News
East Asia Television Channel Closes Before Launch (Updated)
posted on by Andrew Osmond
According to a statement given to the UK Anime News site, the East Asia Television channel will be 'closed indefinitely' on Friday February 7. The statement, written by the channel's representative Ash Lawliet, claims that company employees had suffered "Social Media Hate" in reaction to a Kickstarter Campaign for feedback on a 'concept series.' The statement ends:
Having worked in the anime industry for so long we understood there would be adequate objection and skepticism, but we had to keep our cards close to our chest (...) But some viewers decided to cross the boundary and began stalking employees in real life, harassing and abusing them on the street in a sadistic attempt to get information from them. With this a line had to be drawn.(...) East Asia Television Broadcasting Ltd. will cease trading on Friday 7th February and close indefinitely. We apologise that we cannot continue our operations but at this time employee protection is our main priority.
East Asia Television was based on the premise "A channel made by fans for fans" which was both the cause and terminus of the Broadcasting Company.
According to UK Anime News, the website received the statement after it had sent East Asian Television its own investigative report about the channel. The report begins here, and includes a number of claims about East Asia Television.
East Asia Television's previous web-page at eastasiatv.com has been replaced by a placeholder saying that the web domain is free, although the company's feed is still up as of writing.
Update - The twitter feed is now down. The cease-trading statement was also sent to the SunnyCon convention site, which East Asia Television had been previously due to attend, but will no longer do so. Thanks to Grace Bellerby for the news tip.
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history