The sweetener will be offered to investors angry at the rejection of the £1.3bn takeover by the Goldman Sachs and Apax Partners consortium led by Greg Dyke. Major investors such as investment fund giant Fidelity is reported to be one of those unhappy that the deal was rejected on Friday.
To fund the sweetener, it is likely that there will be a quick sale of remaining non-core assets, which include 10% stakes in Liverpool and Arsenal football clubs.
ITV has already sold off a number of non-core businesses such as the £80m disposal of its education division Granada Learning, its prop hire business Superhire and specialist effects firm The Moving Picture Company for £52.7m to French technology company Thomson.
The need to raise cash to give back to shareholders could also see ITV sell-off its cinema advertising business Carlton Screen Advertising.
The £1bn being returned to shareholders is a major rise on the £300m ITV has already said that it is returning to investors.
As well as selling off non-core assets, it has also been reported that ITV might be forced to cut budgets at its main channel ITV1. This was something that Dyke's consortium proposed, with a plan to buy in more high-quality US dramas.
ITV's shares were at 126p at the time of the 130p revised offer, but fell back 6% to 119p on Friday and this morning are trading at 120p.
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