Reports claim that insurance company Legal & General, which owns 5.2% of ITV, is part of the group of shareholders that have been talking to Ball.
The Sunday Telegraph claims the shareholders approached Ball, while The Independent said ITV believes Ball was the one who initiated discussions.
Ball's interest in the job has emerged before ITV this week appoints headhunters, and less than two weeks since to take the role of non-executive chairman before the end of the year.
It is unclear whether ITV will consider Ball for the job, while Ball is understood to want to be sure of sufficient investor support before engaging in talks with the company, according to the Sunday Telegraph.
Shareholders have been talking to Ball for several weeks, attracted by his heavyweight status. He was chief executive of BSkyB for four years until 2003 and was paid as much as £10m to agree not to starting working for a British broadcasting rival for three years after leaving.
He is currently chairman of the advisory board of Kabel Deutschland, Europe's largest cable network operator.
, the former chief executive of United Business Media, Michael Jackson, the former chief executive of Channel 4 and internal candidates John Cresswell, chief operating officer, and Rupert Howell, commercial and brand director.
Separately, Channel 4 is expected to warn this week that it will have to cut its programming budget again after a fall in advertising revenues, which dropped from £825m to below £800m in 2008.
The broadcaster's top two executives have been reported to be "at daggers drawn" by the Sunday Times.
The newspaper claims chairman Luke Johnson will be forced to "back or sack" either chief executive Andy Duncan or director of television Kevin Lygo.
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