Liverpool’s Bay TV is expected to be sold after being placed into administration.
Staff at the company were sent letters from administrators, Skelmersdale-based Refresh Recovery, today.
The letters informed the company’s 16 employees that Bay TV Liverpool Ltd is in administration but will continue operating while the situation is assessed.
It follows a cash injection from another operator, Made TV earlier this year, into the Toxteth-based broadcaster.
Chris Johnson, chief executive of Bay TV, confirmed the company had been placed into administration.
He said: “We are working hard with the administrators to keep the business operating as a going concern.
“I am confident that the station will remain on air – it’s still on air and will remain on air.
“We’re looking to sell it as a going concern.”
Administrator Gordon Craig wrote to Bay TV staff saying: “It is my intention for the time being, as administrator of the company, to permit the company to continue to trade whilst I assess the situation.”
Bay TV was founded after former Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced plans in 2011 for a largely privately-funded network of local TV stations to be launched across the UK.
Some £40m of BBC licence fee cash was put forward to help fund Local TV in the first three years – with £25m going on the broadcasting infrastructure and £5m a year being used to subsidise programming.
Bay TV, whose HQ is in the former Toxteth TV offices in Windsor Street, won the Local TV Licence for Liverpool in February 2013.
Refresh Recovery were contacted for comment.
© 2016 Trinity Mirror Merseyside