The airing of the current West Indies-Sri Lanka Test series on Pay-per-View TV may be a sign of things to come.

Bermudian cricket fans could be dipping into their pockets more often to watch the regional team's home series on television.

A combination of factors is forcing Bermuda Broadcasting Company (BBC) to examine various options regarding live cricket broadcasts during the annual Test and One-Day International tours in the Caribbean.

One answer, acknowledged BBC's Programme Director Darlene Ming, may be to offer more of the cricket via Pay-per-View as is being done now.

It is costing fans $30 to watch the two Tests - the first of which began in St. Lucia yesterday - on Channel 75. Earlier this year, some of the pivotal matches in the six-week World Cup in South Africa were shown on Pay-per-View also.

Given the restructuring of the International Cricket Council's (ICC) calendar which now sees two teams touring the West Indies each spring, Caribbean series are spanning three to four months. Prior to Sri Lanka's arrival, Australia played four Tests and seven One-Days in the region. Sri Lanka also competed in three One-Days against Brian Lara's team before their Test itinerary.

"The current cricket feed is not sponsored and our contract with ABC requires that if we are going to displace network programming (on Channel 7) we must replace it with sponsored programming. Over and above that, it's a question of space. Five days of cricket takes up a lot of programming space and throughout the weekend we have all kinds of other events on the network that we want to be able to show our audiences as well, like golf for instance," explained Ming.

"We made a decision that with ten days of cricket it's better to put it on cable where there's availability for eight hours of cricket daily. We are in a tough spot when it comes to available programming time as a network affiliate.

"We bowed to the public's demand for the One-Days in this Sri Lanka series and we took a lick on that because we didn't have any sponsorship. We made no money off that. It wasn't sold.

"We always want to be able to present cricket but - unlike soccer - it takes up a whole day. We hope that by making it available to cable subscribers we please all people. Subscribers get to choose whether or not they want cricket."

The cost factor, the increasing volume of cricket from the Caribbean and the tastes of other viewers are all issues which have affected BBC's decision.

"We have been good to people regarding our cricket programming but every time we put a Test match on we get a million calls from soap-opera viewers. You would be amazed at the people who watch General Hospital. It's always a balancing act," said Ming, highlighting one aspect of the problem.

Though lovers of the bat-and-ball duel may have to pay for more series in the future, BBC will continue showing as much of the cricket free as possible.

"Whenever there is Test cricket we will look at our options and the marketability of the product. If we can get the support we'll carry it free but if we can't then we have to look at another way of presenting it.

"One of the key factors has got to be sponsorship and support from our business and sporting communities."

Ming did admit that because they did not foresee high interest in the Sri Lanka series they did not seek sponsorship for it. Queries as to whether the matches were being broadcast came not only from Bermuda's West Indies population but also from many Asian residents.