population of the big television event of the year.

Hundreds of hearing-impaired Bermudians have not had the benefit of watching Bermuda Grace with "closed captions''.

And while the rest of the Island has been able to express mixed views about the film, the deaf and partially deaf have been left out.

Mrs. Ann-Mary McGhee, of Warwick, was furious that her viewing enjoyment was spoiled by what appears to be an exclusivity agreement between VSB and Bermuda Cablevision.

Mrs. McGhee said: "After months of eagerly waiting for the movie to come on air we sat down to watch it on VSB TV 11 on Wednesday. It turned out not be a closed-captioned.

"So I waited until Friday to watch it on Cable 6, an NBC production. The cable guide indicated that it would be closed captioned. That is why I pay for cable.'' Closed caption allows the hearing impaired to fit a device to their televisions which provides words on the screen, enabling them to follow the story-line.

Mrs. McGhee added: "Apparently due to the so-called agreement between VSB (and ZBM and ZFB) and Cablevision, the NBC production of the movie was pre-empted and replaced by VSB's production complete with Bermudian adverts.'' She video-taped the movie twice and noticed exactly the same commercial breaks.

Mrs. McGhee continued: "We, hearing-impaired people, have twice been deprived of watching the movie with captions. I feel it is discrimination against a lot of people who are hearing-impaired.'' She now wants to know why she was not able to watch the NBC production after she had paid for cable. And she has asked VSB to repeat the movie but with closed captions.

No-one at VSB was available to comment on the complaint, but a spokesman said the original tape they received may not have included closed captions.

A similar agreement between the television stations and Cablevision caused controversy last summer when it affected the coverage of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships from England.

LEFT OUT -- Mrs. Ann-Mary McGhee is furious that she was unable to enjoy the TV movie Bermuda Grace.