Sky Owner Comcast in Talks to Buy ITV’s Broadcasting Arm

Comcast Corp., owner of the European pay-television service Sky, is in talks to buy ITV Plc’s media and entertainment arm in a deal that would dramatically shake up the UK broadcasting landscape.

Sky is in preliminary discussions about a potential acquisition of the ITV division that would value it at £1.6 billion ($2.1 billion) including debt, ITV said in a statement Friday, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report. The business runs ITV’s commercial free-to-air TV channel operations in the UK as well as the ITVX streaming platform.