Several large British TV companies, including BSkyB, Viacom and Channel 4, are finalising plans to set up their own Irish audience research service following a major row with Irish broadcasters including RTÉ.

A spokesman for the companies told The Irish Times over the weekend that budgets were in place to finance a new service and talks were "ongoing" with two leading market research firms. Providing the service is likely to cost up to €1.8 million.

A meeting is due to take place this Friday among the main broadcasters and unless a compromise can be reached the British broadcasters could break away and form their own system.

The three companies, who are trying to increase their share of the Irish advertising market, are currently part of an existing audience research system with the Irish broadcasters.

This system is operated by research firm AC Nielsen, but it is ultimately owned and controlled by the various broadcasting companies, including RTÉ, TG4 and TV3.

In the last year serious tensions have arisen in relation to the information available via the system and also in relation to the fees paid by the British broadcasters.

The spokesman for this group said: "We are paying more than 80 per cent of the fees for the system and not getting the benefits in return".

The three companies claim the Irish broadcasters are controlling the data available and not disclosing important information on viewing patterns across the different TV viewing platforms, including digital cable and digital satellite.

The British companies also want the executive committee which controls the information radically restructured.

They also want more regular surveys of the number of people watching television generally to be undertaken. The surveys are referred to in the industry as "establishment surveys".

The spokesman said there was no reason why this work could not be done on a monthly or quarterly basis.

The British TV companies claim to have strong support from leading advertising agencies who they claim are also unhappy with the information made available under the research system.

The ratings are collected via meters placed on top of TV sets in hundreds of homes. The cost of the system is based on the number of channels a broadcaster is offering in the Irish market.

RTÉ has refused to comment on issues concerning audience research, but privately RTÉ sources suggest that Irish-owned stations should have majority control over the system because they are subject to regulation in the Republic.