Vexed Bermoothes

The Bermuda Cement Company fiasco has faded from the public consciousness.  But from the pocketbook?

Another factor which has contributed to the rising cost of construction, according to Mr. DeCouto, has been the increase in the price of cement by MaxCem since it took over the Bermuda Cement Company in December last year, with prices for distributors going up three times, each time by about three to five percent, as the company cited fuel charges as the main reason behind the hikes.

I’d be interested in seeing a chart of local cement prices over the past 10 years.

Also, a law has been proposed that could force Bermuda Cablevision to pay local broadcasters to deliver their content. Where did this come from? Tell me what public outcry has pushed this legislative sweetheart to the front of the parliamentary agenda?!  We have major legislation that is backlogged yet this amendment which affects only a handful of companies gets pushed ahead? Hmm.

ZBM argues that Cablevision carries its signal without paying royalties, as the cable network does for the US channels it carries.  The key difference is that those US stations are otherwise unavailable to local viewers.  We can get ZBM for free by sticking some rabbit ears out the window – why would we pay more for it via cable?  (This goes without comment on the quality of local broadcast via antenna versus cable).

This is a move to squeeze some more revenue for the local broadcasters.  I believe it would be bad idea for those broadcasters to enforce this; if I were Cablevision I’d simply set up my own local news operation.  And I’d move the local channels into a new “a la carte” price tier.  And I’d start releasing viewership data on channels to lay it out for the advertisers.  Alea iacta est.

Part of the issue is that local broadcasters have little unique content, apart from local news.  Most everything else is duplicated elsewhere on the cable lineup.

A far better approach for the local broadcasters would be for them to petition Government to redirect the huge sums that currently go into the much-ignored CITV towards the creation of local content available to the broadcasters.  Projects should be selected by an independent board to reflect public interest.  In addition to boosting the local production companies, this would attract more viewers to the local stations with unique content – presumably attracting more local advertisers – rather than just trying to squeeze more money out of the consumer for the same service.