Management at TV3 is "delighted" with the station's first end-of-year results, spokeswoman Ms Gillian Rowntree said yesterday.

"We are reaching 10 per cent of our target audience in the 15 to 44 age-group and are very close to reaching 8 per cent of the overall audience.

"We are working towards achieving 10 per cent of the overall audience," she added. More than one million people a week tune into a TV3 news programme, she said.

TV3's most popular output since its first broadcast in September 1998 has been its movies, the news programme Early Edition and situation comedies, Charmed and Sex In The City, Ms Rowntree said. Of these, only Early Edition is home-produced.

However, Ms Rowntree maintained that "just under 25 per cent of our programmes are produced here in Ireland", well in excess of the required 15 per cent.

One of the highlights of the year for the station was the arrival in September of the Republic's first breakfast television show, Ireland a.m. Hosted by former model Ms Amanda Byram and former 2FM disc-jockey, Mr Mark Cagney, it has been treated severely by television critics. But TV3 says "almost half a million people have already tuned in".

Upcoming highlights include the start of the new series of Sex In The City at the end of this month - some weeks ahead of Channel 4 - and the launch of an US sitcom, Will and Grace.

The station has also announced a new weekly current affairs programme, Agenda, which will begin on Sunday, November 21st. Made by Fastnet Films, the hour-long programme will be presented by economist Mr David McWilliams and produced by Ms Niamh O'Connor, formerly of Granada Television and RTE's Primetime.

The station has also secured the rights to screen all UEFA Champions League matches for three years from September 2000.