ITV ‘of course’ looking again at ‘great business’ All3Media, says Carolyn McCall

The Traitors

ITV CEO Carolyn McCall has confirmed that the broadcaster is looking again at a potential acquisition of Traitors producer All3Media, describing the company as “a great business”.

All3, which is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and Liberty Global, went on the block earlier this year and ITV had initially been the frontrunner to buy the Jane Turton-led group.

The UK broadcaster revealed in July it had pulled back but the process was restarted earlier this month, with a host of potential acquisitors including Banijay believed to be in the mix, with a price tag of around £1bn ($1.2bn) attached.

McCall told the RTS Cambridge Convention this morning that “of course it is [of interest]”, before discussing the broadcaster’s recent growth of ITV Studios.

“We have made it really clear that we want to expand our ITV Studios business and we have done that very effectively with smaller acquisitions and organically.

“We have also effectively backed talent,” McCall continued, pointing to Nicola Shindler’s launch of Quay Street Productions.

“That is all working and of course All3 is a great business, but there is always going to be a lot going on in any discussion about getting together. All I would say is we are monitoring the situation but not actively exploring.”

Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries yesterday said that ITV was among those looking at All3, adding that a sale would allow the group to “scale up” and compete with global competitors.

He described the sale as “bittersweet” and added that “pretty much everybody you can think of” is taking a look at the group.