021 Television, which handles outside broadcast work such as the Champions League for ITV, Sky's Football Firstand Question Timefor Mentorn, has been designated "non core" by ITV chiefs.
However industry sources said that reports the business could fetch around£10m are wide of the mark, with some suggesting it could be less than half that sum.
One source told Broadcast: "The difficulty with the 021 sale is that ITV is keen to rationalise the business it has made no investment in HD. And although 021 gets to do all ITV's work such as the Champions League it doesn't have any really big contracts with anyone else."
ITV recently renewed its deal for the Champions League until 2009 and a spokeswoman for ITV said there were several buyers interested in the business. The Birmingham-based division currently employs 58 staff.
021 suffered a serious blow in 2001 when it lost Sky's multi-million pound Premier League contract to Visions after ITV went head to head with Sky with the Nationwide League on DTT. ITV's move prompted Sky to dump the ITV-owned OB supplier.
021's outgoing managing director, Ed Everest, who is leaving the company to join OB firm Charter Broadcast as managing director, said an ITV financial review of operations had decided the division's fate.
He said it was "on the cusp" in terms of importance to ITV's structure and added: "Some see it as core, others don't."
Rob Hollier, 021's current director of operations, will be promoted to managing director when Everest leaves at the end of the month. The future of the staff and management will rest with the new buyer.
The 021 sale follows a spate of ITV disposals of non core assets amounting to£276m.
A deal is expected to be concluded in the next few months.
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