- UPC IRELAND, which owns the NTL and Chorus cable TV companies, has extended its call centre outsourcing deal with Zevas for an additional 12 months, with the creation of 45 additional jobs. The two groups have worked together for the past six years, with the UPC contract worth €2 million to Zevas, which provides telesales and web sales services to the cable company.

- WE'VE HAD the book, now how about Banksters - The Musical?

Banksters has been doing a brisk trade in newsagents, and word is that joint authors David Murphy and Martina Devlin have had an approach to put it on as a musical. Save for a happy ending, it has all the ingredients to draw audiences in - money, property, greed, back-stabbing and political intrigue.

And if they need actors to play the role of the angry small shareholder, they need look no further than Fair Citycabbie Leo and his pal Bella Doyle.

- WHILE ARNOTTS ponders ending its near 20-year sponsorship of the Dublin GAA team, the county board appears to have kicked off the process of finding a replacement. An agency in Dublin has been appointed to drum up interest in sponsoring Dublin’s teams at all levels.

The price tag is thought to be about €1 million a year, which would make it one of the biggest sports sponsorships in Ireland.

The Dubs have a massive following, with more than 75,000 filling Croke Park for their first round Leinster Championship football game last weekend against Meath.

Arnotts is believed to have been paying around €750,000 for the sponsorship, which included a cut of merchandising sales. The deal runs out at the end of this season, which, given the football team’s performance last weekend, could be just a matter of weeks away.