THE TELEVISION world was last week reeling from the news that Dawn Airey was quitting her role as ITV managing director of global content to take over at Five. Press reports were full of hints about a behind-the-scenes row with executive chairman Michael Grade over strategy, especially as it came less than two months after Airey was promoted to the ITV board.

The job at Five suddenly became available with the news that chief executive Jane Lighting was departing, amid speculation that owner RTL was dissatisfied with the way that the broadcaster had been performing. By the end of the week she was joined by Lisa Opie, Five's director of content, who was overlooked for the interim chief executive's post pending Airey's arrival. It went to sales director Mark White instead.

Airey's return as executive chairwoman to the place where she made her name, first as director of programmes and later as chief executive, soon fuelled conspiracy theories that Five owner RTL would launch a takeover for ITV and put her in charge of both broadcasters.

RTL was reputed to have considered bidding for ITV at the time when Virgin Media made an offer in November 2006, only for BSkyB to buy a 17.8% stake in the broadcaster as a blocking tactic. But late last week RTL was playing down any speculation of a fresh bid.

Airey's departure leaves in tatters Grade's heavily touted "dream team" of executives, which also includes Peter Fincham as head of content and Rupert Howell as commercial chief. Airey, who was tipped as a future ITV chief executive, was in charge of cutting international content deals and building a presence in the independent sector through acquisitions. She is temporarily being replaced by Lee Bartlett, ITV's global content chief operating officer, who will be seen as an early contender for her job.

Airey faces a year's gardening leave as she gears up for what will be her third executive post in just over a year. She left her chief operating officer's post at BSkyB to become chief executive of international distribution start-up Iostar last April. It became one of the shortest appointments in television history when the company went into liquidation after only eight days.

Having bounced back by returning to ITV, rumours were rife last week that Airey had grown disillusioned with the broadcaster's targets, which include doubling content revenues to £1.2 billion by 2012.