ITV Digital faces day in court

The League says many of its clubs face oblivion

Broadcaster ITV Digital is facing oblivion on Monday, as the deadline for avoiding either a sell-off or a break-up approaches.

Talks last week between the stricken company and the Football League, to which it owes £178.5m, ended without further developments.

BSkyB has ruled itself out, and the cable companies are hardly in a position to make an acquisition

Graham Lovelace
Lovelacemedia

Sources close to the negotiations told BBC News Online that the discussions are set to resume next week.

But the meeting was at the request of ITV Digital's administrators, and the consensus is that no progress was made.

Sell-off

If a deal is not forthcoming, administrators will go to court on Monday to try to sell the service off as a going concern.

The hope is despite the heavy losses it has racked up, its 1.26 million subscribers will be an attractive enough incentive for another firm to try to make its gameplan - of selling digital TV through normal TV aerials - a success.

But analysts think that could be a tall order, since most of the potential candidates are either doing nicely as they are or up to their ears in their own debt problems.

"BSkyB has ruled itself out, and the cable companies are hardly in a position to make an acquisition," Graham Lovelace, head of the media consultancy Lovelacemedia, told Reuters.

New moves

In the meantime, though, the weekend media has highlighted a flurry of last-ditch efforts to either turn the service around or - in the case of the Football League - to try to ensure its hard-hit clubs get their money.

The Sunday Telegraph says ITV Digital wants to sell its rights to the Uefa Champions' League perhaps to BSkyB, a move which could mean the end of ITV Sport, the channel they were shown on.

On the other side of the fence, opinion is divided as to what the Football League is going to try to do.

The Independent on Sunday says the League believes it has found a loophole in the legal shell protecting ITV Digital's owners, Carlton and Granada.

According to the paper, the League will argue that ITV Digital made its broadcast rights deal in partnership with ITV itself, jointly owned by Carlton, Granada and SMG and Ulster TV.

That would make the four "jointly and severally liable" for ITV Digital's obligations, the argument runs.

On the other hand, the Sunday Times reports that the League is willing to settle for only the first of two £92.5m payments - as long as they get the TV rights back.