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ZBM says sorry after viewers complain over interruptions

Viewer annoyance: Barcelona’s remarkable footballing success was the focus of a “60 Minutes” feature, interrupted by local ads on TV on Sunday evening.

ZBM is apologising for repeated interruptions to prime time shows on Sunday night, which triggered viewers to complain.Bermuda Broadcasting officials said a technical issue was to blame for the interruptions to popular shows such as 60 Minutes and The Good Wife.It said it’s taking steps to make sure the problem doesn’t happen again.On top of the regular commercial breaks, the shows were interrupted repeatedly for local ads, including a ZBM seasonal message and health show advertisements.One of the interruptions was during a 60 Minutes segment on the Barcelona football club.“We apologise for any interruptions in our weekend programmes,” BBC programme director Tracey Neale said.“I understand how frustrating that can be when you are engrossed in a TV show.“We’ve programmed various promotions and commercials through an automated system. However, the timings that our system extracts from the network have obviously fallen out of sync with local timings. To ensure that we don’t have that problem again, we are going to have the system manned during key programmes such as 60 Minutes, as we do with most of our live sports events.”One viewer complained: “Last night they interrupted two segments of 60 Minutes, at exactly 8:30 and 8:45, with local … ads, one of which wished us a happy Christmas 12 days after the event.”Another viewer commented online: “ZBM needs so much improvement..... the blank moments, the same ad over and over again.... and above all the difference in the level of volume when the ads come on.”