Current proposals in the bill would allow one owner to have a stake as large as 40%, compared with the current rules, which state that no one company can control more than 20% of the news provider.
However, a cross-party alliance of peers say that there should be no ownership restrictions whatsoever, with the Liberal Democrat media spokesman Lord McNally saying: "At the moment, ITN is simply resource-starved because the system encourages such a squeeze."
Carlton Communications and Granada each own a 20% stake in ITN, which provides news for stations including ITV, Channel 4 and Five.
With the companies working towards a £2.6bn merger, they would own a 40% stake between them. Both companies have been lobbying for a change that would allow them to buy the rest of the company from United Business Media, Reuters and the Daily Mail & General Trust.
The service has welcomed a decision by the Ministry of Defence to open a formal inquiry into the disappearance of two members of ITN staff in Iraq, cameraman Fred Nerac and translator Hussein Osman. A third member of staff, the correspondent Terry Lloyd, died after coming under fire with Nerac and Osman at the beginning of the invasion of Iraq.
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