ITV 'frontrunner' to rent media centre when Games end

ITV is in talks with Olympics chiefs to become the flagship tenant of the 2012 media centre after the Games.

Sources have told the Evening Standard that the broadcaster is the front-runner to move thousands of staff into the 250,000 sq ft Hackney Wick office where print journalists will be based during the Games.

The site is being offered at a rate of £15 per square foot per year which would amount to an annual rent of around £4million on a lease of at least 25 years.

Officials are trying to persuade ITV to move to the East End in 2014 when its lease at its South-Bank base ends. Staff at ITV's Gray's Inn Road premises would also relocate.

The Olympic media complex is intended to become a "digital hub" after 2012 creating up to 10,000 jobs. Ministers have recently pumped in an extra £130million of public money into the project as private funding evaporated. But they are now under pressure to sign up an anchor tenant after the Games. They say that Hackney Wick has good public transport and will have a multistorey car park built for the Games.

ITV was unavailable for comment.