Community Channel to close June 30 without extra support
Melanie May | 21 June 2016 | News
Community Channel will close on 30th June unless a fresh call for public financial support is successful.
While it receives over £3m in kind annually from commercial broadcasters, the channel urgently needs to raise £300,000 to give it time to increase its revenue from partnerships and advertising. Earlier this month it launched a crowdfunding community share scheme to help achieve this.
Support for the channel has come from a wide range of current and former broadcasters, politicians and celebrities, including actor Juliet Stevenson, presenter Mary Nightingale, and Sir Lenny Henry, who tweeted his support to his 61,000 followers.
I'm supporting https://t.co/KoztTIDDl7 @comchantv @crowdfunderuk -The community channel needs you. Check it out.
— Lenny Henry (@LennyHenry) June 12, 2016
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Community Channel was launched in 2000 by the Media Trust, and gives charities and community organisations a way of reaching millions of people. Over ten million people watched the channel last year – an increase of four million in four years, whilst over a million said the channel motivated them to volunteer.
Lord Grade, former BBC chairman and chief executive of Channel Four, said:
“Britain would be a poorer place without Community Channel. It is unique in the world as a means of galvanizing support for so many communities and causes. I urge people to get behind the community shares scheme and continue to hope that, even at this late stage, a funding solution can be secured to keep it going now and for the long-term.”
At the time of writing, Community Channel had raised just over £27,000 of its £300,000 target on its Crowdfunder page.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.