The once tranquil world of Irish television is no more. A staggering 12 channels may soon be competing for advertising business in the Republic.

Whereas a decade ago the field was clear for RTÉ 1 and Network 2, the following 10 channels are either chasing advertising already or have plans to do so in the future: TG4, TV3, UTV, E4, Sky News, Sky One, Sky Sports 1, Sky Sports 2, MTV and Nickelodeon.

Not surprisingly, getting a reasonable slice of the advertising cake depends on ratings. Without ratings, large advertising agencies tend to keep channels at a distance.

Consequently differences have emerged between the television companies about who gets access to the ratings for Ireland and how much it should cost.

With a new director general in place, Mr Cathal Goan, RTÉ is keen to stay at the top of the ratings tables. But Ireland is now an important market for BSkyB, under its new chief executive Mr James Murdoch.

Sky, MTV and Nickelodeon are unhappy at the way the Irish broadcasters, TG4, TV3 and RTÉ, control ratings for the Republic and crucially how much it costs to access the data. Some advertising agencies have been informed of this.

The three national broadcasters own the Nielsen ratings and Sky executives are due to meet them shortly on the issue.

The ratings are collected via meters placed on top of sets in 660 homes. Nielsen is responsible for running this system but the costs are paid for by television channels.

According to a new rate card introduced in early September, each broadcaster is charged based on the number of channels they are broadcasting into the Irish market.

This arrangement has raised eyebrows in the advertising world. "Fair enough you might think until you consider that RTÉ has two channels, TV3 has one and Sky currently has four. To expect Sky to pay twice as much as RTÉ for research is somewhat ludicrous," comments McConnells in its latest newsletter.

While all sides to the dispute declined to comment publicly this week to The Irish Times, RTÉ privately points out that gathering ratings is an expensive business and the per-channel model is used internationally. It says the price will be reviewed next August and if more channels have signed up by then the price will come down.

At present, the price is believed to be about €130,000 per channel, says sources.

Sky is excluded from the executive committee for Nielsen TV research because it is not a national broadcaster. This is because they are regulated in Britain and do not make programmes here. However the advent of a Sky News service in Dublin, due to begin next year, may alter that.

A meeting with the Nielsen TV research committee is scheduled and Sky is likely to argue that if it is charged per channel, it could end up paying a very large bill.

It is likely to argue that systems in Britain also use percentage of viewing and percentage of revenue to calculate the bill. Sky also believes figures showing how channels do on specific platforms like digital should be available. RTÉ counters that it is right that national broadcasters control the data, because they are regulated here.

With so many channels queuing up to enter the Irish market the issue will not go away. Advertisers meanwhile are concerned; they want as many channels as possible because this should bring down the overall price of advertising.

Rugby turn-off

Ireland's exit from the rugby world cup was a sad one for hooker Keith Wood. His tearful goodbye to Irish fans certainly had all the elements of sporting theatre. But, based on figures supplied by agency Mindshare, plenty of people simply yawned, turned over and went back to sleep.

When the game against France kicked off at 7.30 a.m. only 5.7 per cent of people had tuned in. By half time Ireland were 27-0 down and still only 8.5 per cent had tuned in. As the team got into its stride on the field - scoring 21 points in the second half - viewership started to rise.

Ireland had obviously finally woken up and viewership reached 11.4 per cent at 9.15 a.m.

While the Irish people obviously love their sport, they appear to love their beds even more.

Shamrock slope

The shamrock gets a facelift

Shamrock, the long established Irish home baking brand, has decided to re-brand itself. While its traditional shamrock logo has not been jettisoned, it has been given a more contemporary slant.

Rebrandings of this type are always fraught. Companies want to maintain a sense of Irishness, but is that possible with a symbol that comes with such social and cultural baggage as the shamrock? Well Shamrock Foods, which is part of the IAWS Group, thinks it has got the balance about right.

More than €500,000 has been spent on the re-branding exercise and the modish new shamrock is on the shelves now.

Mr Peadar Kearney, managing director of Shamrock Foods, said: "Shamrock has incredible brand loyalty and a very strong resonance with Irish consumers... The re-branding of Shamrock will be good for Irish home baking but at the same time providing the platform to allow the brand to travel to different areas."

Fast food rules

While debate continues endlessly about alcohol and advertising, agencies and their clients may need to consider fast food and beverage related advertising restrictions instead. This is on the back of international concerns about obesity in children.

While a ban is not on the immediate horizon, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) could yet introduce new restrictions. It is currently in phase two of its consultation on children's advertising and it is understood the number of submissions on fast food and soft drink advertising is high.

An earlier consultation document put out by the BCI included a section on the physical well-being of children. The document asked whether safeguards might be needed to stop advertising that suggested to children that fast food and beverages were a substitute for their main meal.

The BCI is also likely to look at the issue of whether adverts encourage "excessive consumption" of fast food and beverages with a high sugar content.

The BCI has been given a statutory remit to come with a new code, so it will be interesting to see whether fast food makes it to the final draft.

To be fair, the fast food and beverage companies have not been totally ineffective in this area. Companies including McDonald's and Coca-Cola have started to fund multimillion pound advertising campaigns urging Americans to eat more healthily.

In an effort to avoid lawsuits, food giants including Unilever, Procter & Gamble and Heinz are using internet, television and press advertisements to warn consumers that eating too much fast food will make them fat.

Awards deadline

Meanwhile entries for the Marketing magazine media awards close next Wednesday,November 19th. Submissions are invited from agencies and media owners in five categories - launch campaign of the year, best-integrated campaign, best long-term brand building campaign, media idea of the year and media brand of the year. Meanwhile the Marketer of the Year award will be presented today in Dublin's Four Seasons Hotel.

Emmet Oliver can be contacted at eoliver@irish-times.ie