Wednesday night's soccer international between Yugoslavia and the Republic of Ireland marks something of a watershed for domestic broadcasting, being the first to be screened by the new commerical channel, TV3.

Although TV3 have not disclosed the amount they paid to secure the rights from German holders UFA, there has been wide speculation that the fledgling company parted with a seven figure sum for Ireland's away games in the qualifying rounds of EURO 2000, as well as for the highlights of international matches played elsewhere on the Continent.

That outlay virtually guarantees TV3 its highest ratings to date; the channel has been attracting an average of 900,000 viewers on a daily basis and can realistically hope to increase that figure two if not three fold over the course of their three-hour broadcast on Wednesday evening.

While possessing significantly less expendable capital than the national broadcast unit RTE, TV3's presence does signal something of a new era in terms of televising sports events in this country.

RTE have an obvious stronghold in many areas - they have attained the rights to broadcast domestic soccer from the FAI, they retain the rights to IRFU internationals and made a significant expenditure into cross-channel soccer with the establishment of the Saturday night magazine, The Premiership, which is screened in direct competition with BBC's flagship Match of the Day. They also have the traditional association and financial muscle to retain the rights to exclusive live coverage of GAA Championship matches, which have fast established themselves as an attractive commodity for both potential sponsors and the general public.

But TV3 do present tangible opposition for RTE and Wednesday night's game will create a lot more fuss in most homes over the channel than did the actual launch.

The company had targeted the Irish match, originally scheduled for last month, as an event which would significantly underline their arrival and status as an effective broadcast unit.

The subsequent postponement of the game was initially perceived as a blow to the channel but the interim period has given them time to deal with sporadic transmission problems. Also, Wednesday's match will virtually assure that the few stragglers yet to tune into the TV3 will do so early this week and that the minority still unable to receive the channel will feel its absence more acutely than they otherwise might.

TV3, for their part, are determined to impress through their overall presentation. While Trevor Welsh will anchor the studio discussions, they are bringing in Mark Lawrenson to analyse the match along with Noel King, with Frank Stapleton offering co-commentary on the match beside John Helm.

Although the overall look defers to the polished formula favoured by RTE and the BBC, TV3 are attempting to put a small stamp of innovation by threading live links from Vicar Street throughout the presentation in order to solicit the views of Jack Charlton, who will be in Dublin for the evening.

The quality of the punditry will play almost as important a role for TV3 as the actual on-field events. Last summers World Cup saw NETWORK 2's coverage of matches constantly (and often favourably) compared with the set ups at both ITV and BBC and now TV3 will be judged against RTE (who have a strong association with Irish international soccer) in terms of their informative output, match analysis and overall image.

TV3 have acquired the help of Transworld International, who specialise in producing sports programmes, in preparing for Wednesday evening's package and they point out that their coverge of this game helps illustrates their commitment to Irish sports, which, they feel, are given a high priority on the nightly Sports Tonight programme.

But the bottom line is that TV3 is an unapologetically hard-nosed commercial venture and improved viewing figures means commerical interest means more cash.

Thus far, the station have achieved their initial annual targets, namely to attract 6 per cent of all Irish adults and 8 per cent of those in 15-44 year old bracket.