RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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As Netflix, Amazon and YouTube reshape the global TV market, European networks and production companies are chasing very different kinds of scale.
In little more than a year, Europe's broadcasting sector has seen a burst of dealmaking that would have looked improbable a decade ago. Comcast-owned Sky has agreed to acquire ITV 's broadcast and streaming operations in the U.K. in a deal valued at $2.1 billion . RTL in Germany is combining its market-leading free-to-air broadcaster with the country's No. 1 pay-TV group Sky Deutschland, recently acquired from Comcast. The Berlusconi family's MediaForEurope (MFE) last year took control of Germany's number two commercial network ProSiebenSat.1, adding it to MFE's growing European stable that already includes Mediaset, Italy's top commercial TV group, and Telecinco, Spain's number two commercial network.
Regulators have so far prevented a similar tie-up in France — an attempt at a $4.1 billion merger between the top two commercial networks, TF1 and M6, was abandoned in 2022 — but the trend is clear. Europe's broadcasters are trying to get bigger and fast.
The logic behind the wave of broadcast consolidation — and, to a degree, the parallel M&A boom in the European production sector, evidenced by the recent $8.5 billion mega-merger between Banijay ( Survivor , Peaky Blinders ) and All3Media ( The Traitors , Call the Midwife ) — is clear. Being big enough to compete against national rivals is no longer enough. European TV companies are now in a fight for eyeballs with Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, Disney, TikTok, Google and Meta, global platforms with global technology, global advertising infrastructure and balance sheets that dwarf even the largest European TV groups.
"Broadcasters are no longer competing just with each other but also with global streamers, YouTube and social platforms for audience attention and revenue," says Enders Analysis' Cleodie Kilgour. "Broadcasters' audiences are clearly declining, which puts ad revenues under pressure while production costs continue to rise. Consolidation is therefore a way to build scale, share costs and compete more effectively in a market increasingly dominated by global tech and streamers."
The numbers explain the urgency for legacy broadcasters to get big fast.
Broadcast viewing remains large across Europe, but it is shrinking quickly, particularly among younger audiences. In the U.K., daily viewing of public service broadcasters on TV fell from 153 minutes per person in 2015 to 88 minutes in 2025. Among 16-34-year-olds, it collapsed from 95 minutes to just 21 minutes. In France, linear TV viewing among 25-49-year-olds has more than halved since 2015. In Germany, daily viewing among 14-69-year-olds has fallen sharply since 2019.
But content costs are moving in the opposite direction. In the U.K., the median budget per minute for high-end scripted television has risen by roughly two-thirds over the past decade. In France, the hourly cost of TV drama, excluding soaps, rose 66 percent between 2015 and 2024.
That leaves broadcasters squeezed from both sides: fewer young viewers, weaker advertising, higher production costs and global platforms bidding up talent, sports rights and audience attention. The old European model — nationally regulated broadcasters using linear advertising to support news, drama, entertainment, regional coverage and public-service obligations — was not built for this market.
"Consolidation is a rational response to the challenges facing legacy broadcasters," Kilgour says. "European networks need scale within their own markets to fund flagship productions, accelerate digital transformation and secure critical prominence on CTV [connected TV] platforms. Partnerships alone are not enough. Broadcasters must achieve true scale to remain competitive."
But Europe's TV consolidation wave is not just one story. It is several. National broadcasters are merging to build scale at home; MFE is trying to build a pan-European advertising giant; and others are partnering with the global platforms they once saw as existential threats.
In Germany and the U.K., RTL and ITV/Sky are betting that domestic champions, if they are big enough and combine pay and free TV, broadcast and streaming, can compete with the international invaders.
Already, the combined RTL+ and Sky Deutschland streaming platform reaches some 12.4 million paid subscribers across German-speaking Europe, making it the third-largest streamer in the region.
"This brings us within striking distance of Netflix and Amazon in this market," RTL CEO Clement Schwebig told The Hollywood Reporter .
On the advertising side, RTL/Sky reach nearly 69 million German homes, 87 percent of the total population.
"Our strategy is to combine the strengths of free TV, pay TV and streaming, of advertising, subscription and distribution revenues into one powerful ecosystem with unmatchable reach," said Schwebig.
A combined ITV/Sky play would copy this approach in the U.K., pairing Britain's top commercial free-to-air broadcaster with the nation's largest pay-TV operator. Sky also operates extensive broadband and mobile services, further extending its reach.
A recent report by Enders Analysis estimated that, combined, Sky and ITV would command around 31 percent of broadcast TV viewing in the U.K. and roughly 18 percent of total video viewing once streamers and YouTube are included. The merged group would reach around 20 million U.K. households weekly, compared with Netflix's 16 million.
On the advertising side, Sky and ITV combined would account for an 18.3 percent share of U.K. TV and streaming viewing in May, according to BARB, the official ratings body. That's just behind YouTube with 18.6 percent.
"We believe that having the combination of our two organizations in order to invest in better ad technology and better choice advertisers is good for brands," Sky CEO Dana Strong said, announcing the merger in July. "Brands want digital, the...
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