NTL announce film channel to close

The Studio, the film channel set up by Vivendi and NTL, is to close at the end of the year.
The channel, available via NTL's digital TV subscription package, screened classic movies to 1.4m NTL subscribers. Shareholders recently decided not to place any more money into the venture, even though it was still meeting financial targets.
The fact that carriage deals with Telewest and BSkyB were not reached limited the channel's viewership, but the recent financial troubles of both NTL and Vivendi have been the kiss of death for the channel, as both seek to restructure large debts.
Despite winning awards for advertising campaigns and its innovative programming, the channel has fallen foul of NTL's £5 billion debt restructuring plan.
(GB)