Sources said

According to sources, ITV, Red Bird IMI discussed merging production units.

The merger will create one of the largest production groups in Europe

After the combined talks report, ITV shares rose 3.4 %

(Background and more details from paragraph 5)

Amy-JO Crowley, Hadeel Al Sayegh and Paul Sandle

Two people who know the situation say that London/Dubai, Reuters (Reuters) -The two people who know the situation say that the Broadcasting Corporation ITV has been conducting early talks with the group Redbird IMI supported by Abu Dhabi.

It is said that the focus of the discussion is to merge ITV’s studio business with the producer of the hot TV show “traitor”, and Redbird IMI acquired ITV for the price of 1.15 billion pounds ($ 1.43 billion) last year.

One of them said that one choice is to allow ITV to separate its broadcasting business and merge it with All3Media, of which Redbird IMI and ITV are held in the studio entity.

Sources delivered a speech when they were unwilling to disclose their names, because the matter was private. He said that the negotiations were in the early stage and may not cause any transaction.

ITV spokesman and Redbird IMI refused to comment.

The merger between ALL3Media and ITV Studio will create one of the largest production groups in Europe, with a revenue of about 3.176 billion pounds (US $ 3.95 billion). The company is based on these companies and competitors Banijay, BBC Studios and FREMANTLE 2023 in 2023. number.

After the Reuters reported talks, ITV’s stock price rose 3.4 %.

After Redbird IMI said that it will sell the British Telegraph Newspaper Group (Telegraph) newspaper group, it is effectively owned, but in the long run, it cannot be controlled because the UK said that it will prevent foreign governments from owning newspapers, so it will sell the British Telephone Newspaper Group Essence

Reuters reported that ITV explored an agreement in 2023. From the time of the joint owner at the time, the global and Warner Bros. discovered that the All3Media was used to combine it with its studio.

Redbird IMI was ruled by the former CNN director of the former United States CNN, and was supported by Royal Emirates SHEIKH MANSOUR BIN ZAYED Al Nahyan. He continued to buy All3Media last year.

When the two parties do not agree with the terms, the negotiations with ITV fails, and ITV calls it an opportunity for mergers and acquisitions to weigh with “strict financial standards”.

Liberty Global’s 50 % of the shares and ITV holding about 10 % of the shares in ALL3Media are a factor in previous transactions.

ITV CEO Carolyn McCall said in July 2023 that ITV was very interested in ALL3Media, because this is a “strategy”, but this is not a suitable transaction.

The third person familiar with the matter said that McCawal has been considering the group’s choice.

People familiar with the matter said that in recent months, other private equity funds have been dialogue with ITV in recent months.

According to LSEG data, ITV’s stock has been reduced to 71 pence since January 2018. At that time, McCawal was in charge, as of Wednesday’s closing price of 2.7 billion pounds.

ITV is a manufacturer of “LOVE Island” and “The Voice”, with advertising and streaming business and studio.

Worried about advertising, the decline in linear television audiences, and the investment in streaming media to promote analysts to suggest that the distribution company will increase its value.

The production company is also under pressure to reduce the budget of radio companies that reduce advertising, and some streaming commissions have declined.

According to Reuters, the studio group, including RTL’s FreeMantle, explored the choice of cutting costs and gathering resources.

($ 1 = 0.8048 pounds) (Amy-JO CROWLEY in London, Hadeel Al-Sayegh in Dubai, and Paul Sandle in London. Anoushasakoui and Jane Merriman)