Michael Grade dismisses merger talk as a 'wheeze'

Michael Grade's patience began to wear thin as the second of his conference calls with journalists about ITV's less-than-stellar 2008 results and latest axe-wielding exploits drew to a close at lunchtime today, with the executive chairman resorting to one-word answers for the final few questions. He became more animated, however, when asked about MediaGuardian.co.uk's exclusive revelation that ITV had raised the possibility of a merger with Channel 4 and Channel Five with the government, describing the idea as a "wheeze". Attempting to play the reports down, he said: "We believe we have an independent future. It was just a debating point. We were asked by Stephen Carter's Digital Britain to talk about the long term future of broadcasting but this has been characterised absolutely wrongly. There is no immediate plan. It is not going to happen. It was purely an illustrative slide in a presentation."