Canadian media company CanWest has set a bid deadline near the end of the month for its 45 percent stake in Irish commercial broadcaster TV3, Reuters said quoting a sources familiar with the situation "The information memorandum is being sent out and it will now move into a standard process timetable. So bids are due in towards the end of February," one source said on Wednesday. The other major stakeholder in Ireland's sole commercial terrestrial channel is Britain's ITV, which also has a 45 percent stake. ITV has the right of first refusal but will probably be forced to sell its own stake if it does not bid under terms of the partnership deal, a separate source said. TV3 already carries a large amount of programming from ITV, which declined to comment. The remaining 10 percent, non-voting stake in TV3 is held by a trio of investors -- Chairman James Morris, U2 manager Paul McGuinness and Ossie Kilkenny, the band's accountant. --More 21 31 Local Time 18 31 GMT
