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Shop at Bid was a British television shopping channel that ran daily auctions and later fixed price demonstrations. It was the world's first channel of its kind. It launched as ''Bid-Up.tv''. The channel was owned by
Bid Shopping
Sit-Up Ltd., traded as Bid Shopping, was an English broadcaster which launched in 2000. It operated a portfolio of falling price shopping television channels to over 12 million homes in the UK.
History
On 1 April 2009, it was announced that S ...
.
History
Bid-Up.TV (2000–2005)
The channel was launched by
Sit-Up Shopping in October 2000. It originally broadcast 12 hours a day, much of which was pre-recorded, with auction graphics overlaid so people could bid. Bid later aired live broadcasts almost 18 hours a day, with recorded TV Shopping Network presentations during its downtime.
The channel amassed a cult-following as it spread across digital platforms. This popularity can be partly attributed to the use of
David Dickinson
David Dickinson MBE (born David Gulesserian; 16 August 1941) is an English antiques dealer and television presenter. Between 2000 and 2004, Dickinson hosted the BBC One antiques show '' Bargain Hunt'', where he was succeeded by Tim Wonnacott. ...
, ex-presenter of the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
television series ''
Bargain Hunt
''Bargain Hunt'' is a British television programme in which two pairs of contestants are challenged to buy antiques from shops or a fair and then sell them in an auction for a profit. It has aired on BBC One since 13 March 2000 in a daytim ...
'', in various television advertising campaigns.
In June 2003, Sit-Up Shopping launched sister channel
Price-Drop TV
Price Drop is a British television shopping channel based in the UK, that ran daily live reverse auctions. It was the first reverse auction channel of its kind in the world. The channel was owned by Bid Shopping.
History
2003–2005: Price-Dr ...
.
In April 2004, a new system for bidding known as ''Best Bidding'' was introduced. All bids acted as proxy bidding, so instead of the bidder choosing the amount, the computer automatically entered an ''upto'' amount that would not exceed the value specified. At the end of the auction, everyone paid the same price as indicated in the on-screen "auction arrow", thus amounting to a
uniform price auction
A multiunit auction is an auction in which several homogeneous items are sold. The units can be sold each at the same price (a uniform price auction) or at different prices (a discriminatory price auction).
Uniform price auction
A uniform pric ...
.
Each item was advertised with a specific quantity, and a ''bid-up from'' price triangle. Customers phoned in and bid up from the particular amount. The quantity was used to determine which customers 'won' the auction. For example, if 50 items were available, then the top 50 bidders would win the auction.
In August 2004, the channel had an "Auction Choice" month, during which they featured both rising and falling price auction hours. The falling price auctions continued after this month and are now the only common auction format on the channel.
Prior to December 2004, each item also had a "guide price", described as the manufacturer's
recommended retail price
The list price, also known as the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP), or the recommended retail price (RRP), or the suggested retail price (SRP) of a product is the price at which its manufacturer notionally recommends that a retailer ...
or an average of prices from other retailers. However, these were removed following the collapse of shopping channel
Auction World.tv
Auction World.tv was a British television channel which auctioned a variety of products by telephone bidding.
The channel claimed to sell high-quality products at very low prices and promised reliable delivery, however doubt was cast over the ...
, which was criticised for advertising misleading guide prices.
Bid TV (2005–2011)
On 21 January 2005, the channel was rebranded Bid TV to reflect the fact that more of its auctions followed the
Price-Drop TV
Price Drop is a British television shopping channel based in the UK, that ran daily live reverse auctions. It was the first reverse auction channel of its kind in the world. The channel was owned by Bid Shopping.
History
2003–2005: Price-Dr ...
format, meaning that bidders were only rarely bidding "up". Bid TV no longer offered rising-price auctions. A new graphic was added in October 2005 to show the start price of falling price auctions.
When the channel originally launched, one of the most popular features was the relaxed style in which the presenters and assistants interacted with each other. For instance, the presenter whose shift was starting would come on air for the last few minutes of the previous presenter's shift. However, although still relaxed, this presenter interaction seems to have been stopped with the launch of Bid TV. Despite the fact that they no longer used an auction hall theme, the presenters exclusively refer to the products they sell as 'lots' and to their customers as 'bidders'. When referring to the next item to be sold the presenters and assistants would say "Closing next..."
In early 2006 the website was overhauled in an attempt to increase its user-friendliness and overall aesthetic appeal. Its new design was inspired by that of
eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...
