ITV calls off £1bn-plus takeover of Fleabag and Gogglebox maker

ITV is no longer considering an acquisition of television production company All3Media, the broadcaster told investors in a short statement on Friday.

The potential deal emerged last month with reports suggesting ITV, led by its boss Carolyn McCall, was ‘actively exploring’ a takeover of the Fleabag and Gogglebox maker in a deal that could be worth more than £1billion.

But the broadcaster told investors it is ‘no longer actively exploring’ a potential deal, though it said ‘continues to monitor’ the Warner Bros Discovery and Liberty Global-owned firm.

The FTSE 250 broadcaster added: ‘ITV assesses all potential value-creating [merger and acquisition] opportunities against its strict financial criteria and disciplined capital allocation framework.’

It was initially understood that ITV was planning to merge All3Media with its ITV Studios arm in a bid to boost the broadcaster’s production division.

In 2022 the ITV’s profits rose by 4 per cent to £501million and revenue was up by 7 per cent to £4.3billion, though one of the most important measures watched by investors, advertising revenue, dropped slightly.

Income from digital advertising was up strongly, as was income from studios.

However, many media organisations are now suffering a slowdown in digital advertising revenues as companies cut back on marketing spend.

ITV has also this year been rocked by the departure of presenter Philip Schofield, who stepped down from This Morning following The Mail on Sunday’s revelation that the high-profile presenter had been in a relationship with a much younger colleague.

His exit is the latest in a string of high-profile departures, which also include Jeremy Kyle and Piers Morgan, since the beginning of chief executive McCall’s reign in 2018.

ITV shares were down by 0.4 per cent to 68.54p in early trading.