MEDIA heavyweights Greg Dyke, Lord Hollick and former managing director of the Daily Telegraph Stephen Grabiner are rumoured to be planning a £6 billion takeover bid for ITV.

The company, created last year from the merger of Carlton Communications and Meridian TV owners Granada, recently saw half-year profits rise 42 per cent after advertising revenues lifted to their best level since the dotcom boom.

Shares in the company have lifted ten per cent since Wednesday amid speculation that a bid could be on the cards.

The news comes just days before Meridian moves into its new £6m regional production centre at Whiteley.

Media minister Lord McIntosh of Haringey is the guest of honour at the event on Friday.

Lord Hollick, who used to own Hampshire's Meridian TV as well as the Anglia TV franchise before selling them to Granada, was quoted yesterday as saying that buying the group back "would have a nice ring to it" and that he would not rule out anything.

Friends of popular former BBC boss Greg Dyke, who resigned following the Hutton inquiry, say he "can't wait to get back to broadcasting".

Jeremy Batstone, an analyst at stockbroker Charles Stanley, said he thought a bid for ITV was a "distinct possibility", although there may be a question mark over the price.

He said: "There is little doubt that ITV's future as an independent company has been viewed with raised eyebrows."

Chief executive Charles Allen said at the time of the group's interim results in September that the firm had delivered on all aspects of the merger, with its £100m cost-saving target achieved six months early.

The long-awaited tie-up between Carlton and Granada brought together all the former ITV regional companies, except Scottish, Grampian and Ulster. Seventy-five Meridian employees, out of a local workforce of 300-plus, lost their jobs as part of the £4 billion merger.

It is understood that Lord Hollick, Greg Dyke and Stephen Grabiner would head a consortium backed by investment groups Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) and Apax Partners.