, the world's most popular auction website, in an attempt to capitalise on its popularity. On 10 May, the on-screen graphics were changed so that products are now sold in pounds and pence, as opposed to just pounds, a change previously incorporated into
Price-Drop TV
Price Drop is a British television shopping channel based in the UK, that ran daily live reverse auctions. It was the first reverse auction channel of its kind in the world. The channel was owned by Bid Shopping.
History
2003–2005: Price-Dr ...
. In August, a new graphic was introduced, showing Bid TV's website address and a ''falling arrow''. This was shown as soon as the assistant has shown what is coming up next, and introduces the presenter.
In August 2007, they began to sell products with choices. On certain products (often bedding or clothes) the customer was able to choose the size or colour by pressing a telephone button. The graphics for these auctions are different, showing the start price, the current price, the quantity of the 'main' choice and a list of options. When the main choice item is sold out, the price is locked and is what everyone pays regardless of their bid. If another choice is selling faster, then 'limited' appears next to its name and the name vanishes when it sells out.
As a celebration for Bid TV's 7th birthday, in September and October 2007, the channel held a six weekend megadrop promotion where at least one product each hour between 8pm on Friday and 1am on Sunday was sold for £1 plus postage. They have run similar promotions in the past, but this was the first time that Bid TV used the
Price-Drop TV
Price Drop is a British television shopping channel based in the UK, that ran daily live reverse auctions. It was the first reverse auction channel of its kind in the world. The channel was owned by Bid Shopping.
History
2003–2005: Price-Dr ...
name Megadrop.
In January 2008 In order to promote the sister channels of Bid TV, Price-Drop TV and Speed-Auction TV, a small preview of what was on sale on each channel was displayed before each auction began. On 21 June, the channel removed the former graphic displaying the channel name, and replaced this with the web address. In September all three Sit-Up channels removed start-prices from their graphics. However, they still appeared on the websites.
10th birthday
On 5 October 2010, Bid TV celebrated its 10th birthday. As part of the celebrations and further expansion of the Sit-Up Shopping channels, a £5 Million Warehouse Clearance event took place from 16 August 2010 for six weeks, following the announcement that the company is relocating its warehouse in
Tamworth to a larger one. The studios of all three channels received new looks from 6 October 2010. On 3 October host Peter Simon stated that the studio was to be demolished in a few hours time, and that live broadcast would be filmed from the
Speed Auction TV
Bid Plus (formerly Speed Auction) was a British television shopping channel owned by Bid Shopping. The channel ceased broadcast on 1 July 2013.
History
The channel launched as speedauction on 27 July 2005, replacing the original Screenshop ...
studio (complete with yellow/black striped construction tape and brown dust-sheets as a backdrop this was to fit in with the theme of Bid TV's studio being under construction) until the new studio was ready to broadcast in on 6 October.
On 6 October, Bid TV continued to celebrate. The broadcast carried on as usual in the temporary studio (that was normally used for Speed Auction TV), switching to the new look studio from 6pm onwards. The on-screen graphics were replaced.
Bid (2011–2014)
On 1 August 2011, 'Bid TV' changed its name to 'Bid' dropping the 'TV' part of their name. Along with the new name, new buying graphics were introduced on all Bid Shopping channels and new idents compromising of 3D products flying around the new logo designs were shown. The new design was created to make buying easier for the viewer. Multi-buy was introduced on certain products where the viewer can select to buy more than one product at the same time (P&P is still applied to each item). Bid in this form ended on 10 March.
Shop at Bid and closure (2014)
On 10 March 2014, Bid rebranded into 'Shop at Bid' - a new format including a fixed price dynamic that ended the falling price approach. A new premium rate number was introduced which cost 20p per minute as opposed to the previous £1.53 (per call). The buying process changed to allow viewers to speak to an advisor after purchase and did not require a call back.
This change lasted just over one month. On 17 April 2014,
Bid Shopping
Sit-Up Ltd., traded as Bid Shopping, was an English broadcaster which launched in 2000. It operated a portfolio of falling price shopping television channels to over 12 million homes in the UK.
History
On 1 April 2009, it was announced that S ...
, the channel's owner, went into administration; Shop at Bid and its sister channel
Price Drop were closed down with immediate effect, costing 229 jobs. Websites were pulled offline, and a technical fault card appeared on the channels. On 23 April 2014, the Bid and Price Drop websites were updated and the channels were pulled from
Virgin Media
Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 joint ventu ...
