Current TV UK closing March 11th
February 16, 2012
By Chris Forrester
Current TV’s UK operation is to go off air on March 11th. Twenty-three staff will lose their jobs. It had been hoped to fund a rescue for the channel, but MD Jane Mote says that plan had failed largely due to the very tight timetable since BSkyB informed Current TV that its support was ceasing.
“We totally accept it is Sky’s right to stop funding Current,” Mote told trade mag C21, “but we don’t accept the way that it was done, using out-dated inaccurate audience figures, or that we were given no warning before a sudden cut-off in funding just before Christmas, making a rescue plan unachievable.”
Current TV, backed by former Vice President Al Gore, is one of a number of channels subsidised by Sky. Sky said their investment in Current TV was “significant” but that the channel had not made the hoped for impact with viewers.