Media barons in £6bn bid to capture ITV

Media moguls Greg Dyke, Lord Hollick and Stephen Grabiner may launch an audacious £6 billion bid for ITV, City sources said last night. The three work for private equity houses that have held talks about forging an alliance to bid for Britain’s largest commercial terrestrial broadcaster.

Dyke, the former BBC director-general who resigned after the Hutton inquiry, and Grabiner, ex-managing director of the Daily Telegraph, advise venture capitalist firm Apax. Hollick, recently appointed to KKR, the US private equity group, said last week that buying back ITV ‘would have a nice ring to it. I wouldn’t rule anything out’.