Slaughter and May is advising ITV plc – sale of UTV Ireland and entering into a 10 year programme supply agreement with Virgin Media

Slaughter and May is advising ITV plc’s in house legal and commercial teams on the sale of 100% of UTV Ireland Limited, which owns a dedicated channel for the Republic of Ireland, to Virgin Media. The transaction remains subject to regulatory approval.

As part of the deal, Slaughter and May also advised ITV on a 10 year programme supply agreement between ITV and Virgin Media, under which ITV will grant Virgin Media certain broadcasting rights to ITV programmes in the Republic of Ireland.

The sale value was 10 million euros; the programme supply agreement is worth over £110 million over its 10 year term.