that Ball was offered the job last week and is now negotiating terms with ITV's board.
Initially he had been seen as an unlikely candidate but he became the front runner after favoured candidate, , withdrew.
Ball has previously been reported to have plans to get rid of a number of members of the board and replace them with new, non-executive directors.
He is also said to favour a £500m rights issue and financial restructuring of ITV, although The Times says this is unlikely to take place immediately if he takes the job.
Ball has a proven background in commercial television, growing Sky when he was chief executive for four years, between 1999 and 2003.
During that period, subscriber numbers doubled to seven million and revenues also doubled to £3.19bn. .
Michael Grade revealed in April this year that he would be stepping down from the day-to-day running of ITV to become non-executive chairman.
.jpg)
.jpg)