Ideal World
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| Ideal World | |
|---|---|
| 250px | |
| Launched | 17 April 2000 [1] |
| Owned by | Ideal Shopping Direct Ltd |
| Picture format | 576i (SDTV) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sister channel(s) | Ideal Extra Create and Craft Craft Extra |
| Website | idealworld.tv createandcraft.tv |
|
Availability
|
|
| Terrestrial | |
| Freeview | Channel 22 (Ideal World) Channel 23 (Create and Craft) |
| Satellite | |
| Freesat | Channel 810 (Ideal Extra) Channel 811 (Craft Extra) Channel 812 (Ideal World) Channel 813 (Create and Craft) |
| Sky | Channel 654 (Ideal World) Channel 661 (Ideal Extra) Channel 674 (Create and Craft) Channel 675 (Craft Extra) |
| Astra 2F | 11307 H 27500 2/3 (Ideal World, Ideal Extra, Create and Craft & Craft Extra) |
| Cable | |
| Virgin Media | Channel 747 (Ideal World) Channel 748 (Create and Craft) (Ideal Extra) |
| WightFibre | Channel 44 (Ideal Extra) Channel 48 (Ideal World) Channel 49 (Craft Extra) Channel 64 (Create and Craft) |
| Streaming media | |
| TVCatchup | [1] (Ideal World) |
Ideal World is a shopping channel in the UK whose sister shopping channels include Ideal Extra, Create and Craft and Craft Extra. It is owned by Ideal Shopping Direct Limited[2] The channel broadcasts from its studios in Peterborough. Ideal World currently broadcasts live 17 hours a day, with Create and Craft live 13 hours a day.[3]
Contents
History
Founded in the 1980s as a mail order company selling products via national press adverts and consumer exhibitions The company was then called Wrightway Marketing and was run by Paul Wright and his business partner Val Kaye. The company later produced its own catalogues, inserted into the Daily Mail, and sold at the Ideal Home exhibition.
In 1999, land was bought in Peterborough with a view to building premises to serve as live TV studios, offices, warehousing, and a call centre. Ideal World was launched on 17 April 2000 on digital satellite broadcasting 24 hours a day. A pre-launch documentary was recorded by a documentary team from Channel 4, charting the channel's launch onto Sky and featuring the main management of the time and the presentation team of Paul Lavers, Debbie Flint and Steve Whatley, and was called "Telly Sales".
On 6 March 2001, the facility at Peterborough was completely destroyed by fire. The channel was back broadcasting within weeks from various temporary facilities whilst the main building was rebuilt: it was not fully operational again until September 2002. Ideal World has not disclosed whether a cause was found for the fire.
As the television side of the business re-grew, sales in the catalogue business slowed down and became insignificant in their contribution to the company, and the catalogue business was wound down in order to fully concentrate on selling on TV. A catalogue-style website, 'Ideal World Essentials', was produced for a short time featuring essential products for the home; this has since been closed and now links back to Ideal World itself.
On 18 April 2003, Create and Craft was launched with the createandcraft.tv website following on 23 August 2003.
1 January 2004 saw the launch of Ideal Vitality. This was originally a channel from Goldshield, "Goldshield Vitality", for which Ideal Shopping Direct provided the studio recording and broadcast facilities. However, by the end of 2005 Goldshield pulled out of the venture. Ideal Shopping then broadcast a similar channel focusing on health and beauty products from Ideal's range, under the 'Vitality' name. Ideal Vitality was then wound down and replaced with highlights from past Ideal World shows 24-7, the channel being renamed on the Sky EPG as "Ideal World 2". "Ideal World 3", then followed, repeating Ideal World 2 shows.
Although pre-recorded in the vast majority, Create and Craft now offers live programming 9 hours a day, every day. It broadcasts 24 hours a day on Freesat; programmes after 7pm being repeats.
On 23 April 2004, Ideal World began broadcasting on Freeview channel 22 which massively increased its potential customer base and drove business growth in the next couple of years, and meaning that come digital switch-over, any home with a TV will be able to tune into Ideal World and purchase products.
Ideal World has featured on three series of the The Apprentice, in which the candidates chose items to sell on their channels and serve as presenters.
Several of its project proved unsuccessful. Jewellery Vault, a falling-auction style jewellery channel was launched on 1 July 2005 broadcasting live 5pm-1am and subsequently closed in July 2006 due to it not covering its operating costs. On 3 November 2007, the Ideal World Outlet in the Rivergate Centre, Peterborough, was opened by Shaun Ryan and Debbie Shore. Ideal World Outlet was Ideal's first 'traditional' shop, where end-of-line items and customer returns are sold at further discounts. It later closed down.Early in 2008, Ideal World also agreed to re-broadcast Smart Live Casino in its early morning hours, from 1am to 3am, on its Freeview slot, to allow the Roulette broadcaster access to the Freeview audience. This agreement has now ended. Other failed projects in recent years are: iChild, a subscription club for expectant mothers with advice and relevant products; Ideal World Essentials, an online 'turning page' catalogue from which popular and new Ideal Shopping products could be purchased at any time, and Ideal World Savings Club, a voucher booklet for popular venues across the UK such as pizza restaurants, wine bars etc. All of these ventures have now closed.
2010
March
- 3 -'Ideal World 2' was renamed 'Ideal Extra' and 'Ideal World 3' was renamed 'Ideal & More'. On the same day, 'Ideal Extra' launched on Freeview until on
October
- 14'Ideal Extra' launched on Freesat channel 810.In
January
- 24 Ideal Shopping acquired Lead the Good Life, under which they run gardenbargains.com website. In September the company launched Pets and Wildlife Ltd, under which they run two transactional websites, lovepets.co.uk (formerly animalbargains.com) and britishwildlife.tv
2011
April
- 23 The company was taken private through an acquisition by Inflexion Private Equity in The £78.3m deal was announced in
<ref≥ http: // www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e6d6325c-6b16-11e0-9be1-00144feab49a.html#axzz1mlMd1Ccf FT.com - Ideal Shopping Direct agrees Inflexion deal</ref and completed in
June
when the company was delisted from the AIM stock market.[4]
2012
February
- 23'Ideal acquired Internet site Createtoday.com and made their second acquisition in May when they acquired knitting Internet retailer Deramores.
August
- 23'Ideal & More' was renamed as 'The Deal channel
2013
October
- 23-the deal Channel'. Since it has been rebranded as Craft Extra.
November
- 1 - "Createtoday.com" was relaunched as "mydoodle.com" with a revamped website and product offering to focus on high quality greetings cards and wall art.
2016
April
- 26 - Create and Craft TV to move from OFF channel 36 to on channel 23
Controversy
2013
May
- 23 -Ideal World became the subject of a BBC Watchdog investigation [5] after viewer compla nts about non-delivery of goods and the allegedly poor quality of some products. Customers also alleged that complaints to Ideal World customer services either went unanswered or were not satisfactory. In response to the investigation, a spokesperson for Ideal World suggested that the incidents highlighted by Watchdog were isolated and attributed the customer service difficulties to a transition between providers.
The Watchdog investigation followed claims by the Daily Mirror online [6] that complaints about Ideal World submitted to its blog had "passed the 100 mark".
References
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- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ http://www.createandcraft.tv/about-us
- ↑ http://www.inflexion.com/news_and_press/inflexion_invests_in_ideal_shopping_direct_plc Inflexion invests in Ideal Shopping Direct plc
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