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ITV Digital, which was last night put up for sale by its administrator, has 1.2m subscribers and is the only competition to rival BSkyB for the 35% of UK households that are not passed by the cable networks of NTL and Telewest.

It is also the only available option to those homes that can not receive Sky because issues such as planning permission restrict the use of satellite dishes.

These reasons make it essential for a digital terrestrial platform to continue, but also make BSkyB an unlikely buyer because a lengthy competition investigation would ensue if it were to increase its dominance in the market.

The BBC is another long-considered potential saviour for the service and had been spearheading an attempt to help sales of digital terrestrial services by offering its free-to-air channels as a standalone package.

However, analyst Graham Lovelace, head of Lovelacemedia, has said that the BBC would likely run into problems with the Independent Television Commission's licensing regime, which would prevent it from taking over ITV Digital.

Lovelace also pointed out that the UK's cable groups NTL and Telewest are currently under financial pressures of their own and can be ruled out as potential bidders, as can European companies such as Vivendi Universal, Bertelsmann and Kirch.

Meanwhile, AOL Time Warner and other companies based outside the EU would be automatically ruled out because of cross-media ownership laws that prevent non-EU companies from owning a UK terrestrial broadcaster.

Lovelace said that venture capitalists may be interested in ITV Digital because it has a certain "book value and could be bought cheaply and sold later at a profit".

He added that Carlton Communications and Granada might even want to acquire a heavily pared-down remnant of the business, without its current debts, to safeguard a future for ITV in digital broadcasting.

Meanwhile, Tessa Jowell, secretary of state for culture media and sport, has said the government will not bail out the Football League, which has been plunged into uncertainty now that Carlton and Granada are looking at disposing of ITV Digital.

However, she has offered some practical support for league players now that the league's only chance of getting the £178n it is owed by ITV Digital is through the courts.

However, even this could come too late for some clubs.

Jowell said in her opening address to this year's two-day Sport Business conference in London, that she backed the decision by the Football Association chief executive Adam Crozier to set up a group to steer football "through a very difficult time".

Jowell met with Crozier and Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore late last night, just hours after ITV Digital was put up for sale.

Jowell said: "Clearly there is a role for government in helping players retrain or relocate if they find themselves without a job."

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