A bitter dispute between Sky and the producers behind The Great British Bake Off has broken into public view, with lawsuits filed and allegations of wrongful dismissal at the center of the fight.
Deadline reported this month that former Love Productions managing director Letty Kavanagh has launched twin lawsuits against Sky for wrongful dismissal and unpaid severance. Two other former Love employees have raised similar complaints: Kieran Smith, Bake Off's former executive producer, and a third unnamed individual who remains employed by Love.
Kavanagh claims she was fired after complaining that Sky's bid to poach Bake Off from Channel 4 in 2025 was improper, mismanaged, and damaged relations with a key customer. After an 18-year career at Love, she believes her experience shows that Sky does not have the best interests of public service broadcasting at heart. She has said the situation serves as an unhappy harbinger for ITV ahead of its £1.6 billion ($2.2 billion) sale to Sky.
The broader conflict sits inside a long and complicated relationship. Love Productions founders Richard McKerrow and Anna Beattie built a culture that valued creative independence, and relations with Sky were not always smooth after the company fully acquired Love in 2020.
Sky strongly rejects the allegations. The company says it will robustly defend its position during legal proceedings, and attributes the Bake Off dispute to differences of opinion about the show's future that have nothing to do with the proposed ITV takeover. An external law firm, Gibson Dunn, investigated and dismissed Love's complaints.
Sky's content chief Cecile Frot-Coutaz, writing in an op-ed at the Edinburgh TV Festival this week, framed the company's intentions in broad terms. "Our ambition is to keep investing in brilliant British storytelling for generations to come," she wrote in Broadcast.
Despite the legal battle, Bake Off stayed on Channel 4 and continues to air. The legal proceedings between Kavanagh and Sky are ongoing.
