TV3 IS IN exclusive talks to acquire Channel 6, the loss-making Irish television station whose backers include Senator Feargal Quinn, the Barry tea family in Cork and motor distributors the Gowan Group.
It is understood that talks are at an advanced stage but informed sources say there is no certainty that a deal will be done.
It is believed that the final consideration could be up to €10 million.
It is not clear if all of this would be paid up front or in stages.
Channel 6 is also believed to have held discussions with Liberty Global, the parent group of cable TV operators NTL and Chorus, UTV and ITV.
In January, Channel 6 outsourced its advertising sales function to TV3, with its director of sales Daragh Byrne moving to the Ballymount-based terrestrial broadcaster.
Channel 6 has had a chequered history since its launch in March 2006.
It was founded by former TV3 employee Michael Murphy and advertising executive Pat Donnelly with €14 million in private sector backing.
Other investors include venture capital firms ACT and Delta Partners and private equity group Claret Capital.
The company has struggled for ratings and advertising revenues. It made a loss of €4.6 million in 2006 and its accumulated losses stood at €5.5 million at the end of that year.
At launch, Channel 6 was available only on the NTL and Chorus cable TV platforms.
It subsequently went on to Sky's satellite platform but has had a high-profile row with the UK company over its positioning on the electronic programming guide.
TV3 is owned by UK private equity group Doughty Hanson, which paid €265 million to buy the station.
Doughty Hanson is known to be keen to expand TV3's business and launch new stations, particularly with digital terrestrial television (DTT) due to launch in 2012.
TV3 is part of the OneVision consortium that has applied for the three DTT licences.
The grouping also includes Setanta Sports, in which Doughty Hanson is also an investor, Eircom and DTT specialist Arqiva.
As part of its bid, TV3 has indicated that it will launch two new channels - 3Today and 3Expose.
TV3 has also tried to get into local radio in the past year without success.
It was an underbidder for Emap's three Irish stations, which were sold to Denis O'Brien for €200 million.
The company also bid for FM104 when that was subsequently sold by Mr O'Brien to UTV for €52 million.
TV3 also bid for the multi-city radio licence but lost out earlier this year to the 4FM consortium, which is headed by former Lite FM boss Martin Block and includes The Irish Times.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)