Hollyoaks producers Lime Productions, Being Human makers Zodiak Media and Irish production houses Element Pictures and Parallel Films are among the companies that have pitched ideas for a TV3 soap opera.

The broadcaster received a total of 16 applications to its soap tender, which it extended to UK companies in a process formally launched in September.

About five of the pitches for the soap, expected to be broadcast at least twice a week, were made by Irish companies.

Coronation Street

TV3's soap experiment has taken on a new urgency following UTV's announcement yesterday of an exclusive broadcasting rights deal with ITV studios for the Republic of Ireland, which will deprive the TV3 schedule of both Coronation Street and Emmerdale from early 2015.

'Sell it abroad'

TV3 chief executive David McRedmond said the loss of the content was “almost inevitable” given the “ratcheting-up” of the price of its deal with ITV, while commissioning its own recurring drama fits with its wider home-production strategy.

"We don't expect to make a soap that gets an audience like Coronation Street, but we can make it in our studio, we can put it on our player and we can sell it abroad," he said.

McRedmond has no favourites, as of yet, and has yet to read the submitted scripts.