bankruptcy in 1987 by Americans Bill McDonald and his late brother Allan, who pumped more than $6 million to turn the company around.

Today, Cablevision is a profitable company which brings entertainment into the homes of some 14,000 subscribers. Here, Cablevision's general manager Mr. Don Greiner discusses new developments within the business and gives his vision of how cable television in Bermuda will be by the end of the century.

Bermuda Cablevision expects within the next few months to have the capability to receive television programmes from the United Kingdom and continental Europe, including those broadcast by the prestigious British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

If the company deems there is enough demand locally to make a profit, local viewers could soon be tuning in to popular BBC comedies such as Fawlty Towers and Black Adder.

"One of our goals is to bring in more English and foreign programming,'' said Mr. Greiner.

"We have been negotiating with an organisation called Intelsat that has satellites on the other side of the Atlantic.

"Once we can tie in with their facility, we will be able to offer programmes, probably within the next couple of months.'' Before that, however, Cablevision expects to have clinched an agreement to bring viewers the highly-rated Canadian sports channel, TSN, which triggered several complimentary phone calls when it was given a short trial run recently on Cablevision's test channel, Channel 39.

However, this may never come about since TSN's general manager, Mr. Jim Thompson, recently told The Royal Gazette that it was illegal under Canadian law for television companies outside Canada to pick up its signals.

Bermuda Cablevision receives programme signals from North America on its eight satellite dishes at a plant in Mills Creek and distributes them to local homes via 300 miles of cable, which criss-crosses the Island from Somerset to St.

David's alongside electricity and telephone wires.

Thirty miles of the cable, which is 7 of an inch in diameter, is underground, at a depth of between 18 and 24 inches, and the rest is aerial. "We've got virtually the entire Island covered except for about another five miles of primary cable,'' said Mr. Greiner.

Areas which can't receive cable at the moment, such as sections of Tucker's Town, Hamilton Parish and Sandys, are sparsely-populated in comparison with the rest of the Island, he said.

He added: "The cost to build this cable compared with the return is very high but we expect to have the extra five miles up within the next three months.'' There are also isolated cases of homes which are in areas where primary cable has been laid but cannot be hooked up for a variety of reasons, said Mr.

Greiner.

Cablevision had 13,700 subscribers at 1992 year-end and expects to have abut 14,300 by the end of 1993.

Mr. Greiner estimated that there were about 5,000 satellite dishes -- the principal rival to cable -- on the Island.

Cablevision currently offers 44 channels which are available in the following packages: Economy (cost-$19.95 per month) -- channels 2-13, including ZFB, ZBM, VSB and eight others, including VH1; Plus ($24.95) -- channels 2-22, including CNN Headline, Country Music Television, and The Learning Channel; Deluxe ($29.95) -- channels 2-39, including ESPN, CNN, NESN, USA and Discovery; Super ($34.90) -- channels 2-44, including Turner Network Television, Mind Extension University and TCN cartoon channel; Premium Services -- subscribers can take The Movie Channel, Home Box Office, and Showtime at an extra cost of $9.95 each and the part-time Portuguese RTP Channel, at an extra cost of $6.95.

To take all the channels costs $71.70 per month.

Mr. Greiner forecast that, over the next few years, there would be a trend towards pay-per-view television, largely because it was potentially more profitable for operators.

"There's about 15 pay-per-view channels at the moment but by the end of this century there will probably be about 200,'' he said.

"This is how programmes are going to be sold in the future. By the Year 2000 24-hour-a-day channels like we see at the moment will be history.'' There were no plans at present to introduce pay-per-view television to Bermuda because the demand was not perceived to be here, said Mr. Greiner.

"It's a very expensive system to take,'' he said. "Viewers would have to buy brand new converters at a cost of between $250 and $500 each.'' As technology moves towards video-telephones, TV-computers and facilities allowing people to work and shop from home, Cablevision might link up with high-tech companies and branch out from strictly providing television channels, said Mr. Greiner.

He warned anyone who takes cable without paying for it could now be prosecuted for a criminal offence, due to an amendment to Bermuda's laws earlier this year.

Prior to that, Cablevision's only remedy was to instigate civil action against offenders, which was too lengthy and costly to be practical, said Mr. Greiner.

"We have liaised with the Bermuda Police and Cablevision would like to see offenders criminally prosecuted.'' A US company called Cable Cops randomly inspects the Island at least once a year and, on its last visit which ended three months ago, found 800 transgressions.

Since these were discovered before the law change, offenders could not be prosecuted.

After the new law was introduced, Cablevision implemented an amnesty period for offenders to be hooked up legally but just eight people came forward.

"The next time these people are caught, they will be prosecuted,'' said Mr.

Greiner.