Companies have been invited by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) to apply to set up new television services to compete with existing operators such as RTÉ and TV3.

The BCI yesterday placed adverts in the national press calling for parties to come forward to provide four potential services. Contracts will be awarded for satellite providers, those intending to serve particular regions and those offering cable or multi-point distribution system (MMDS) services. There is also the prospect of community-based services.

The BCI is empowered to licence certain television services once several conditions are met. Mr Michael O'Keeffe, chief executive of the BCI, said he hoped any new contracts would add to the diversity of programmes available.

In relation to advertising minuteage, commercial services will be allowed 10 minutes of advertising in each clock hour.

However, not all the services proposed are expected to be commercial. The community licences, for example, will be not-for-profit, the BCI said.

The BCI sought to ascertain the level of interest in additional TV services last year. It received 42 expressions of interest from TV companies, media firms and community groups. Few large media players, however, expressed an interest.

While TV3 and Setanta submitted their interest, TV3's submission expressed scepticism about the viability of new services. It argued that the scale of public funding provided to RTÉ made the Irish market unattractive to outside investors.

However, there was considerable interest from various community organisations, special interest groups and State institutions, including Dáil Éireann, which expressed an interest in a parliamentary channel.