By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

WITH less than two weeks remaining until the 2012 Olympic Games, public concern has risen over the quality of the event’s televised coverage.

Since announcing its acquisition of the exclusive television and radio rights to air the Games, The Broadcasting Corporation of the Bahamas (BCB) has not made clear how its regularly scheduled programming would be affected.

Those rights were acquired from International Media Content Ltd. (IMC), the parent company of Sports Max, based in Kingston, Jamaica. Sports Max is also the sole legal entity authorised to grant licenses to BCB in this territory for live, deferred and delayed television and radio transmission with commentary.

ZNS’ General Manager Edwin Lightbourn, yesterday would only tell The Tribune that the Corporation intended to provide viewers with extensive coverage of the event. He added that the corporation had already promised advertisers exclusive coverage and they had planned to do just that.

Cable Bahamas Ltd consumers have also been left in the dark on whether certain basic cable channels would be disrupted while the Olympics continue.  Those channels include NBC, ABC, and CBS.

When pressed on that matter Mr Lightbourn said ZNS has paid money for rights and that an offer had been laid on the table for Cable Bahamas to share those rights. Inquiries made to the company were not answered.

Sources close to the agreement, however, said that after months of discussions over the rights between ZNS and Cable Bahamas, both entities reached a stalemate. It is said that the rights are worth at an estimated $300,000 and were to be split between the two.