NI area’s yen to enter TV game show (6,4)

I believe the answer is:

county down

'ni area's' is the definition.
(county of Northern Ireland)

'yen to enter tv game show' is the wordplay.
'yen' becomes 'y'.
'to enter' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'tv game show' becomes 'countdown' (British game show).
'y' inserted into 'countdown' is 'COUNTY DOWN'.

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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