sponsors for local television programmes shown on weekends.

Problems in finding supporters for weekend programmes forced the company to black out portions of its broadcasts on ZBM-Channel 9 and ZFB-Channel 7 last weekend.

Poor corporate backing for shows normally aired then forced the company to dig into its own pockets, costing the company thousands of dollars.

The situation arose because the US American networks with which the stations are affiliated do not always have a full schedule of sports programming every weekend.

As a result, the unfilled spots are given over to local or syndicated shows.

But the BBC has encountered problems getting sponsorship for the shows it wanted to run during those periods.

"We were paying out lots of money in fact thousands of dollars every month,'' programme director Ms Janelle Ford said."We were purchasing shows without getting anything in return.'' Ms Ford explained that currently much of the BBC's programming was dependent on what the networks were showing.