Time Warner and investor groups Goldman Sachs and Apax Partners were believed to be staging a bid for the commercial broadcaster, but abandoned plans last week because of the size of the £580m pension deficit.
It is now understool that ITV could pay off some of the fund through the sale of Carlton Screen Advertising and its 10% stake in Liverpool and 5% stake in Arsenal football clubs.
ITV would plough the money, which could be as much as £400m, back into the pension fund, making the sale of ITV a more viable option for the Time Warner consortium and other potential bidders.
The news that Time Warner and a consortium of investment banks would be tabling a full takeover of ITV emerged at the beginning of this month. However, reports a week later detailed the consortium's plan to take only a 30% stake and after another week the plans were abandoned.
Following reports of the bid, ITV's share price was boosted to around 20% more than its price at the beginning of the year.
Pension fund deficits have impacted on a number of high-profile takeover bids in the last few years, most notably when Permira was forced to abandon plans to buy retailer WH Smith because it would have to make up a £250m deficit.
With the UK's new pensions regulations, which came into force in July, all pension fund trustees can demand that its deficits are covered by the new owner in the event of a takeover.
Time Warner owns Warner Bros film studios, New Line Cinema, AOL, HBO, CNN, IPC Media and Time Inc, which publishes more than 140 magazines.
ITV was not available for comment at the time of publication.
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