BROADCASTING giant BSkyB has suffered a near-£350 million hit after selling a 10.4% stake in ITV and admitting defeat in a long-running legal battle.

Sky offloaded 404 million shares at 48.5p each - totalling £196 million - after last month’s decision by the Court of Appeal to uphold the Government ruling that it must sell down its 17.9% stake.

The group originally spent £940 million on the stake in November 2006, snapping up the shares at 135p each - a move that scuppered plans by the then NTL, since rebranded Virgin Media, to takeover ITV.