Football fans told to boycott ITV

Football fans are being urged to boycott the money-spinning television shows Blind Date and Coronation Street as part of a campaign to stop ITV Digital pulling the plug on the Nationwide League.

The fans will be asked to target the prime-time shows produced by Carlton and Granada to apply leverage on the two ITV companies who own ITV Digital, not to renege on their £315m contract with the football league.

The decision to pull out of the deal – reported exclusively in The Independent on Sunday last week – has sent shockwaves through the clubs in the Nationwide League, which could now be faced with bankruptcy unless the money is paid.

ITV Digital announced last week that it would offer £50m instead of the outstanding £180m it owes on the remaining two years of its contract. Its negotiators made it clear it was a "take it or leave it" offer.

The IOS has learned that ITV Digital also offered the Football League shares in the company as part of the package, but this was rejected out of hand.

A boycott by fans of the two heavily advertised programmes could hit ratings and wreck the finances of the two ITV companies, which have invested £1.2bn in the digital channel that is losing an estimated £1 million a day.

A boycott against The Sun by Liverpool fans enraged by its reporting of the Hillsborough disaster led to a rare climb-down by the Murdoch title. Keith Harris, the chairman of the Football League said: "We are aware that football supporters when mobilised can be a very powerful body."

The two ITV companies are insisting they were not party to the deal between the Nationwide League and ITV Digital. There is a fear that they could prefer to see ITV Digital go under, rather than see it pay more to the League. It is widely felt that it paid too much for the television rights to beat Sky and that could spell the end for the high sums paid for televising football in the future.

Sky could use the débâcle to reduce the price for televising the Premier League when the contract is renewed. This could depress the inflated wages paid to some of the country's top football stars.