The Bid Shopping history...
Bid Shopping (originally known as Sit-up.tv) began life on 5th October 2000 with the launch of the UK's first ever rising price auction channel, bid-up.tv. They said it wouldn't last more than a month but fortunately for everyone else, you had been bidding up for everything for nearly 4 years. Then on 11th June 2003, another UK TV first happened - price-drop.tv, the wor
ld's first falling price auction channel. They started a trend which soon took over bid-up.tv and other channels followed. On 21st January 2005 the channel shortened its name to bid tv and focused on falling price auctions. Not to forget its roots entirely, sit-up launched speed auction tv on 27th July 2005. You bidders once again had somewhere to go crazy in the auction halls! The speed auction arrow flipped between rising and falling auctions for 3 years before completely reverting to falling prices. In 2010, bid tv celebrated its 10th birthday. And what better way to celebrate than a brand new studio and graphics. It was goodbye to the orange auction halls and hello to a new era of bid tv. For the first time, the channels moved away from being known as the UK's biggest discount auction channels group to 'bringing products to life' through live studio demonstrations. This was reinforced when all 3 channels received a complete rebrand. Shortened names, new logos and new studios for the remaining 2 channels, price drop and speed auction. Times began to change in 2013. speed auction was replaced with bid plus, a new fixed price format, similar to your Ideal Worlds and QVCs. The plug was pulled 5 months later and first to exit in July 2013. The beginning of the end was announced in December 2013 when the channels were bought by former Corporate Restructuring Lawyer Bryan Green. Sadly they failed to turn the channels around and a Company voluntary arrangement was agreed with sit-up tv's creditors. Paul Wright and Val Kaye (formerly of Ideal World) also ploughed £6 million into the channels. This saw bid become 'Shop at Bid' on 10th March 2014. A new look, new fixed price format and cheaper phone line was implemented. Gone were the falling prices, £1.53 premium rate phone call and infamous orange branding. price drop also tweaked its format to a new 'winner or better luck next time' gameshow format. This meant, if the price went below a hidden target price or not the full quantity was allocated, the producer would move on and everybody who had come into the sale would miss out. On 17th April 2014, after 13 and half years on air, the plug was pulled shortly after 2.15pm and both bid and price drop ceased.
