MacKenzie attempted a £100m private equity-backed management buyout of TWG in February and is still believed to be interested in pursuing this option. However, Goldman Sachs, which is managing the sale process, has given the upper hand to UTV by granting it a period of exclusivity.
UTV directors confirmed that they were in talks with TWG, of which the largest shareholders are John Malone's Liberty Media and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.
It is unlikely that MacKenzie would stay on at the company were UTV to take control, despite personally holding a 6% stake in it.
His departure from the radio industry would be welcomed by some. Radio audience measurement body Rajar for one is unlikely to miss him after the pair clashed in court over the former Sun editor's claims that Rajar's system of audience measurement was damaging TWG's business.
UTV owns the ITV franchise for Northern Ireland and since 2000 has assembled a collection of four radio stations across the Republic of Ireland. In early 2004, it attempted a £400m bid for Scottish Media Group, the owner of national station Virgin Radio.
Last month, UTV took another step forward by winning the new FM licence for Belfast, which TWG had also applied for, with an easy listening music format aimed at the over-45s. Its only presence outside Ireland is the part-owned Juice FM in Liverpool as part of a consortium called Absolute Radio.
A successful bid for TWG would net UTV 16 local stations in England and Scotland, as well as the national TalkSPORT station. Another asset is the FM licence for a speech radio station in Edinburgh, which TWG won in December.
However, TWG's concentration in speech radio has been viewed askance by analysts, who worry about its expense and the competition from the BBC.
This has been mooted as a reason why Chrysalis, owner of Heart and LBC, has not taken its initial interest in the company any further.
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .
.jpg)
.jpg)