The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland has held public hearings to decide which consortium will be given the contract to provide three Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) services.
Boxer DTT, Easy TV and One Vision are competing for the licence to provide multiplex television services to rival existing cable and satellite providers.
Boxer includes Communicorp and BT, Easy TV involves RTE and UPC, while One Vision includes TV3, Setanta and Eircom.
A decision on which consortium will be awarded the contract for the three new services will be made in July.
The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland's chief executive Michael O'Keeffe says there are seven or eight criteria set out in the legislation. He says the BCI will be paying most attention to programming packages and the groups' business plans.
EasyTV said it was offering an entry pack of 17 free-to-air and pay channels, with the pay channels costing just over €8 per month. In total EasyTV will provide 36 channels.
RTE's chief financial officer Conor Hayes said the broadcaster was funding the initiative from commercial revenue and no licence fee money would be used.
OneVision said it would offer 10 free channels, a basic Service of 33 channels for an introductory price of €9.99 and a 'premium service' comprising sports and movie channels from Setanta and Sky. OneVision said its proposal also included two new Irish channels.
Boxer has said it will offer prices below €10 a month and will allow viewers to top up their channel selections 'a la carte'. It says there will also be a 'pay as you go' option for its pay channels.
