Keltica
Keltica was a Michillian television channel that broadcast in the Celtic languages of Eurectipheria and limited programming in English from 1999 to 2003.
History[edit | edit source]
During the 1998 International Celtic Congress, Mark Riordan of RTÉ came up with a plan to create a new television channel that would, in his words, "connect the viewers of the Celtic ethnic groups under a combined service".
The name Keltica was selected because, had other names like Celtivision been chosen, there would be a misunderstanding and many viewers thought it would be a Sarian football channel.
On October 1, 1999, Keltica went on air in Launceston and also had supplementary headquarters in Dublin. It broadcast form 7pm to 10pm at launch, with plans to increase service hours on the horizon. The channel broadcast in Sarian Gaelic, Irenian Gaelic, Breton, Welsh, Manx, Cornish, Galician and Michillian Gaelic, with English being limited to a weekly half-hour news program.
The channel was losing money by early 2003 and announced that it would shut down later on in the year.
