Lisa Nandy must choose: send Sky's ITV deal to a full inquiry, or let it through.

What happened

The Culture Secretary issued a public interest intervention notice on Sky UK buying ITV M&E Holdings. The CMA and Ofcom must report to her by 5pm on 27 January 2027.

On 4 November Lisa Nandy stepped in on Sky’s £1.6bn deal for ITV’s channels. Ms Nandy, the UK culture secretary, issued a public interest intervention notice, a formal step that puts the decision on the deal in her hands. The deal covers ITV’s free channels and its streaming service ITVX, but not ITV Studios.

Two regulators must report to her by 5pm on 27 January 2027. Ofcom, the media regulator, will look at free speech in news and at whether enough different owners and views would be left in UK news. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will look at competition. Ms Nandy also added a new test about the range of TV and streaming programmes, and she has to change the law to use it.

Once she has received these reports, she will decide whether to refer the matter for a more detailed investigation by the CMA under section 45 of the Act or whether to take alternative action.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport, letter to Sky UK, 4 November 2026

Sky says it has already made clear promises. It said the deal is “in the public interest”, with promises to protect ITV and the distinct voices of Sky News and ITV News. The letter to Sky calls those promises “voluntary public commitments” and says Ms Nandy did not rely on them to decide that no closer look was needed.

The law gives her 24 weeks from the notice, a period that ends on 20 April 2027. If Parliament has not approved the new streaming test by then, she must leave it out of any later decision. The order that adds the test lapses unless both the Commons and the Lords approve it within 28 days of it being made.

Sources: GOV.UK, The Independent, GOV.UK, legislation.gov.uk (2)

The Pattern

We looked for cases where a UK minister issued a notice like this on a media deal under the same 2002 law, and then had to decide on a full inquiry. We found eight since 2007: three TV deals involving Sky and five newspaper deals. For each we checked whether the minister sent the deal to a full inquiry, or said in writing they planned to, within 24 weeks.

The Read

Past deals split evenly, four times in eight, but every TV deal involving Sky ended in a full inquiry or a written plan for one. Ms Nandy’s own letter points the same way. She named the figures she wants checked: after the deal the BBC and the combined company would have 86% of TV news viewing, and 60% of live sport on TV would sit with one commercial owner. Sky has not said what would protect Sky News after 2028, when Comcast’s legal promises to stay out of its editorial decisions end.

There are reasons for doubt. In August Ms Nandy dropped her threat to step in on Paramount’s purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery once Paramount signed legally binding promises, and she dropped the streaming law change she had promised only if she stepped in. If Sky offers the same, she can accept its promises instead of a full inquiry, after a public notice and at least 15 days for comments. Only once in the past did a minister offer that for a media deal, in 2011, and it collapsed with the phone hacking scandal. None of the eight past media deals had a new test waiting for Parliament, so the 24-week limit never mattered in them.

Sources: GOV.UK, GOV.UK, GOV.UK (2), The Guardian (2), legislation.gov.uk (2)