ITV has said it is looking to raise £120m to reduce debt by selling bonds. Its plan to raise cash comes a day after two potential candidates to replace Michael Grade as ITV’s chairman ruled themselves out of the running.

Last month, ITV’s talks with Tony Ball, the former boss of Sky, about becoming chief executive broke down.

In a trading update, it warned revenue from advertising was set to fall by 3% in October from a year ago, but said it was outperforming rivals.

This represented an improvement on its last trading update in early August, when ITV forecast a 12% fall in quarterly revenues and a 7% drop in September.

ITV also said it had decided to keep Freeview channel operator SDN, which it put up for sale earlier this year.

The business, which makes about £40m each year by renting capacity to channels including Five and QVC, will instead be used to help plug the hole in ITV’s pension scheme.