CABLELINK, the State's largest cable television company, will be able to offer subscribers 30 channels later this month when its £3.5 million enhancement programme is completed.
However, the system will be under pressure to expand almost immediately, given the number of new services being made available every month.
At present, Cablelink subscribers can receive up to 20 channels, including two new ones, Sky Sports 3 and the Disney Channel. Thirteen are part of the basic service, and seven are so called premium channels, for which an extra payment is necessary.
However, new channels will have to be found for Teilifis na Gaeilge later this year, TV3 late next year and probably for the new British channel, Channel 5, which goes on air in January.
With plans for a Sega games channel plus suggestions that Cablelink might offer an internet service, the additional capacity will be taken up within a short time, leaving no room for the hundreds of new digital channels becoming available.
Cablelink made pre tax profits of £4.5 million for 1995-1996, up 1.1 per cent on the previous year. Turnover was also up by over 20 per cent.
The traditionally cautious Cablelink company now has to make a quick decision about a major upgrading and the introduction of fibre optic cables to be able to cope with the explosion in digital television channels.
Cablelink, operating in Dublin, Waterford and Galway, has about 81 per cent penetration in its markets, compared with 10 or 12 per cent for cable companies in Britain. However, to continue to attract new customers and keep existing ones, it will need to continue upgrading its services or risk losing trade to satellite services.
Nine per cent or 28,000 of Cablelink's customers subscribe to premium channels, mainly the Sky Sports package, compared with only 12,000 a year ago. With the start of the soccer Premiership in England, Cablelink expects to be installing 1,000 decoders a week.
The popularity of extra services was demonstrated by the 10 per cent of subscribers in March who were willing to watch the Frank Bruno Mike Tyson fight on a payper view basis, when the expectation had been 3 per cent. This is putting Cablelink's shareholders, Telecom and RTE, under immense pressure to expand.