think it is time to take a hard look at what Bermuda needs from television. We should not ask what television needs from Bermuda.

Clearly Bermuda needs cable television in order to have a variety of programming. Whether or not we have more cable companies in addition to the one we have now is another question best settled by the licensing authorities.

However, two things are clear.

One, if cable television is allowed to carry local advertising it will, in all probability, put local television out of business. The second often happens in Bermuda, one company makes money, more people open up in the same business and they all lose money....or increase the prices to the public. However, Bermuda was built on free enterprise.

Clearly Bermuda needs better local television. Right now local television basically provides what we could get on cable television, but that is a matter for the viewers and the television advertisers. Operated as free enterprise, local television will do what it can according to the viewer support and the advertising support it receives. All we are saying is that as far as television entertainment is concerned Bermudians could get what they need from cable without the local stations. Clearly cable has already made huge inroads on television viewing leaving the local stations with a very small share of the viewers.

There is a need for good quality local television. That is television which has a cultural focus on Bermuda and has the inclination and the financing to produce local programming. If we do not have local programming we will be come a suburb cloned from American television.

We see this local programming being devoted to Bermuda and not necessarily to entertainment because there is plenty of entertainment on cable. We see the programming giving a good deal of time to the young people of Bermuda. We see it as encouraging local sport. There is an art explosion going on in Bermuda and that could be encouraged on television. Get Sharon Wilson to teach on TV.

Bermudians often know too little about their history and they would learn from good productions on television. This TV would explore the common Bermudian experience rather than the divisions. It should do such things as explain the drug problem as a social issue. The list could be endless and we know that just about every Bermudian would have something to add. We think the need for such TV is great. Bermuda is losing its identity.

We also believe that there is a need for high quality, professional television news. We think there is a crying need for that news not to be derived from this newspaper or based on stories in response to this newspaper.

Given the financial pressures and the fact that this TV should not be commercial, we do not believe that this need in Bermuda can be filled by the present stations. We do not see either station becoming strong enough to serve Bermuda as we think Bermuda should be served. However, we believe in free enterprise therefore we think the stations should be able to make their way as they can.

Therefore we think Bermuda needs public television of a high standard devoted to Bermuda and Bermudians without advertising content and certainly without political interference. This would need to be an independent corporation of the highest integrity. It should be set up with public money which may well require specific taxation on its reception, taxation on television sets and on cable television reception. It would be worth it and we think it can be done.