ITV renews search for chief as talks with Ball collapse

Published on Friday 25 September 2009 21:28

BRITAIN'S biggest independent broadcaster was last night forced to resume its search for a new chief executive after abandoning talks with favoured candidate Tony Ball.

ITV – currently embroiled in a 40 million legal battle with Scottish network partner STV – also said Michael Grade would step down as chairman within months, raising the prospect of the broadcaster being rudderless amid the worst advertising downturn for decades.

ITV had offered Ball, the former head of BSkyB, the top job more than three weeks ago, but the two sides are understood to have failed to agree terms on an incentive package.

Names now linked to the position include ITV chief operating officer John Cresswell and Peter Fincham, the company's director of television, who has also been linked with a similar vacancy at Channel 4.

News of the breakdown in talks with Ball at such an advanced stage will be a huge blow for the group after it announced in April that it was looking for a new boss to allow Michael Grade to step down from his current executive role to become non-executive chairman.

ITV yesterday indicated that Grade will soon sever his ties with the company.

Simon Fox, chief executive of music retailer and bookseller HMV Group, previously held talks about the chief executive post but chose instead to stay at the retailer.

Sir Crispin Davis, who previously ran the publishing and media group Reed Elsevier, is seen as one of the leading candidates to replace Grade in the chairman's role. BMI founder Sir Michael Bishop, Sir Christopher Bland, the former chairman of BT, and British Airways chairman Martin Broughton have also been mooted.

ITV, home to shows including Coronation Street and X Factor, cited failure to agree "contractual arrangements" and a "disagreement over the future chairmanship" as reasons for discontinuing Ball's candidacy.

Shares in the group last night closed 3.5 per cent lower at 44.89p, having hit 44.14p, their lowest level in about three weeks.

Royal Bank of Scotland analyst Paul Gooden said: "It's disappointing, it's a lost opportunity and clearly he (Ball] was the best person for the job".

It had been reported this week that Ball and ITV had agreed a basic salary but were still in talks on an incentive scheme, under which Ball could receive some 20m over five years.

Earlier this week, ITV said it was suing STV for 38m in a dispute over the Scottish broadcaster's decision to drop peak-time network shows such as The Bill and Wuthering Heights.

STV, in turn, believes ITV owes it as much as 40m in unpaid revenues stretching back years.

Relations between the two have grown increasingly acrimonious as STV pursues its strategy of opting out of peak-time shows to save money and to focus more on Scottish content.