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Grade told Sky News that Sky was ITV's "biggest competitor commercially" and that its holding "could well have denied our shareholders."

"They can't buy the company, so it's not a strategic stake for them. It was a blocking stake. And they could act in a way that could deny the overwhelming majority of our other shareholders a bid, a merger, some big corporate activity and that was an argument that the Competition Commission accepted totally. Sky is not there to invest in businesses - that's not what the shareholders give them the money for."

The Competition Appeal Tribunal is today holding a case management conference to consider the first stage of the appeals lodged by Sky and Virgin Media over the ruling on Sky's stake in ITV.

Sky argues against the decision that it should cut the stake to below 7.5%, while Virgin argues that the ruling did not go far enough. The CAT conference will plan how the case should proceed to a full public hearing of the issues and evidence.

Sky will argue that the Competition Commission made mistakes at key steps leading to the divestment decision. It challenges the findings that a merger between Sky and ITV has taken place, and that Sky's investment prevents ITV from pursuing an independent competitive strategy.

Sky offered to give up all voting rights in respect of its shareholding, which it claimed would have "addressed fully the Competition Commission's stated concerns arising from Sky's ability to vote on shareholder resolutions".