LONDON, Jan 16 (AFP) - A trio of media tycoons are plotting a possible takeover bid for ITV, Britain's dominant -- highly profitable -- commercial television network, a report said on Sunday.
Greg Dyke, Lord Clive Hollick and Stephen Grabiner were considering an audacious 6 billion pound (8.6 billion euro, 11.2 billion dollar) bid for the broadcaster, the Observer newspaper said.
All three work in various functions for private equity houses, who were considering a bidding alliance, the paper said, citing unnamed financial industry sources.
Hollick, who ran two regional independent television franchises as part of his media conglomerate before selling them in 2000, has already talked about the prospects of buying ITV, the report said.
However, analysts were sceptical whether he could do this alone and were tipping him to try and bring in the other two.
Dyke was director-general of the BBC before the corporation's fall-out with the British government over a BBC radio story alleging ministers exaggerated the case for war in Iraq, which forced his resignation.
Grabiner is a former managing director of the Daily Telegraph, at the time part of the empire of now-disgraced Canadian-born magnate Conrad Black.
The Observer cited its sources as saying that while talks on a possible bid were at an early stage, more discussions were planned for the weeks ahead.
ITV was formed in February 2004 by the merger of Granada and Carlton Communications, previously the two dominant players in Britain's main independent terrestrial channel, rather confusingly also called ITV.
The company beat analysts' expectations in September by reporting pro-forma pretax profits of 132 million pounds before goodwill amortisation and exceptional items for the six months to June, an increase of 42 percent from the same period of 2003.
01/16/2005 01:07 GMT - AFP