The Irish-language television channel, TnaG, is to be renamed in an attempt to broaden its image and boost audience figures.
Executives at the station have been planning to announce the rebranding next week, to coincide with publication of the channel's autumn schedule.
It is believed that one of the names which they have been considering for the station is "TG4" - a title which would retain a reference to the broadcaster's origins as Teilifis na Gaeilge, but emphasise to viewers that there is a fourth Irish channel option on television alongside RTE 1, Network 2 and TV3.
TnaG managers were remaining tight-lipped about the proposals yesterday, but they have considered running more English-language programmes in an attempt to broaden the station's appeal. A fresh brand would also help the station to promote itself to advertisers.
Many TnaG programmes, such as Australian Rules football, Euronews and Spanish football, are broadcast in English. The channel has defended the extent of English-language broadcasting by arguing the need to build a broad viewer base.
The Irish language station has just celebrated its 1000th day of broadcasting. It was launched in October 1996, when it was announced that it would have some £16 million in capital funding from the Government, as well the promise of annual funding of £10 million and up to £6 million-worth of programming by RTE.
By December 1996 it was claiming research showed 180,000 people had watched the channel at some stage.
By October 1998 TnaG had audience figures which it said showed it was reaching more than 400,000 people, although the audience retained by most of its popular shows ranged between 20,000 and 40,000.
Earlier this year one senior manager, Mr Padhraic O Ciardha, said the station's "daily audience reach" was 500,000. But he added that there were some cable operators who insisted on leaving the TnaG broadcast slot outside numbers 1 to 9 on the television remote "zapper", which he said was "making it difficult for ordinary Irish viewers to find programmes relevant to themselves".