITV was going through its wobbly period and TV3 was considered a non-core asset, which they were offloading by the bucket load at the time. It was certainly the right time to sell as it wasn't worth half as much a year later.

I'm pretty sure ITV handled TV3's ad sales for a long time. Also UTV tried to buy Canwest's share in TV3 at one point.

Remember when NTL tried to buy ITV? That would have been interesting.

The story with TV3 is that there was a shareholder agreement in place between Canwest and ITV (inherited from Granada) that if one received an offer for its stake, the other was required to match or sell. ITV at the time wasn't in a position to match (this was the post merger era when they were in the doldrums) and were required to sell.

Wasn't so much a position to match, more a case of getting rid of all non core assets to keep shareholders happy. If it were an asset worth keeping they would probably have found the cash, but even at that stage the company (TV3) had never made a real profit in its 8 or so years of operation, and those were boom years in the Irish economy, it was another one of those media or tech companies where lots will be made but just not right now.

Blocked by Sky, which was disgraceful. However, having seen ITV's remarkable turnaround in the meantime, I think it was for the best.

Ironically, ITV may eventually end up in the hands of Virgin Media's current owners, who also own... TV3.

Certainly when (rather than if, IMO) STV come into the fold it makes ITV very attractive to a buyer. Even without STV, given the unique political situation, it's a great buy for the right company. I wonder if we will see an American outfit get the cheque book out?

The most interesting part of this news is the fact ITV bought the UTV name also.

Realistically, maintaining 2 extra players will be a cost and maintaining the UTV brand will be a cost so I reckon ITV's plan will be to phase out UTV over a period of time and then they'll plan to sell the UTV name to another business eventually.

The impression given at the moment is that UTV will remain as it is at the moment - but I'm sure all you guys on this forum know as well as I do that eventually there will be change and it will be gradual change.

ITV is coming. UTV is going.

I don't think there was any chance of the name not being included. ITV have bought UTV and UTV Ireland. What is now called UTV Media will have no use for the brand.

It could be argued that U105 needs to rebrand (at least alter its logo to distance itself from UTV) but that's such a small point I doubt it'll be mentioned.

Actually let me correct myself, I don't mean surprised as in they bought it - what I was actually trying to say was surprised they kept it

ITV still own all the regional TV station names and trademarks that the merged company constitutes (Granada, Tyne Tees, Anglia etc) and I can't see them wanting someone else using those brands. Same with UTV.

Also don't have the regional names appear on the local news aswell. ITV are not stupid and will play it by ear.

Speaking of regional news, perhaps this is the reason why UTV Live haven't plumped for a new set, retaining the 2009 set to this day... in the potential new era of ITV ownership, they can get a new look to align with the rest of the ITV family.

Also, if the UTV Ireland news service is retained and is earmarked for a similar new set, they already have a ready-made newsroom backdrop... unintentional synergy?