Bermuda CableVision General Manager Jeremy Elmas last night said he had been saddened by the fiasco of the World Cup coverage at the weekend - and wished he had asked Government to step in sooner.

Mr. Elmas spoke to The Royal Gazette after coming under fire from Telecommunications Minister Renee Webb and viewers over his decision to black out all coverage of the world's biggest football tournament on Saturday in a row over exclusive rights.

He said he was advised by his lawyer Alan Dunch to abide by a court order, brought by Bermuda Broadcasting Company (BBC) on behalf of ZBM, which stated CableVision show no coverage of the competition "in any fashion".

The BBC had sought the injunction after CableVision aired the opening game of the tournament on ESPN2 on Friday morning, despite ZBM asking them to honour their exclusive rights.

Mr. Elmas said his job was not to interpret the order, but simply to follow it, although he did think the order was "absurd", considering ZBM had brought the action in order to prevent the event being shown on any channels but their own.

As a result, cable viewers missed two matches of the World Cup on Saturday until Ms Webb stepped in later that same morning and requested ZBM's coverage be reinstated.

However, late on Friday night, and even into the early hours on Saturday, CableVision had ignored directives from Director of Telecommunications Greg Swan to reinstate ZBM's coverage.

Mr. Elmas said he did not believe CableVision had done anything wrong in shutting down all of the coverage of the World Cup, including on ZBM, from the early hours on Saturday.

He said although CableVision was obligated to carry the local channels in its regulations, they could be superseded by a judge's order.

"I did think the wording of the order absurd, but court orders are not open to interpretation," said Mr. Elmas, who hails from California.

"If I was to do it all again, I would call Minister Renee Webb on the Friday evening and ask her to sort the matter out.

"If my lawyer advises me to follow the order, then I will follow it. I had no option. I must say that I'm not out to create havoc. I'm here to try and leave it (Bermuda) a better place when I leave.

"It did not work out as it should have. Hopefully, if we get some regulations in place, it won't happen again."

Mr. Elmas said he had received a number of messages from concerned viewers who had called CableVision yesterday, and he said they seemed to blame the cable firm.

Accusations have been flying since CableVision aired the football on ESPN2 on Friday.

BBC chief executive Rick Richardson said he had requested on May 13 that CableVision black out all other coverage of the World Cup, to which he had received written agreement in return.

CableVision also ran an advert in the press informing viewers that the games would only be shown on ZBM.

Mr. Richardson said Mr. Elmas had requested he provide him with a schedule of when he wished all other coverage to be blacked out, but lawyers for the BBC replied, suggesting that if it was a viable cable company it should already have that information.

The BBC said it heard no more about the matter.

As a result of the schedule not being produced, CableVision ignored their request for their rights to be honoured and broadcast the game.

In the end, BBC lawyers then went onto CableVision's own website on Friday afternoon and printed off the football schedule and sent it to Mr. Elmas.

Last night, the cable boss admitted that after once requesting the schedule, he never went back to ZBM to ask a second time, or to inform them of his intentions.

He said: "I don't believe I ever repeated it. We never sent them a reminder. We don't typically send reminders.

"I said to them that in order to make this possible, I needed a list of the dates and times of when they wanted a black out.

"This is the process that is used in the US. The reason this process was set up was to alleviate any complications."

Yesterday, the BBC said when it first wrote to CableVision notifying that it had secured the rights, it attached an outline of its own broadcast schedule from May 31.

Lawyer for the BBC Christine Hoskins said: "BCL (Bermuda CableVision) also have the full schedule on its own website. To attempt to use the excuse that they had not received adequate notification from BBC is ludicrous."

However, Mr. Elmas used an analogy of a request in a deli shop. He said if a customer asked for a sandwich and was given pepperoni, could the customer then complain that he had really wanted jam and peanut butter.

When The Royal Gazette questioned how a request for the entire coverage of the World Cup to be blacked out could be misconstrued, he replied: "I see your point."

But, he said, he did not believe it was his job to do "all the research" before blacking out.

He added: "We are definitely happy to honour their rights, but in order to make sure that we are successful... it has to be specific."

He added: "The BBC did make a mistake, but they put has between a rock and a hard place. "We could either ignore the order, or upset the customers.

"I always regret inconveniencing customers. That is not what we are about."