The satellite broadcaster, BSkyB, has been told by the Competition Appeal Tribunal that it must sell over 10% of its stake in ITV.
The 17.9% stake was bought for £940m in November 2006 to prevent Virgin Media taking over ITV.
It is believed that any interested buyers would require at least £4bn to secure the stake. This includes £2.5bn for ITV, £700m to cover debt and £1bn for a pension debt buyout.
Channel Five owner RTL and the private equity market are thought most likely to buy BSkyB's shares. Since funds are tight in the current market for most, Bertelsmann, which owns 90% of RTL, is seen as more likely to buy the minority stake.
Other potential buyers include Mediaset, the Italian media empire, Haim Saban, media entrepreneur, and Apax and Goldman Sachs, who together made a bid for ITV two years ago.
Current speculation suggests that there could be up to 1,000 redundancies for ITV employees. The broadcaster is due to announce a series of job losses this week following meetings with staff.
