ITV shares are up 9% after the Sunday Telegraph reported that pay-TV company BSkyB has received expressions of interest in its stake in ITV from Channel 5 owner RTL and US billionaire Haim Saban.
The report has reignited bid speculation over Britian's biggest commercial broadcaster, sending it around 6p higher at 69.6p by mid-morning.
RTL has long been seen as a possible bidder for ITV, although analysts reckon the European broadcaster would struggle to raise enough money for an outright bid given the drying up of credit markets.
Cazenove analysts said: "Although RTL is unlikely to be able to finance a full takeover on its own the combination of RTL and media investor Haim Sabam is likely to be seen as a more credible buyer."
BSkyB, in which Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is the largest shareholder, has been ordered by the government to sell down its 17.9% stake in ITV to below 7.5%.
BSkyB bought the ITV stake in late 2006, effectively blocking a takeover of the company by rival pay-TV operator Virgin Media.
The Competition Commission has ruled that BSkyB's stake is bad for competition in the TV industry.
BSkyB is appealing against this, arguing that it has offered to make concessions to address competition concerns.
An imminent sale of the stake is also thought unlikely because BSkyB would face a loss of hundreds of millions of pounds due to a slump in ITV's share price over the past 18 months.
Back to the credit crisis. The Bank of England's plan to make £50bn available for Britian's embattled banks, announced earlier this morning, has not had much of an impact on the London market.
It was widely trailed last week and banks rose last week in anticipation.
The FTSE 100 has continued early gains, and is up around 10 points at 6066.1
The Royal Bank of Scotland, which is expected to make a record £10-12bn cash call from shareholders tomorrow, is down 2.5% at 374.75p, and Barclays is down 2% at 485p.
