ITV Giants Urged To Sell GMTV Stake

Having gained approval for their much anticipated merger SMG has called on Carlton and Granada to sell their controlling stake in GMTV.

The Scottish media company, which owns Grampian and Scottish TV, has a 25% stake in GMTV and has expressed a desire to increase its shareholding in the breakfast television broadcaster.

SMG has already called on the Competition Commission to force Carlton and Granada to sell their accumulated 50% holding in GMTV once the merger is complete. It warns that ITV would effectively gain control of a second national sales channel by taking a majority stake in the company.

Andrew Flanagan, chief executive of SMG, told the Financial Times: “We would be interested in buying GMTV. You need a trigger to try to do something and that’s what we’ve tried to engineer.”

As an existing shareholder, SMG has first refusal if Carlton and Granada are obliged to sell but would face competition from Walt Disney which also has a 25% stake in GMTV.