Just months after the 2002 World Cup dispute involving Bermuda CableVision and Bermuda Broadcasting Company, the local cable providers are again mired in controversy.

The blackout of Channel 53, Fox Sports World, over the weekend, left fans of English soccer furious.

The match between Premiership giants Manchester United and Chelsea was scheduled to be aired on Friday, while the Liverpool and Southampton clash was scheduled to be televised on Saturday with Sunday's fixture a re-broadcast of a match held earlier in the week.

One irate fan, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "When I sat down to watch the match on Friday between Manchester United and Chelsea the screen was completely blank and read 'no service to this area'.

"I live in St.George's so tell me is it available in Southampton?

"Friends of mine have been calling me up all weekend expressing the same thing.

"As for the second match that we usually get at 1 p.m. on Saturday - same thing again.

"It makes no sense! Basically, everyone who subscribed for the channel lost out over the weekend."

Customer Solutions manager of CableVision, Alan Smith, stated yesterday: "CableVision is very sorry that we were not able to provide advance notice about these blackouts.

"We were not notified in advance by Fox Sports World that they did not have the rights to air the English Premier League soccer matches in Bermuda and that they would be implementing blackouts of these matches."

He also said that the company only learned of the blackout at the same time as the sporting public.

"This is not standard operating procedure, as Fox Sports World is normally obligated to give us an advance notice of any scheduled blackouts so that we can in turn alert our customers.

"We would like to apologise to our viewers and have taken the matter up with Fox to ensure that this won't happen in the future."

He also said that the weekend's blackouts were as a result of an oversight on Fox's behalf to obtain rights for Bermuda and the Caribbean, and that the sports network was currently working feverishly to obtain these rights.