. The channels were removed from
Freeview Freeview may refer to:
* Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia
* Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand
*Freeview (UK), ...
and
Sky
The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space.
In the field of astronomy, ...
on 25 April 2014. On Virgin Media and Sky, Shop At Bid's EPG is blank.
Criticisms
For much of its life Bid used a premium phone rate charge of £1.53 per call for bidding. Additionally, shipping and handling cost at least £7.99 for all items (as mentioned on-screen). Thus, each item cost at least £9.52 more than the most prominently displayed price. Customers were also able to place bids for items on the website (providing they were registered) so as to avoid the initial £1.53 charge, but not postage and packaging.
The ASA upheld complaints against Bid on two separate occasions. In the most serious case, they ruled that Bid TV had overestimated the guide price of £1,700 for "Black Agate Globes"; "Bid-Up could only provide proof of one supplier that may have sold the globe for £1,700". In fact, one supplier who Bid TV claimed sold the item for £1,700 actually offered to sell the item for £265 with most companies offering the globe for considerably less than £1,700: "between £250 and £500". Bid was therefore found in breach of ASA broadcasting codes for providing inaccurate pricing.
In 2009, Bid TV attracted attention in the press and on internet forums following an incident where the same host, Paul Evers, appeared on both Bid TV and Price-Drop TV at the same time, fronting two different auctions, both apparently 'live'. Sit-Up's chief executive Ian Percival explained the situation by saying "We are experimenting by using recorded video of a sale but playing it out with a live auction. The price and the quantity are live - as shown on the graphics - but the video is pre-recorded. We've only done it a couple of times before." A subsequent press report stated that these recorded auctions would be scrapped following complaints and a possible ASA investigation. Sit-Up's head of presentation Andy Hodgson said "We have done it a couple of times and have no firm plans to do it again." However, Sit-Up's channels have in fact routinely featured these so-called "graphic led" pre-recorded auctions since launch. A mix-up in one of these auctions in 2002 led to a complaint being upheld by the ITC.
On 21 May 2013, it was announced that the
Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) had referred Sit-Up Limited, who operate Bid to
Ofcom for consideration of statutory sanctions following repeated breaches of the UK Code of Broadcast Advertising. Ofcom confirmed that it had accepted the referral. Since January 2012, 33 ASA cases ruled against Sit-Up Limited. The two main types of problem were misleading pricing claims and misleading product descriptions.
Past presenters
*
Nana Akua
Nana Akua Amotemaa-Appiah (born July 1971) is a British television presenter for GB News.
Early life
The child of Ghanaian immigrants, Akua was born in Newcastle upon Tyne. Her family moved to the United States when she was 11 years old.
She ...
* Paul Becque
*
Kevin Duala
Kevin Francis Duala (born 23 May 1964) is a British actor and presenter. He is perhaps best known for hosting the United Kingdom's version of ''Blue's Clues'' (1998–2003) for Nick Jr.
Biography
Duala's paternal grandfather, Thomas Duala, was ...
* Elisa Foreman
* Adam Freeman
* Nicola George
*
Keith Harris (2005–2006)
* Justin Hazell
*
Andy Hodgson
*
Alex Lovell
Alexandra "Alex" Lovell (born 28 March 1973) is an English television presenter and voice-over artist. She has presented the BBC's regional news programme '' BBC Points West'' since 2005.
Early life
Lovell was born in Gravesend, Kent, grew up ...
(October 2000–2001)
* Caroline Lyndsay
* Paul Ross
* Mark Ryes
* Greg Scott
* Adele Sica
*
Peter Simon
* Mike Smith
See also
*
Bid Plus
Bid Plus (formerly Speed Auction) was a British television shopping channel owned by Bid Shopping. The channel ceased broadcast on 1 July 2013.
History
The channel launched as speedauction on 27 July 2005, replacing the original Screenshop 2 ...
*
Bid Shopping
Sit-Up Ltd., traded as Bid Shopping, was an English broadcaster which launched in 2000. It operated a portfolio of falling price shopping television channels to over 12 million homes in the UK.
History
On 1 April 2009, it was announced that S ...
*
Price Drop
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shop at Bid
Bid Shopping
Shopping networks in the United Kingdom
Television channels and stations established in 2000
British companies established in 2000
Television channels and stations disestablished in 2014
British companies disestablished in 2014
Defunct British television channels