to expand its service to the Island's schools, the last remaining large hotel, some guest house operations, and Parliament.

Cablevision can now be seen in about 60 percent of the Island's homes and the company hopes to increase the number of television stations it offers to its customers to around 60 by the end of 1996.

"We have to hook up all the schools in Bermuda,'' said general manager Don Greiner. "And, we have to do it at no charge. We want to do that first, as a priority. We want to emphasise education. We want to add more educational channels, although there are already some good ones provided.'' The company is considering moving channel 43, Mind Extension University, to a lower channel so that all subscribers would have access to it for educational reasons. Other education channels may soon be considered.

In the face of rising costs, Mr. Greiner said that the company has not raised its rates in six years. There are no plans to change that right now, but it cannot be ruled out for the future.

"Cablevision is the most economical form of entertainment there is in Bermuda. And our rates compare very favourably to North America. They may not have been as competitive when we began six years ago, but our service is now relatively less expensive.'' The premium channels may be a case in point, according to Cablevision.

HBO, Showtime and The Movie Channel all retail for $9.95, here in Bermuda.

Mr. Greiner said that in the US subscribers are paying more like $12.95, $10.95 and $9.95, respectively for those same services.

Of course, the difference is simply that there are more public stations in North American markets, and therefore less demand from individual subscribers for premium channels. Here, in Bermuda, there are only three public television channels.

Mr. Greiner added, "A lot of people in the US buy cable to simply improve the quality of reception from the public channels.'' But Bermuda Cablevision has been struggling through the legal maze of restrictions in a move to get more programming, even as there are continuing protests against them relaying the existing package of channels.

Just three years ago the Motion Picture Association of America lost its suit against Bermuda Cablevision. There is no reason to believe that they have forgiven or forgotten that defeat.

More recently, the local company has not always been successful in convincing overseas television stations to take Cablevision's efforts to obtain their programming seriously.

One thing that the company feels may help them in their battle to tie down more programming is a compulsory Government licence for such programming.

Law firm Appleby, Spurling and Kempe have been trying to win that right for the company since 1989. If, and when, Government agrees, that may remove some of the obstacles Cablevision faces, Mr. Greiner said.

"Why should private satellite dish owners get the programmes for free, and we can't get agreement to actually pay the companies for the rights to use them on our cable system,'' Mr. Greiner complained.

"We've tried to get Fox Network. We are being told by the programme suppliers that Fox is restricted, territorially. We are willing to pay for it, and can't get it. We will just have to try, again.

"ESPN International we have, but not ESPN domestic. They won't let us have it anymore. Satellite owners still get it, though. The programmers are trying to stop the release of anymore programmes to us. '' Meanwhile, the company has to continue to keep an open mind to the emerging information systems and the much-talked-about technological superhighway. The realisation of that brave new world may be even further away, at least from Cablevision, than it might at first seem.

Mr. Greiner said, "It's going to take a whole lot of time and a whole lot of money.'' If that sounds like a tired old tune, he makes this point.

"While we try to keep up with technology, we also need to think of the stability factor of the business. We have a company to run.'' That superhighway in the US is looking more and more like a government-subsidised effort. In Bermuda, it will probably require a combination of Government and several local companies. The prohibitive costs that are involved will mean that Cablevision will not be able to go it alone, he said.

They have already faced rising costs in the six years that cable rates have remained the same. An example of which is the rent paid for use of the Bermuda Electric Light Company's poles. Six years ago, it cost $3 per pole. This year, the price is up to $14.50.

Programming costs have gone up too, in some cases by quite a bit. HBO is up a dollar per household. A dollar may not sound like much. But remember that's just one channel. CNN charges rose by 110 percent in the same period, Mr.

Greiner said.

Labour costs have risen and so have fuel costs for the cable TV trucks. There have been rises in the cost of vehicle repairs, rents for property, building costs, employment taxes and others.

There will be fibre-optics to think of in terms of future costs. Even though the Bermuda Telephone Company is into that technology, Cablevision may have to go the route of American cable operators in seeking the rights to a telephone line.

The video-on-demand technology, allowing viewers to choose from a number of options, yet watch programming almost as if it is on video tape, is one aspect of the wave of the future. Viewers would be able to suspend the programming for the time it takes to answer the telephone or the door, and pick up the film at the point of departure.

Again, don't count on this in the near future. Cablevision is looking at possibly a dawning of a bold new age somewhere around the year 2,000.

Consider how long it took to get 60 percent market penetration. Six years.

Mr. Greiner admitted that it surprised him: "If you go to lay cable in the US down one road, you have the chance to hook up a lot of homes. Here, the houses are not configured in straight lines.

"Another major problem was that I estimated that there had to be some 8,000 satellite dish owners at one point.

"We never could have thought when we first made our initial survey that we would only get 35 percent of the people surveyed interested. That was a surprise. And, it was only when people were being forced to change the numbers on a regular basis, in order to use the satellite dish, that we started to get a lot of dish owners switch over to cable.

"But at a certain point in time, you need to end your construction mode and emphasise servicing the customers you already have. As a result, there are still homes that have requested cable that we have not been able to get to.

"A special service order is required to hook up some areas and you may need more than one potential subscriber to justify the cost of taking a crew off of servicing existing clients to spend the time and effort to create the potential for adding one more. It is labour intensive, time consuming and the return could be minimal.'' Marriott Castle Harbour Hotel is the last major hotel lacking cable. The plush, waterfront hotel and the Island's only cable operator are still negotiating.

But the company is not short on work. They are already seeking to bring in two specialised people for construction purposes to spend six months clearing 37 outstanding projects. That may include Marriott, but would definitely include other small hotel projects and small housing clusters.

One of the more interesting commercial contracts is the outstanding order to have cable television hooked into the Parliament buildings, already one of the Island's best sources of drama and comedy entertainment.

The company has finally, Mr. Greiner believes, made some major in-roads into theft of cable services. Today, some 14,439 homes enjoy cable services at an average charge of $57.

Two years ago Cablevision found, during its annual audit, 2,000 people stealing the service. Last year, 800 people were caught. A swift prosecution was perhaps, the best promotional move they could make. They are hoping for fewer problems this year.

Mr. Greiner makes the point that with continued additions to the subscription numbers, the chances of rate increases declines. The company hopes to be at 70 per cent market penetration by the turn of the century.

VISIONARY -- Mr. Don Greiner, Bermuda Cablevision general manager.