Broadcaster ITV said today it would sell its social networking website Friends Reunited as the firm looks to cut costs and raise revenues.

ITV will also dispose of its listings website Scoot and is “considering options” for its SDN digital television business.

The announcement came as the firm announced plans to make cost savings of £245m a year by 2011.

The confirmation of plans to sell Friends Reunited comes |little more than three years after it bought the business for an initial £120m from founders husband and wife team Steve and Julie Pankhurst.

Under the deal, first announced in December 2005, ITV was due to pay up to £55m more this year depending on the performance of the business. The broadcaster wanted to link the website with its ITV.com website in areas such as dating, recruitment and classifieds.

Friends Reunited delivered around half of ITV’s £36m online revenues in 2008, but saw its own revenues fall by £4m over the year due to the loss of subscription income as the reunions site relaunched on an advertising-funded basis last May.

Although the reunions site saw users reach a record 6.4 million in July, the social networking landscape has seen major players emerge such as Facebook, Bebo and Myspace.