Brewers Beamish & Crawford, which brews and sells those two brands in Ireland as well as Miller and Carling, late on Friday awarded Publicis QMP the estimated 4m- 5m creative work for its brands. The move is bad news for Grey Helme, which sees the lucrative business move across town.

However, despite a lengthy pitch process, winning the business may have been the easy part. Beamish's core stout product is, along with Guinness and Murphy's, a beverage universally thought to be in decline.

Last year Beamish resorted to touting that its pint of plain was available in pubs for 50 cent less than its nearest rival.

The media business was already down the hall with Starcom Mediavest. Sources say that Eircom PhoneWatch has also gone to Publicis QMP.

TV3 GETS CREDIBLE

Glitterati were in full force at the TV3 autumn schedule launch event at No n n s ) ) i i e e s s 6 Kildare Street last week, with suf"cient quantities of champagne, cleavage and couture to make the unwary believe they'd crashed a Fashion Week do. But there was a quite frankly surprising amount on the schedule for the cognoscenti to chew over as well.

Vincent Browne's return to TV was con"rmed. The show's format is not yet set, but sometime between now and 11pm on 5 November we'll "nd out if it will feature tribunal reconstructions and selected arias from Verdi.

Ursula Halligan, who had in our opinion a superb election, makes a well-deserved return with 'The Political Party'.

But the brain candy gets coupled with eye candy on the entertainment side of the schedule with some decently literate smut: Jonathan Rhys-Myers vehicle 'The Tudors', combined with the David Duchovny hit 'Californication'. Slate. com's review: fans of "the B-cup titillation of 'The Tudors', Showtime's new standard bearer for uppermiddlebrow soft porn, should know that 'Californication' is a worthy successor on that score and that Duchovny's ass isn't bad at all."

There you have it.

Sport in TV3's schedule will also get a filip with Today FM's Matt Cooper anchoring Heinekensponsored coverage of the Rugby World Cup and 'Grassroots' about GAA players.

Station chief David McRedmond, with newish programme director Ben Frow, have put together an ambitious effort for their first schedule of what will be a three-year overhaul of the station's programming. Fewer, higher-quality, imports. More original programming.

Is it just us or did TV3 just get credible?

DUNNE DEAL

Media buyers Carat, we're told, have scooped up the Dunnes Stores media business, besting two competitors

SHARKS ARE BACK

Like salmon returning to spawn, this week 350 AdLanders from Ireland and at least six other countries will return to Kinsale for IAPI's Shark Awards. More than 1,200 entries . . . a new record . . . were received in the main awards. Double the number of entries from last year for the Promo Sharks. Best of luck to nominees and more next week.

TIPS, BRIBES & ABUSE all welcome at rdelevan@tribune. ie