IRISH TELEVISION broadcaster City Channel, founded by former RTÉ Crimeline presenter David Harvey, is to cease trading.
The Sandyford-based firm’s backers have decided to appoint a liquidator and a creditors’ meeting is expected in coming weeks.
In the meantime, the channel, which offers local programming in Dublin, Galway and Waterford, will continue to broadcast on UPC Ireland’s cable platform.
Mr Harvey and Liberty Global, UPC’s parent, are City Channel’s biggest creditors, with combined loans to the firm of €750,000.
Mr Harvey is the biggest shareholder, with 43 per cent, while Liberty Global owns 35 per cent.
The firm employed 25 at peak but this had fallen to a handful in recent times. Mr Harvey told The Irish Times the closure was the result of a collapse in advertising revenues since 2009 and the accumulation of bad debts.
Virtually all its advertising was sold directly to small and medium-sized enterprises, which are struggling in the recession. “The model has no visibility [on ad revenues] for the next two years and we don’t see any upturn in the market,” Mr Harvey said.
In 2009, its bad debts amounted to about 16 per cent of turnover and stood at 22 per cent last year, he said. He had sought, without success, to attract new investment, primarily in Britain.
“We had no bites . . . the marketplace is dead for this sort of thing. It just reflects the wider malaise within the broadcast media market here,” he added.
City Channel had not made a profit since going on air in October 2005. Mr Harvey had expected it to enter the black in 2008, but the economic crash scuppered that plan.
Its revenues dropped by 50 per cent between 2009 and 2010, he said. Having peaked at about €2 million, they fell to about €750,000 more recently.
Mr Harvey worked for RTÉ for a number of years, notably as a presenter of Crimeline. He currently hosts a show on multi-city radio station 4FM.
UPC said it would “continue to broadcast this channel as long as it is available” and was “working hard to source a replacement” for subscribers.
The channel set a couple of firsts in Irish broadcasting, by running Polish-language programming and a show targeted at the gay community. It also televised Adrian Kennedy’s late-night FM104 radio show.