ITV is this weekend considering a long list of candidates to become its next chief executive but, despite strong backing, Tony Ball, the former BSkyB boss, is not included.

Russell Reynolds, the head-hunter who is carrying out the search to succeed Michael Grade, will contact candidates in the next two weeks to begin interviews.

Names that were supplied to ITV’s nominations committee included Mike Volpi, chief executive of the Joost internet TV venture, Malcolm Wall, former boss of Virgin Media’s channels arm, and Guillaume de Posch, a Belgian who ran the German broadcaster Prosiebensat.1.

The first interviews will be conducted with executives from outside broadcasting because ITV wants to cast its net wider than usual.

Ball’s candidacy was championed by investors such as Legal & General and Fidelity, but they failed to win wider support. The campaign to sweep him into the job angered the ITV board and shareholders such as the American fund manager Brandes, who insisted on a formal hunt.

ITV, in which BSkyB has a 17.9% stake, is under pressure from shareholders because it is expected to try again to mount a £300m rights issue this autumn. Grade has said he intends to step back to become nonexecutive chairman, but few expect him to stay for long after the new boss is named.

Ball joined BT last week as a non-executive director, raising the prospect of a conflict of interest because of BT’s attempts to expand into TV.

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