CELTICVISION, which was backed by a wide number of Irish and US investors, was launched with a fanfare on St Patrick's Day, 1995.
The company buys programmes from RTE, BBC Northern Ireland and independent producers and broadcasts an Irish cable channel service in the Boston area. At the launch, the company said it had already raised $1.5 million (£939,000) and was seeking a further $6 million.
CelticVision planned to have two revenue streams advertising from Irish companies such as hotels, tour operators and crystal and its own monthly subscription charges from cable viewers.
Its service was carried in the Boston/Brookline area by CableVision initially to 132,000 households on a six week free trial basis. The signal was then scrambled and customers were charged $3.98 per month for the service.
However, according to the petition for an interim examiner presented to the High Court yesterday, the return from both advertising and subscription revenue has been lower than expected.
The station was the brain child of the Dundalk born businessman Mr Robert Matthews, who funded the launch of the channel through private placings with a number of US and Irish investors.
CelticVision was accumulated losses of £3.7 million, but the directors think the company can survive as a going concern.
