The bidding for the licence to provide ITV's news ended today, and a decision is expected in September.
ITN is the strong favourite to win the contract, not least because its shareholders include ITV's main shareholders, Granada and Carlton Communications.
However, in an effort to strengthen its bid Channel 3 has said that it would offer Sir Trevor McDonald, the UK's highest-paid newsman, the chance to remain as anchor of Channel 3 News.
Richard Huntingford, chairman of the Channel 3 News consortium, said he believed that ITV would consider the quality of the news service to be more important than share-holding.
Huntingford said that Channel Three's news service would be better than ITN's, because it would be set up especially for ITV, while ITN also provides news for Channel 4, Channel 5, GMTV and Reuters.
Channel Three News comprises BSkyB, Bloomberg, CBS, Chrysalis Group and Ulster TV. This is the first time since 1955 that ITN has been challenged for the contract, which makes up 45% of its revenue.
There is strong concern in some quarters that the inclusion of Sky in the Channel 3 consortium is part of an effort by Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corporation owns 37% of BSkyB, to derail ITN's plans to float, manoeuvring Sky into a stronger position.
Questions have been raised in the Commons to the secretary of state for culture media and sport Tessa Jowell.