ITV confirms Coronation Street and Emmerdale will continue after Sky deal

# What happened ITV agreed in July to sell its media and entertainment division to Sky for up to £1.6 billion. The deal covers ITV's terrestrial television channels and streaming service ITVX. It does not include ITV Studios, the company's production arm responsible for shows such as I'm A Celebrity and Mr Bates Vs The Post Office.

# Festival Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival, ITV managing director Kevin Lygo confirmed several long-running shows will continue under the new arrangement. He named Coronation Street and Emmerdale alongside Love Island and I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here, saying "These shows will continue." Lygo also pointed to the 8pm soap block—changed earlier this year with a crossover event called Corriedale—as "still always the highest-viewed thing of that day." He concluded about the soaps: "Long may it continue."

# Financial and structural terms highlighted

Sky's group chief executive Dana Strong framed the move as combining free-to-air television, pay TV and streaming to keep British programming competitive. ITV's chairman Andrew Cosslett said the deal secures ITV's role as a public service broadcaster and will create a larger UK business better able to compete with global streaming platforms.

# What this means for Coronation Street and Emmerdale viewers Both soaps were explicitly named as continuing titles. Coronation Street is filmed in Salford and, along with Emmerdale, has a long run on UK television—nearly 66 years for Coronation Street and about 54 years for Emmerdale, based on the reporting. The soaps were also part of a scheduling change this year that created a regular prime-time block at 8pm, which Lygo described as the day's highest-viewed programming.

# Immediate and practical implications

# Bottom line ITV's leadership has publicly reassured audiences that its flagship soaps and other major entertainment shows will continue after the media and entertainment arm is combined with Sky. The deal moves broadcasting and streaming assets under the new ownership while keeping production operations separate, and it includes multi-year spending commitments intended to support programming in the UK.