Media&Marketing/Emmet Oliver: Setanta Sports, the State's only dedicated sports channel, has secured Bulmers as the sponsor for its Premier League football coverage.

The channel, which is available on NTL, Sky and Chorus platforms, has already lined up Bank of Scotland (Ireland) as sponsor for its Leinster rugby coverage. The values of the deals have not been disclosed.

The channel is available via the three platforms potentially to 750,000 households, although in the case of Sky it is a pay-for-view option. The chief executive of the station is the former head of RTÉ sport, Mr Niall Cogley.

The channel claims that 70 separate brands have already taken space on the channel. Under the terms of the deal, Bulmers' association with Setanta will begin with coverage of the live Premiership game between Manchester United and Southampton this Saturday.

While some advertisers are notoriously slow to support new media ventures, Mr Dave Smyth, commercial director at Setanta Sports, said the response to the channel to date had been very positive from advertisers and agencies.

"Although we have only been broadcasting since September, we already have over 70 different brands advertising with us," he said.

The station hopes its mix of live soccer from England, Scotland and Italy combined with Celtic League rugby, Formula One and classic boxing bouts will deliver a large, mainly male, audience for advertisers

IoS to go tabloid?

The Independent on Sunday, the London-based newspaper owned by Independent News & Media (IN&M), is seriously considering going tabloid like its daily counterpart.

According to British media reports, the Sunday paper would have gone compact or "tabloid" some time ago if advertising agencies were supportive.

The daily paper's editor, Mr Simon Kelner, recently criticised media buyers in Britain and claimed they had been "unresponsive" to the changes taking place in the British newspaper market.

This partly reflects the recent row in Britain over what advertisers should pay for space in the new compact editions of the Independent and the Times.

"The advertising industry is about the least responsive industry in Britain.

It [the tabloid Independent] doesn't fit into their matrix. It's something they haven't had to think about before and they don't want to think about it," Mr Kelner told a recent conference.

TG4 to transmit to NI

A date is expected to be announced shortly for TG4 to start broadcasting throughout Northern Ireland.

According to documents prepared for the Minister for Communications, Mr Dempsey, the idea of broadcasting the TG4 signal from a site in west Belfast has been discussed with the British government.

Meetings have been held between officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Northern Ireland office and the British/Irish intergovernmental secretariat.

Set up costs of €130,000 will be paid by the Northern Ireland Office towards the cost of broadcasting the signal, while Foras na Gaeilge will pay the operational costs, estimated at €23,000 a year.

According to a brief prepared for Mr Dempsey: "It is expected that a date for switching on the new service will be announced before the end of the year."

TV3 goes widescreen

TV3 will begin widescreen broadcasting in the middle of next year, it was announced this week.

Widescreen broadcasting allows pictures to be viewed on a widescreen TV without distorting the image. It is often described as having a cinema-like experience in your own home.

The station has been capable of widescreen broadcasting since it was established in 1998, but it is only switching now because the amount of widescreen programming available has greatly increased.

The new format will be available on digital cable and digital satellite, whereas viewers on analogue will retain the standard form of broadcasting.

The station hopes the new format will be particularly attractive to those who watch a lot of movies.

It presumably also hopes advertisers who want to target these people will welcome the new initiative.

'Village' gets glossy

The Village magazine is claiming an average sale of 20,000 copies, according to advertising agencies in Dublin. Saor Communications said the magazine was also planning to introduce an eight-page glossy wrap around the magazine.

According to Saor: "It's seen as a commercial move to offer advertisers a double-page spread position ahead of the contents listings at the start of the magazine."

34 entries for awards

A total of 34 submissions have been entered for the third annual Marketing Media Awards organised by Marketing magazine.

The entries are across a range of five categories, with the highest number of submissions, 13, entered for the best media idea of the year.