[Andrew]

Wise move in hindsight... 5 Gold Rings will either be cancelled or require a new host now.

It ended 3 years ago

[JMT1985]

Unless STV as a company does something stupid and causes financial chaos in their company, only then will the idea of ITV plc buying STV could mean a whole 100% ITV for all of the country, owned by one company.

Can it happen? Will it ever happen that STV, the last of the original ITV franchise companies will be bought by ITV plc.

[Plutobug]

Wise move in hindsight... 5 Gold Rings will either be cancelled or require a new host now.

I thought that was cancelled already

[Stuart]

Will it ever happen that STV, the last of the original ITV franchise companies will be bought by ITV plc.

That was probably more likely in the past, but I can't see any business sense for ITV to do this today.  I think Granada had a 20% stake in the past.

ITV are heading more towards streaming with their ITVX brand. People in Scotland are directed to the STV app, but presumably this must have programmes they've purchased from ITV?

I would have thought STV more likely to offer themselves up for a takeover. But of course, that's never really a good starting point for negotiation on price.

[nwtv2003]

For ITV to buy STV, one of two things would need to happen. The first would be that STV has something valuable that ITV doesn’t have, which it would want. A good example from previous takeovers was when Channel TV was bought in 2011, more for its compliance business rather than the actual franchise. The other would be for STV to really mess up and it becomes devalued. The obvious example here is UTV as a whole suffering heavy losses back in 2015 due to UTV Ireland.

Until either of those happen, I think we’ll pretty much see the status quo for many years to come.

[Stuart]

The other would be for STV to really mess up and it becomes devalued. The obvious example here is UTV as a whole suffering heavy losses back in 2015 due to UTV Ireland.

Until either of those happen, I think we’ll pretty much see the status quo for many years to come.

UTV were intending to buy/merge with STV at one point, but then as you say 'messed up' with UTV Ireland so got bought out themselves by ITV who immediately asset stripped the parts losing money.

STV have divested themselves of almost everything except their TV assets, and also 'messed up' with the concept of Local TV/STV2. I presume that cost them a pretty penny.

ITV is already branded across much of STV's programming from GMB/Lorraine to the News programmes, together with endboards for most networked shows.

I think ITV can afford to just sit and wait for the phone call from STV (or a knock on the door if they've had their phones cut off for non-payment).

[Rdd]

A few things on that one:

A public company is always for sale, at the right price.

But the emphasis is “at the right price”. The directors, in recommending an offer, do so on the basis that it represents value for the shareholders.

Nor will ITV over-bid for the company just to “complete the map” of the Channel 3 licenses. Those licenses reduce in value every day, and there will come a point where steaming has overtaken linear to the extent that the license obligations do not outweigh the benefit of the 103 slot and must carry obligations on EPGs, and on that day ITV will hand back the licenses. That day isn’t here yet, however, but it means that any “completing the map” type pressure isn’t so much of a factor any more.

[Brekkie]

ITV are probably more likely to buy STV for their production business nowadays than their Channel 3 franchises. I think historically it had been useful for ITV not to have a complete monopoly on those, but that seems less of a factor than ever now.

Arguably ITV are best just waiting out for STV to make some significant financial mistakes which puts the bargaining power in the hands of ITV Plc. Arguably that is what happened with UTV - perhaps without the UTV Ireland disaster that would have survived as it's own entity for longer.

[scottishtv]

Some bizarre posts in here about the financial health of STV and the speculation about upcoming "financial mistakes".

Simon Pitts has done a good job of turning STV into a more profitable business, with a clear commercial strategy that's working. 

Previous management thought the focus on local TV and hyper local websites might work but that was many years ago and it's all gone now. Even the most basic research shows the business is currently being run professionally and is very focused on profitability:

www.insider.co.uk 

The telly visionary leading STV's on-screen revival - Business Insider
Insider speaks exclusively to chief executive Simon Pitts about how he and his t…
  Source: www.insider.co.uk

www.londonstockexchange.com 

London Stock Exchange | London Stock Exchange
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  Source: www.londonstockexchange.com

Just because UTV was badly run doesn't mean it's a template for others.

STV Group plc is obviously a much smaller business than ITV plc but it's doing pretty well and has recently been providing bigger returns to investors than ITV plc has.

The cynic in me thinks the STV board has been shaping the business into something attractive for ITV to buy (to neaten up it's commercial offering to advertisers as a single UK business). As others have noted, there are few regional programming complications, and the politicians are catered for with Scotland Tonight.

It doesn't seem a priority purchase for ITV right now, but the suggestion STV is going to screw up any minute and 'need rescuing' is nonsense.

[Stuart]

It doesn't seem a priority purchase for ITV right now, but the suggestion STV is going to screw up any minute and 'need rescuing' is nonsense.

Nobody has suggested it would be either a rescue or a necessity.