The BBC has confirmed its interest in the broadcasting licence previously held by the collapsed broadcaster ITV Digital, according to an article in the Corporation's in-house magazine Ariel.

The licence has been divided into three licences which are up for grabs.

"The Corporation has submitted a letter of interest in the three digital terrestrial television licences to the Independent Television Commission," the Ariel article said.

"ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and SDN (which already holds a digital terrestrial spectrum licence) are also understood to have submitted separate expressions of interest."

Holding position

The BBC also confirmed that talks have been held between the broadcasters with a view to form a consortium to bid for the licences.

"The BBC, which described its interest as a 'holding position', said: 'it was not realistic for us to reach agreement in the time available before the deadline for submissions. We will be entering into discussions with other interested parties very soon.'" the BBC said according to the Ariel article.

"The terrestrial broadcasters want the licences in order to improve the quality of the free-to-air channels they broadcast digitally, by exploiting better bandwidth," the article said.

"These include BBC One, Two, ITV, Channel 4 and 5 as well as BBC News 24, BBC Choice, BBC Four and ITV2," it said.