One More Thing:Sky Ireland's plan to dominate the market for digital pay television here continues apace. Last week, the Rupert Murdoch-controlled satellite broadcaster announced plans to create 100 jobs at a customer call centre in Cork.

Now the company is planning to extend its network of franchised retail shops to 30 over the next 12 months.

Sky currently has 19 shops around the country operated by franchisees. Liffey Valley was recently added to the roster. It addition, it has 300 agents selling its TV packages.

Retail accounts for roughly half of Sky's sales here, with the direct channel achieving the balance. Sky had 465,000 subscribers at the end of 2006, a figure expected to rise above 500,000 by the end of June.

This expansion at Sky comes at a time when cable operators NTL and Chorus are in the middle of a painful and costly integration process under the ownership of Liberty Global.