Cablevision bosses worked late into the night to try to resolve a legal wrangle which eventually led to World Cup football matches on ZBM being blacked out, the cable company's lawyer said yesterday.

The company blames a badly worded Supreme Court writ obtained by ZBM last Friday for the black out of matches on channel 7 last weekend.

ZBM, which has exclusive rights for the World Cup, went to court last Friday after Cablevision showed the opening game on sports channel ESPN2, in breach of ZBM's exclusive rights.

The court order forbade Cablevision from showing the games "in any fashion", which the company interpreted to include ZBM.

Cablevision lawyer Alan Dunch told The Royal Gazette yesterday he tried to negotiate with ZBM's lawyers to change the writ so that the games could be shown on ZBM, but he was unsuccessful.

He said although he was in discussions with ZBM lawyer Denis Dwyer until after midnight on Friday, Mr. Dwyer was unable to get approval to modify the wording of the writ to make it clear that ZBM could still show the World Cup games live and Cablevision would not be in breach of the court order.

"Unfortunately, it appears Mr. Dwyer was unable to get instructions. At 1.30 a.m. he told me that his instructions were that there was no deal and ZBM would see us in court," said Mr. Dunch.

"Cablevision was left in the position where it quite rightly sought advice as to what this order meant. It received the advice and followed the advice.

"I am not in the habit of advising my clients to ignore court orders. As a result of that, even though I found the wording to be curious at best, bearing in mind that the wording was a blanket proposition, I advised Cablevision to that affect and I was not prepared to advise them ignore it."

He said Puisne Judge Vincent Meerabux, who granted the order, was able to tell ZBM's lawyers that the intention of the order was not to black out its World Cup coverage.

Having received that assurance, and following an order from Telecommunications Minister Renee Webb on Saturday morning, Mr. Dunch said he was able to instruct Cablevision to restore the ZBM signal for the matches.

Ms Webb has ordered the Telecommunications Commission to strengthen the regulations as a result of the incident and previous controversy with Cablevision.

The Attorney General's Chambers is still examining whether any action can be taken against the company for breaching its legal obligation to carry ZBM at all times.