WHERE next for Galway native Grainne Seoige?

After stints at three broadcasters in less than a decade, Seoige now moves to her fourth, RTE, where will host a new afternoon show from October.

Having now virtually exhausted the indigenous television broadcasting scene, as well as the Sky News Ireland offices, Seoige may have to look farther afield for her next job if she ups sticks at RTE.

Unless, perhaps, she opts to do sports commentary for Setanta.

She will, no doubt, be happy to have an audience again. Since its launch in 2004, the Sky News Ireland service has failed to attract a meaningful viewership, despite significant capital having been injected into the operation, and over 400,000 Irish homes now having signed up to Sky Digital, not to mention those who have access to the channels via NTL and other operators.

When Sky News Ireland started up, it had a combined audience of 53,000 for its two bulletins at 7pm and 10pm. By this time last year that had dwindled to 31,000, with 13,000 watching the 7pm slot and 18,000 watching the 10pm bulletin.

DCTV'S HIGH HOPES FOR COMMUNITY LICENCE

THE Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) said last week that it has signed a 10-year contract for what will be the country's first community television service.

Dublin Community Television hopes to begin pilot broadcasts of its service early next year. It will broadcast over the NTL digital platform for two hours a day initially, building to a 12-hour service by mid-2007.

Ciaran Murray, vice chairman of the new service, recently told the Sunday Tribune that he believed DCTV could be successful despite the range of channels now available to viewers.

Murray, whose own background is in community radio, said the station could be able to assist immigrants to adapt more easily to Irish society, for example, by providing language lessons and an introduction to Irish life, while it could also offer a level of Dublin-focused news not available elsewhere.

"We'd like to cater for all audiences, " he said, adding that locals will also be able to take an active role in training at the station, and in its operation.

Unfortunately, the channel has received no corporate backing yet, but Murray said NTL had been supportive of the venture.

Murray added that he had hoped the service could have been on air by 1 January 2007, but that that target now seemed a "bit unrealistic". He confirmed that it would be this time next year before the new channel was fully up and running.

WAL-MART SEEKS NEW ADS FOR IMAGE RETHINK

THE world's biggest retailer, Wal-Mart, has put its advertising account up for review for the first time in 30 years. The account is worth almost $580m and is currently held by Omnicom's GSD&M and Bernstein-Rein.

Wal-Mart has traditionally targeted priceconscious shoppers, but wants to shift its attention to more the affluent customer.

In the past year Wal-Mart began advertising in magazines such as Vogue and last February introduced a campaign with the slogan, 'Look beyond the basics'. It's also boosting online and directmail efforts.

BERTELSMANN STILL BIG IN GERMANY

EUROPE'S largest media group, German firm Bertelsmann, said last week that first-quarter turnover grew 17% to 4.46bn compared to the same time last year, while net income soared 55% to 51m.

Second-quarter figures could be even better as the advertising market in Germany picks up.

Bertelsmann plans to spend about 1bn on acquisitions this year.

AN POST HOSTS DIRECT MARKETING AWARDS

AN Post hosts its direct marketing awards next Thursday in Dublin's Mansion House, with 250 entries vying for top spots that last year were won by firms such as O2, Diageo, First Active and Supervalu.

Categories include best business-to-business and business-to-consumer awards.

An Post reckons that Ireland still falls behind in direct marketing usage compared to other European countries, but says approximately one in 10 items it handles are direct mail. An Post handles three million items a day.