ITV

ITV next February will start to sell its video-on-demand programming to advertisers in the same, automated way they buy video from the likes of YouTube and Facebook. The arrival of the commercial broadcaster’s addressable platform comes almost a year after it struck a deal to use ad tech vendor Amobee to sell its ads in online auctions.

Among the many announcements from Imagine Communications coming out of IBC (Sept. 13-17, RAI Amsterdam) at its stand 1.D61 are: It has extended its longstanding relationship with ITV, which will deploy a new generation of Landmark Sales (Landmark II) to better manage linear airtime sales across its increasingly diverse advertising ecosystem. Imagine Communications has been selected […]

LONDON (AP) — British broadcaster ITV on Wednesday canceled a popular, long-running daytime reality show after the death of a guest who failed a lie-detector test during a recording. ITV chief executive Carolyn McCall said “The Jeremy Kyle Show” was being scrapped “given the gravity of recent events.” The tabloid-style talk show, which had run […]

“In light of continued press speculation, ITV confirms that it has no current intention of making a bid,” the U.K. TV giant says about the producer of Big Brother, MasterChef and Black Mirror.

British media companies BBC Worldwide and ITV Plc launched BritBox in the United States today, a new subscription-based video streaming service that includes iconic British shows including Blackadder, Fawlty Towers and East Enders.

The British are streaming, the British are streaming. BBC Worldwide and ITV announced today that they will join forces to launch a Netflix-like streaming service in the U.S. The ad-free service will be available online and via Roku, AppleTV and Chromecast starting in the first quarter of 2017. Its name — BritBox — reflects the service’s focus on British TV.

ITV, the small commercial broadcaster based in the U.K., could be the next media industry takeover target, according to several industry sources. The TV network — which became world famous for airing Downton Abbey — looks ripe for the plucking by a big U.S. conglomerate.

LONDON(AP) — British writer Tony Warren, who created the long-running soap opera “Coronation Street,” has died. He was 79. Broadcaster ITV said Warren died Tuesday night, “surrounded by his loving friends,” after a short illness. Warren was a 24-year-old actor when he had the idea for a television series set in a working-class street in […]

A Comcast spokesman has formally denied the report of ITV Group being in merger discussions with Comcast’s NBCUniversal. “We don’t comment on M&A rumors but the speculation on ITV is just completely inaccurate,” spokesman John Demming said.

The acquisition of Talpa Media, established by John de Mol, the Big Brother creator, is the latest move by the British broadcaster to bolster its content and sell shows globally.

Media mavens in Blighty are buzzing at the prospect that the U.K.’s biggest broadcaster, ITV, may end up in U.S. hands as a rush of consolidation reshapes the British media landscape.

John Malone’s Liberty Global has bought a 6.4% stake in ITV, the U.K.’s leading commercial TV broadcaster. Liberty Global already owns the territory’s leading cabler, Virgin Media. Liberty Global paid £481 million ($824 million) to buy the shares from the Rupert Murdoch-controlled U.K. satcaster BSkyB. Liberty told ITV and U.K. regulators that it has no intention to make a full takeover bid for the company.

In a research note Wednesday, Brian White of Topeka Capital Markets says the “iTV” will be 60 inches on the diagonal, but could also come in 50- and 55-inch versions. Apple will also release a small “iRing” that fits on the viewer’s finger, allowing the user to control the screen by pointing, White says.