Thousands of people in Bermuda may be unable to watch any World Cup football on television this weekend after CableVision threatened to block out coverage of the event in a “childish” stand over the exclusive rights to show the matches.

The Royal Gazette learned late last night that CableVision general manager Jeremy Elmas had decided to pull all coverage from cable, including from ZBM which has the exclusive rights, after he was served with an injunction yesterday.

Bermuda Broadcasting Company (BBC) took out the injunction against CableVision yesterday afternoon after it failed to honour a written agreement not to show the World Cup on any other channels but ZBM.

BBC chief executive Rick Richardson said he had no choice but to take the matter to court after CableVision “ignored” the agreement and showed the competition's opening game on ESPN2 yesterday morning.

However, last night, Mr. Elmas said he would follow the injunction to the letter, and not show the World Cup “in any fashion in Bermuda” through the cable box. That, his press spokeswoman said, had to include ZBM.

Therefore, only people who have “rabbit ear” aerials for their televisions will be able to get the games on ZBM.

The injunction order states that CableVision “be restrained from broadcasting, transmitting or repeating in any fashion in Bermuda any broadcasts and/or any games of the 2002 Football World Cup tournament until further order.” Mr. Elmas said the order clearly included all World Cup coverage, and did not make an exception of ZBM.

He said: “After receiving this order just after 4 p.m. today, our legal counsel attempted unsuccessfully to get in touch with Mr. Rick Richardson and his counsel.

“The request seems absurd, as it means that only viewers with rabbit ears (aerials) can view the coverage.

“However, since this is a court order, we will obey it to the letter until ordered otherwise. We regret any inconvenience to viewers, who, by now, are aware that CableVision has co-operated with Bermuda Broadcasting to protect their exclusive rights.”

But last night CableVision came in for harsh criticism from Mr. Richardson and the BBC's lawyer Mark Pettingill.

Mr. Pettingill said the only reason the BBC had to apply for an injunction in the first place was because CableVision had reneged on the agreement.

He said: “Mr. Elmas cannot follow his own written agreement and then he gets pedantic with the order.

“The wording of the order has to be read with the affidavit and the other facts pertaining to it.

“The intention of the order is very clear. It was for ZBM to have the exclusive rights.

“All CableVision is doing is failing to provide a service to the people of Bermuda. CableVision cannot keep an agreement and when it comes down to it, they simply throw their teddy and behave like children.

“Besides, CableVision, by law, has to carry ZBM as it is a local channel. They are simply using this order as an excuse. I find their behaviour appalling - it is childish. This is an absolute nonsense and it is the people, their clients, who will suffer.”

Mr. Pettingill said he would return to court first thing on Monday morning in a bid to get the injunction amended if CableVision followed through with its threat to pull coverage this weekend.

He added: “If they had stuck by their agreement in the first place, this would never have been a problem. CableVision is sulking like a spoilt child.”

Mr. Richardson said last night that he was not surprised by CableVision's action because the same thing had happened previously when ZBM had exclusive rights to show a world title boxing match.

Mr. Richardson hit back saying it was “absolute nonsense” that viewers had to have a ‘rabbit ears' aerial to watch the games on the BBC when CableVision itself, by law, had to carry the BBC channel.

He said: “They must carry our signal and our signal carries the games. This is just an effort by CableVision to disrupt our coverage. They know they have to carry ZBM but because the order does not explicitly say that, they are interpreting the order their way.

“What they are trying to say is that if they cannot run the games through their channels, then they cannot run ZBM's signal. That's nonsense - they have a ‘must carry' for us.”

Mr. Richardson said the situation should never have reached the way it did last night and he said the BBC would be seeking costs and damages.

He added: “CableVision was very aware that we had been given the exclusive rights from FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association).

“In fact, they took out an advert in The Royal Gazette noting that we had the rights and saying they were going to blackout the other coverage.

“But Jeremy Elmas (CableVision general manager) ran the programmes today. When I reached his engineer this morning, he said he had not received any direction to blackout.”

Last night, owner of M.R. Onions sports bar Phil Talbot said regardless of what happened between CableVision and ZBM, he would be showing every single World Cup game, as planned.

He said: “I'm tired of this nonsense. We have been through it before with boxing.

“If I can't get World Cup coverage from cable, then I will get it from satellite. People do not have the right to tell other people in Bermuda when they can see something and when they can't.

“This is all so childish. I can't believe CableVision ran coverage on ESPN2 yesterday when it had said that it wouldn't.

“We will get coverage no matter what. I don't care if it comes from cable, ZBM or anywhere else.”

But Mr. Richardson said he believed CableVision had been difficult all along.

He said a few weeks ago, when the request for a black out of all other channels was made, Mr. Elmas had requested that the BBC provide him with a complete programme schedule for ESPN2 so that he could arrange the block.

But the BBC's law firm suggested to CableVision that, as a bona fide carrier, it was in a better position to know what the scheduling was for its channels. In the end, Mr. Pettingill said he went on CableVision's own website, which contained all of the programme scheduling, printed it off and gave it to Mr. Elmas.

And Mr. Richardson said after the ESPN2 coverage was aired yesterday, CableVision was asked to respond by 2.30 p.m., and that if it failed, an injunction would be sought.

He said they did not respond.

He added: “There was really no argument about the injunction. We had the rights and CableVision acknowledged it.

“He was warned that if we had to go to court, we would be, of course, incurring costs and we would sue for damages.”

Mr. Richardson said sponsors and advertisers paid to be featured during programmes with exclusive rights, and therefore they also had to be considered. How much financial damage had been caused, he said, would have to worked out between the lawyers and the accountants.