CC, Deloitte bill £3.8m for ITV work

Clifford Chance and Deloitte & Touche have billed £3.8m between them for handling ITV Digital's administration.

The figure was revealed at a creditors' meeting last Friday (18 October), which was held to announce formally that the company is entering liquidation and to appoint a liquidator.

As revealed by The Lawyer (16 September), Grant Thornton has got the job, with Denton Wilde Sapte providing legal advice. Grant Thornton partners Malcolm Shierson and Martin Ellis are handling the liquidation with Dentons partner Nigel Barnett.

Herbert Smith corporate recovery partner Stephen Gale is understood to have acted as dealmaker to secure Grant Thornton's appointment. Gale is acting for ITV Digital's second-largest creditor BSkyB. He won a power struggle with Carlton, Granada and the Football League over the choice of liquidator.

Carlton and Granada, represented by Slaughter and May, are owed £402m through their joint company ITV Digital Holdings and have asked for Alan Bloom, the Ernst & Young partner who led the administration of Railtrack, to do the job. Slaughters worked alongside Bloom on Railtrack.

The Football League, which is owed £179m but with £50m of the loss mitigated through a deal with BSkyB, lobbied for David Buchler of Kroll Buchler Philips. This raised concerns with Carlton and Granada about conflicts arising from Buchler's strong football connections.

The league dumped Lawrence Graham last month, allegedly for financial reasons. It was represented at the creditors' meeting by DLA partner Michael Fiddy.