Popular children’s TV programme Sesame Street is at the centre of legal action amid claims CableVision is breaching the Bermuda Broadcasting Company’s [BBC] exclusive rights to show it.The BBC joined forces with the programme’s creator, Sesame Workshop, to take CableVision to court over the copyright claims.They claim CableVision has been airing Sesame Street on its PBS channel 5 in breach of the BBC’s exclusive agreement with Sesame. The legal action does not mean kids will miss out on watching the show, which has been a staple of family viewing in Bermuda for 30 years.Both sides say it centres purely on the channel 5 broadcasts on CableVision which air three times a day from Monday to Friday and include the new Sesame programme The Electric Workshop. It does not impact broadcasts of Sesame Street on the BBC terrestrial channels 7 and 9 and CableVision channels 7 and 9 at lunchtime and in the evenings. Cablevision has blocked out the channel 5 broadcasts since the legal action was filed in July 2010.In a preliminary hearing in Chief Justice Richard Grounds’s private chambers, CableVision applied, without success, to get the case thrown out.According to the Chief Justice’s ruling, Sesame licenses the BBC to broadcast some of its programming in Bermuda. CableVision retransmits programming from the United States, including cable channel five, which also carries Sesame programming.According to Mr Justice Ground, this is “presumably under its own licence in the US, but that does not seem to extend to cover CableVision in Bermuda”.He explained the BBC objects to CableVision carrying the Sesame programming on channel 5, alleging this is in breach of Sesame’s copyright and the exclusive licence granted by Sesame to the BBC. Cablevision argues the BBC has no exclusive rights that cover cable transmissions, and it has no right to black out the PBS channel 5 transmissions.According to BBC Chief Executive Officer Rick Richardson, the CableVision broadcasts on channel 5 are having an impact on his company’s finances. He told The Royal Gazette key sponsors including the Bermuda Government pay thousands of dollars for the BBC rights to the programmes.He explained sponsorship is affected if the programming content is then “watered down” by being duplicated on CableVision channel 5. The dispute has been going on for around ten years according to Mr Richardson. He said CableVision blacked out the Sesame content after complaints in the past, but then began broadcasting it again. This is the first time Sesame has stepped into the dispute between the two TV companies.“Sesame and the BBC have said enough is enough. The BBC’s bottom line has been greatly damaged and so we took action to stop it happening again,” said Mr Richardson.The Chief Justice refused to throw out the action saying there is “a lot of force” in CableVision’s argument but copyright is a specialist area and it is “not plain and obvious” the case should be struck out.That means the parties must either reach a settlement or take the issue to trial at the Supreme Court. After the hearing, Terry Roberson, General Manager of Bermuda CableVision said:“We now look forward to a full hearing of the matter, and in the meantime Sesame Street will continue to be blacked out on channel 5 and viewers can continue to watch Sesame Street on channels 7 or 9.”Mr Richardson agreed, reassuring viewers: “Every day they will get Sesame Street and that is not going to be impacted at all. They have been getting Sesame Street for years paid for and provided by Bermuda Broadcasting Company. This arises out of an additional bit [of broadcasting] that impacts on our bottom line and violates Sesame Workshop’s agreement with PBS.”