The new Government TV service will use the weather channel ? cable channel 4 ? for its broadcasts, Premier Alex Scott revealed yesterday.

But he did not answer questions on how much the new venture would cost, when it will start and how many hours of material it will broadcast.

The Premier said in the beginning it would run with current Department of Communications and Information staff.

?It will start slow and expand. It is not going to be another ZBM, VSM or Fresh. It will be a lean and mean operation.?

He said weather information would still be broadcast on the screen, perhaps with a bar at the bottom while weather information will take the whole screen during lean periods.

In the beginning it will show Senate and House of Assembly debates said Mr. Scott who hoped other material would start flowing in.

Asked why the Internet could not be used to broadcast Government material the Premier said: ?I will leave that to those who are putting it together. I don?t want to paint them into a corner.?

He said legislation allowing Government to use a TV channel for its own purposes had been set up under the UBP in the 1980s.

Far from being the rocky road to dictatorship, as claimed by former UBP politician Quinton Edness, Mr. Scott said it would give the public more choice.

?There are those who say we are on the brink of dictatorship by trying to control information. But do you know something? You can turn that channel off.?

He said those who were trying to stop the fledgling channel were the ones trying to control the flow of information.

Sports Minister Dale Butler threw his weight behind Government?s TV station plans in the House of Assembly yesterday.

He said a state channel would have been handy when the $11 million cricket windfall was announced last month.

The Minister, responding to criticism about the size of the cash injection, said Government could have used its own airtime to explain in detail how the money would be spent.

He told the House that the press conference confirming the cash multi-million dollar cash boost could have been broadcast in full, outlining costs he said were not given high levels of publicity including travel, staffing, administration and training expenses.

The channel could also be used to give women in Bermudian sport more of a voice, he added.

The Minister stressed he was not criticising the media coverage of the unprecedented five-year cash injection, but said it could only dedicate a certain amount of space to stories.

He also said Bermudian cricket needed the Government help immediately to help push the sport to the next level on the international stage. The windfall, he continued, would help ?Bermuda?s light shine overseas?.