BSkyB grabs stake in ITV to battle Virgin NTL merger

BSkyB has bought a 17.9% share in ITV.

This could potentially cause problems for a proposed merger of ITV and NTL which was announced earlier in the week.

Richard Branson is currently the majority sharehold in NTL and had openly supported the merging of NTL with ITV, which could then open up new digital and internet TV services.

However, the news had been closely followed by a proposed bid by RTL for ITV.

ITV has been suffering from declining audiences and recently lost sponsorship of Coronation Street by Cadburys.

IT leaves the company open to take-over, but it remains to be seen whether BSkyB will seek to enlarge their share, and whether their new purchased stake will complicate any coming take over offers.