For example, some years ago RTE made the decision to cancel the Saturday afternoon programme Sports Stadium. At the time, we were showing maybe a rugby match or a soccer match then diving off at half-time to show a horse race, then coming back to show the second half of the game before going back to the races again later. We were asking people to schedule their events around us, at the same time we were asking the rugby and soccer public to go and make themselves a long cup of tea at half-time. It was hardly ideal but we didn't have a choice. We felt that format had served the audience well but the time had come to try something else.

Fast forward a few years and look at any of Setanta's weekend schedules in September and you can see how far we've come. We're in the lucky position of being able to broadcast four rugby World Cup games each Saturday in September on Setanta Ireland, a couple of English Premier League games on Setanta 1, as well as golf and many other sports. Then you can see all the other events on the regular terrestrial channels and on Sky. We view ourselves as a complementary service rather than simply competing with the other big providers. It's only natural that people should be able to make that choice. And nowadays, most people don't mind paying for a service, so long as they get what they want.

It's hard to believe it's three years since our first ever Setanta Ireland transmission.

We didn't even have a studio.

That's some contrast with the Premier League coverage we have now where we show two games every Saturday, with two studios; one in Dublin and one on site at the 5.15 game.

It's funny, but now that we have 10 channels in our bundle we're beginning to think that maybe we could use 11.

Things have really moved on.

Of course, rugby is going to be a massive part of Setanta for the next while. It's great that we can effectively turn ourselves into the rugby World Cup channel. The Irish team are going well and hooking up with Eddie O'Sullivan and Paul O'Connell seems like the logical thing to do.

Apart from the regular preand post-match interviews, Eddie will actually debate and discuss his tactics and strategies with our panellists in the days following the games in France. This should make for interesting television. I wouldn't imagine that this is going to be a theatre of tension. It's more to do with gaining a level of insight that we haven't had before. I'm not saying that our panel won't be bringing their own agendas into discussions, or they won't be hard hitting if needed.

Paul O'Connell will also be contributing to our coverage.

But, of course, we'll be conscious of the fact that these guys are heading out there to do a job and we don't want to distract them from that either.

The main thing for all of us is that the Irish team give a good account of themselves and will be in the shakedown when it gets to the knockout stages.

Looking ahead, we would love to be in a position to expand our GAA coverage.

We've had a great relationship with the GAA over the years. Long before I came here, they were very supportive while Setanta was going through its pub channel/Irish diaspora stage, and today people enjoy being able to watch the big games again during the week on Setanta.

They have a number of opportunities and it's up to them how they play it. But we'll be trying to encourage them to include us in the future. Choice is good and competition is good.

As for the present, it's nice to be able to say that things are going well and our plans are ahead of track. There's a huge appetite for sport out there and we're doing our best to let people see as much of the action as they want.

Niall Cogley is CEO of Setanta Ireland In conversation with John Foley