Officials from the Treasury have held informal talks with a number of City institutions, according to senior broadcasting executives quoted by The Observer newspaper.
The move will reignite speculation of a merger between Channel 4 and Five. Channel 4 is known to have lobbied the government for a change in ownership in an effort to create a new force in UK TV that is able to better rival a single ITV company.
Former Channel 4 chief executive Mark Thompson said in March he met United Business Media chief executive Sir Clive Hollick and Five majority owner RTL.
The talks were initially about creating a new sales house in response to the ITV merger, which gave the go-ahead for Carlton and Granada to merge their sales operations as part of the deal.
Since Thompson left to take up the post of director-general of the BBC, the effort has been driven forward by Channel 4 chairman, Luke Johnson, who will work with new chief executive, the former BBC marketing director Andy Duncan, who joined from the BBC last week.
The paper reports that the Treasury wants to look at the possibility of a full-blown privatisation so that it does not lose any of the value of Channel 4, which has revenues of £770m a year and could be worth anywhere between £1bn and £2bn.
It is possible that the Channel 4 and Five could tie up some of their back office functions, including an airtime sales merger, which would not need a change in the station's ownership.
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