The fall in ITV's share price sent the company's market capitalisation below £2bn for a short while, less than half the £5bn value put on it when NTL, the predecessor to Virgin Media, attempted a takeover in 2006.
The sagging price is particularly painful for BSkyB, which blocked NTL's bid by buying a 17.9% blocking stake in ITV for 135p per share in November 2006, but was earlier this year ordered by the Government to sell most of its shares.
It is possible that the price has been depressed by Sky selling the shares off, but it is not known what Sky's deadline to reduce its stake to 7.5% is because the Government agreed that this information should be kept secret.
Yesterday's price would value Sky's £940m investment at just £348m.
The shares recovered slightly this morning, climbing 1.99% to 51.3p.
The last reported interest in ITV came in February with Apax teaming up with Providence and KKR to consider an offer of 100p per share, although no bid materialised.
Yesterday's bottom came despite the broadcaster enjoying hits with shows like 'Britain's Got Talent' on ITV1. ITV's share of commercial impacts increased from 30.2% in April to 31.9% in May, while Channel 4's share fell from 12.6% in April to 11.5%, and Five's from 9.1% to 8.5%.
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