The two bosses await their fate

Trade and Industry secretary Patricia Hewitt will review the commission's recommendations before delivering her final verdict in 20 days' time.

The �4bn merger between the two ITV broadcasters was referred to the competition watchdog because of its potential impact on the television advertising market.

The two companies between them control about 52% of the commercial airtime on terrestrial television.

There has been speculation that the competition watchdog may recommend that the two firms be forced to sell off their advertising sales divisions as a condition of the merger going ahead.

Deal breaker?

Other possible remedies include auctioning off a fixed proportion of ITV's advertising airtime each year and trading it on a secondary market, or creating a mechanism which would allow advertisers to extend current contracts on the same terms.

Writing in the Financial Times newspaper, ITV's joint managing directors Mick Desmond and Clive Jones on Friday re-stated Carlton and Granada's strong opposition to spinning off their advertising sales divisions.

The two directors said the move would "undo much of the past year's work", including efforts to bring the two firms closer together.

"Crucial to this has been narrowing the distance between the advertising sales houses, our advertisers and the process of scheduling," they said in the article.

The companies have previously said that disposing of their ad sales operations would significantly reduce the cost savings achieved by the tie-up, making it less attractive.

Some analysts have warned that Carlton and Granada, which together control 12 of the 15 ITV franchises, could abandon the merger altogether if forced to sell their advertising sales houses.