LONDON, ENGLAND.- Artsworld, the digital arts and music channel, is to cease broadcasting on 31 July. Its parent company Artsworld Channels Ltd is likely to be wound up later this year. The company has issued the following statement:

"Artsworld has not been able to secure the further funding necessary to continue operating. By closing the channel now, the company is in a position to honour its obligations to creditors and staff. However, it remains possible that a purchaser or new investor may come forward.

Since Artsworld’s launch in December 2000 the climate for all media businesses, even the largest, has been stormy. For a small company, recently launched and standing alone among hundreds of channels, progress has been difficult. With the arrival among those channels of BBC4, lavishly financed by increased licence fees to compete in the same digital sector, survival has finally proved impossible.

The channel was launched to fill a gap in television schedules. In the last 20 months Artsworld has broadcast to a hugely appreciative audience thousands of hours of arts and music programmes, the great majority never seen before in Britain, including a wide range of productions commissioned from UK independent producers.

We believe that on a modest budget we have added lustre to digital television, and played a part in encouraging terrestrial broadcasters to re-examine their commitment to the arts. But those broadcasters have not filled, and will not fill, the void which Artsworld’s closure will leave for its many subscribers."

Artsworld Channels Ltd
Ruth Barker Head of Press