Shares in Carlton Communications and Granada both rose on the news that the pair were finally in "advanced merger talks", after to-ing and fro-ing about whether or not to go down the aisle.
Carlton was up by 6.49% to 119.75p at 11:30am, falling back from an initial gain of over 18p earlier in the day. Granada's shares were up by 5.6%, or 3.75p, trading at 70.5p mid-morning. They reached a high of 76.25p earlier in the day.
Shares in both companies have been hit by continuing troubles at ITV, as advertisers said they were moving their budgets elsewhere and possible saviour Dawn Airey said she was going to take up the managing director role at BSkyB, rather than the chief executive role at ITV.
Also trading up was BSkyB, buoyant on the news that chairman Rupert Murdoch's dreams of a US satellite television network were looking to become a reality as the FCC effectively ruled out a merger between EchoStar and DirecTV.
The Department of Justice still has to rule on the deal, but it looks likely that Murdoch might finally be able to add DirecTV to his global satellite empire. BSkyB was up by 6.4%, or 30p, this morning, trading at 470.5p.
Other big gainers in the sector include the WPP Group, up by 5.6% or 22.25p to 423.5p; the publishers Pearson, up 3.5% to 580p and the Daily Mail and General Trust, up 3.9% to 498.5p.
Shares in London were boosted by gains on Wall Street yesterday, and the FTSE-100 index was up by 2% to 3854.3 points.
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