Sky, Love Productions, and the Bake Off Battle: Lawsuits, a Failed Poach, and a Show That Stayed Put
The Great British Bake Off is staying on Channel 4 — but the fight over who controls it has reached the High Court.
Deadline reported on 29 August 2026 that Sky and Love Productions, the company that makes Bake Off, clashed over Sky's attempt to pull the show away from Channel 4 and onto its own platform. The plan, codenamed Project Rise, was launched in early 2025 by Sky's content chief Cécile Frot-Coutaz. It failed. Bake Off remains free-to-air on Channel 4, where it has lived since 2016, when Love Productions moved it from the BBC. (Deadline)
The fallout is now legal. Letty Kavanagh, Love Productions' former managing director, has filed twin lawsuits against Sky for wrongful dismissal and unpaid severance, according to Deadline. She also filed a breach-of-contract claim at the High Court against both Sky and Love Productions, as reported by The Telegraph on 7 August 2026. Kavanagh, who spent 18 years at the company, says she was fired for raising concerns that Sky's 2025 bid to poach Bake Off from Channel 4 was improper, mismanaged, and damaged relations with a key customer. (Deadline; The Telegraph)
She was not alone. Bake Off's former executive producer Kieran Smith complained to Sky, citing concerns similar to Kavanagh's. A third unnamed individual, still employed by Love Productions, also filed a complaint. Sky referred the complaints to external law firm Gibson Dunn, which investigated and dismissed them. (Deadline)
Sky strongly rejected the allegations of impropriety and mismanagement and said it would robustly defend its position in the legal proceedings. Sky insiders, speaking to Deadline, attributed the dispute to differences of opinion about the show's future that led to a breakdown in professional relations. (Deadline)
The backdrop is a corporate landscape shifting fast. Sky, owned by Comcast, was finalising its takeover of ITV as of August 2026, a deal worth £1.6 billion ($2.2 billion). Under that agreement, reached in June 2026, Love Productions moves to ITV Studios to produce Bake Off. Frot-Coutaz publicly welcomed the partnership on LinkedIn in July 2026, writing that British audiences "have never had more choice." (Deadline; LinkedIn)
Love Productions was founded by Richard McKerrow and Anna Beattie, who built a culture around creative independence. Sky took a 70.41% stake in 2014 and bought the remaining 29.59% in 2020, giving it full control. McKerrow exited the company in February 2025. (Deadline; Deadline)
At the Edinburgh TV Festival, Frot-Coutaz wrote an op-ed extolling the virtues of UK public service broadcasting — even as Sky was accused of imperilling Bake Off, one of the UK's biggest public service broadcasting success stories. The show, known as The Great British Baking Show on Netflix, remains among the most-watched programmes in the UK. Paul Hollywood has judged every season. (Deadline)
The irony is sharp enough to cut. Whether the courts agree with Kavanagh, Smith, and their unnamed colleague — or with Sky and Gibson Dunn — is now a matter for the legal process, not the tent.
