ITV Pays £134 Million For Multiplex Operator

Broadcaster ITV has bought UK digital multiplex operator SDN for an upfront deal of £134 million, furthering its growth in the digital arena.

SDN is jointly owned by United Business Media (UBM) and S4C digital media, with its customers including Channel 5, the BBC, QVC and Disney.

ITV is also said to be paying a further £15 million in “deferred contingent consideration”, depending on media watchdog Ofcom’s ruling on the pricing of the five channels licensed to Channel 5 from SDN.

The acquisition will enhance ITV’s earnings from day one, with programmers paying to have their offerings aired on the now ITV owned channels.

Commenting on the deal, Charles Allen, ITV chief executive said: “Initially ITV will benefit from a new source of revenue, but critically, that ensures that ITV has the opportunity for future capacity on the digital platform where its highly successful family of channels performs best.”

ITV came under fire at the recent MediaTelINSIGHT Future of Digital TV conference when Bob Wootton, media director of ISDA commented that ITV had some “serious issues”. (see

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Elsewhere, Channel 4 has just announced that it will launch E4, as well as its timeshifted counterpart, E4+1, on the Freeview platform to coincide with the start of the sixth series of Big Brother at the end of May (see E4 Set For Freeview Launch Next Month).

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com