ITV Digital bill could top £2bn

THE deficit run up by ITV Digital is far bigger than first thought, and could now top £2bn. The collapsed pay-TV operator, which was jointly owned by Carlton and Granada, was believed to have gone out of business with debts of about £1.2bn.

But a meeting of ITV Digital's creditors has been told the figure could be £800m higher. And they were warned that they could expect to get back only £50m from the wreckage of the company.

Minutes of the meeting show that Nick Dargan of Deloitte & Touche, administrator to ITV Digital, told creditors that a number of claims had not appeared on the balance sheet.

ITV Digital's original losses had also been shouldered by its shareholders and some more had been treated as capital spending. This means the deficit laid out in the company's statement of affairs did not necessarily reflect the real losses.

Stricken ITV Digital's biggest creditors include Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB, which is owed £211m, the Football League (£178.5m) and transmission company Crown Castle (£166m). Carlton and Granada are also creditors and they are entitled to sit on the creditors' committee.

But other creditors are worried that the two TV companies will try to use their influence over which liquidator is appointed after the administration is complete. The other creditors say they would prefer a liquidator who was independent of the two founder-shareholders.