The surprise move follows Duncan ruling himself out of the race to replace outgoing ITV chief executive Charles Allen in August.
At the time, he said that he was not putting his name forward and in the event of a "formal approach, I intend to make it clear that I do not wish to be considered for the post".
However, this morning it is being reported that Duncan has been sounded out about the job and that the ITV board is to meet on Monday to consider offering him the job without going through a competitive recruitment process.
ITV has denied making any formal approach, but headhunter Zygos is believed to have made received several third-party approaches to Duncan.
ITV is under pressure to make an appointment, with little progress made since it was announced that Allen was going three months ago.
The Channel 4 boss has been one of the names linked to the job since the beginning of the race when a speculative press shortlist was first reported. Duncan's name was there along with: another former Channel 4 boss Michael Jackson; former Ofcom chief executive Stephen Carter; Sky programming head Dawn Airey; and former Capital Radio chief executive David Mansfield.
If offered the job, it is expected that Duncan will leave Channel 4.
One of Duncan's tasks would be to revamp ITV's programming and address the dramatic decline in ITV1's 16- to 34-year-old audience -- down from 44% in 2000 to 22%.
Analysts believe it can be done, but ITV will need to spend some of its programming budget. To facilitate that, it is expected that Duncan would take Kevin Lygo with him to be programming director. Lygo is Channel 4's programming director and he would replace Simon Shaps.
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