ITV has launched a £100 million ($140 million) share buyback, marking the first financial results the broadcaster has published since confirming the £1.6 billion sale of its Media & Entertainment network business to Sky.

CEO Carolyn McCall described the buyback as an early return of part of a previously announced £950 million net cash return expected when the Sky deal completes. ITV expects that to happen midway through 2027. The company also declared an interim dividend of 1.7p per share, totalling £60 million. The half-year results were announced on 31 July 2026, as scheduled in ITV's AGM notice from May (Deadline).

Total revenue for the first six months of 2026 rose 2% to £1.9 billion. The Media & Entertainment division, which includes the ITV broadcast network and streaming, grew revenue 2% to £975 million, with adjusted EBITDA up 37% to £48 million. The period included the soccer World Cup, a lucrative window for the ITV network. In its Q1 2026 trading update, ITV had guided that total advertising revenue would be up around 4% for the first half, buoyed by a strong July driven by men's football (ITV Q1 2026 Trading Update).

ITV Studios, the production arm that makes shows for broadcasters and streamers beyond ITV, saw revenue of £912 million, up 2% year-on-year, but adjusted EBITDA was down 9%. The studios' UK revenue jumped 17%, while US revenue fell 17% and international revenue dropped 24%. The second-half delivery slate includes Line of Duty Season 7 for the BBC and a new series of The Gentlemen for Netflix.

The Sky deal still faces regulatory scrutiny. ITV expects Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy to issue a Public Intervention Notice — a formal step that triggers a regulatory examination of the transaction's impact on media plurality. Nandy has separately said she is "minded to intervene" in the WarnerMount deal, signalling a broader willingness to examine media consolidation under her watch.

ITV Studios will not be sold and will become an independent company after the Sky deal closes. That structural question matters more now that rivals Banijay and All3Media have merged, creating a production super-giant in the same market. Banijay's CEO has played down reports that the combined company is interested in acquiring ITV Studios.

For context, ITV's profits were significantly down in the first half of 2025. The company's full-year 2025 results had guided that H1 2026 content costs would be broadly in line with the prior year and that it expected to deliver £20 million of non-content savings (ITV FY 2025 Results). A previous £235 million share buyback programme, announced in March 2024, completed in April 2025 (ITV AGM Notice 2026).

What stands out in these numbers is the contrast inside ITV Studios: UK production surging while US and international revenue slide. The second-half slate — a returning police procedural for the BBC and a Guy Ritchie adaptation for Netflix — will be the first real test of whether that imbalance is a timing issue or something structural.