UTV Media announced this morning that full-year losses at UTV Ireland are expected to come to £13m (€18.2m).

This is up from a predicted loss of £11.5m announced at the end of June.

ITV has agreed to buy the station as part of its £100m acquisition of UTV Media.

A trading update issued to the Irish stock exchange said, "the uncertainty created by the speculation around these discussions and the time to completion of the agreement has had, and is continuing to have, a negative impact upon trading within our Irish television business".

This is cited as the main factor which has led to the increase in the Irish operation's expected losses.

It continued, "Trading within our Northern Irish television business and our radio division is broadly in line with the board’s expectations".

UTV Ireland launched on January 1st of this year, but has struggled to gain a foothold in Ireland's competitive TV market.