[Scarlett.]

Sky is to scrap Bravo and Channel One and boost spend on Living by 25% by the end of the year following its acquisition of Living TV Group.

All 110 LTG staff have been placed in consultation following the Office of Fair Trading’s decision to wave through the £160m takeover, with around half facing the prospect of losing their jobs.

Sky will now recruit for 58 positions across a range of areas including commissioning, acquisitions and scheduling but there is no word on whether senior Living commissioning staff such as Johnny Webb, director of TV Claudia Rosencrantz and head of commissioning Mark Sammon will be allocated roles.

The top shows from Bravo and Channel One, formerly Virgin 1, will be distributed across the wider Sky portfolio as the broadcaster skims off the best content before axing the channels to avoid competition with its existing channels Sky1 and Sky3.

Quiz and gaming Challenge will be bumped from its position on pay TV into the vacant Channel One slot as part of the changes.

Both Sky and the LTG channels now fall under the responsibility of Sky’s managing director of entertainment, news and broadcast Sophie Turner Laing who also heads up the Sky entertainment channels. She broke the news of the changes to LTG staff in an internal meeting which took place earlier this afternoon.

Turner Laing said the opportunity for Sky to gain more content was the primary reason for the deal.

“We are committed to offering our customers the best in pay content and by acquiring the Living TV Group, we can ensure that great content, brands and talent can work even harder for our customers,” she said.

“Living is already one of the best pay TV channels around and is obviously a great fit with our existing channels like Sky1. There is so much potential for further development and we intend to increase on-screen investment in Living by around a quarter as part of our expanded channel portfolio. This is a big part of our plans to bring customers great content from channel brands that really cut through.”

Sky is also keen to keep the LTG channels on pay TV, differentiate itself from free TV alternatives and save itself having to pay LTG £30m carriage fees every year.

The Gaurdian

Oh **** off Sky TV