CHANNEL 6, the TV station that went on air in March with €14m in backing, is believed to be in talks with NTL to end its exclusive distribution deal with the cable operator.

It is understood that Channel 6, which was founded by Michael Murphy and Pat Donnelly, wants to gain access to the Sky digital platform here in a bid to boost flagging ratings.

Sky has 427,000 subscribers in the republic, about 30% of all homes. The satellite broadcaster, in which News International, owner of The Sunday Times, has a 35.3% stake, is adding about 1,000 new subscribers a week, making it imperative for Channel 6 to appear on the platform.

At present, Channel 6 is only available through NTL’s basic and digital TV packages. NTL, which broadcasts mostly in Dublin, Galway and Waterford, is locked in a bitter subscriber war with Sky and is believed to be paying the fledgling station a substantial sum to remain exclusive to NTL.

Latest AGB Nielsen ratings give Channel 6 a mere 0.5% share of all adults and 0.7% of its target 15-34 age group.

Its founders said the station wanted to achieve a 3% share of the 15-34 age group.

Channel 6 occupies a prime slot on NTL’s programming guide, just after RTE, TV3, TG4 and Setanta.