Gems TV was an American

reverse auction A reverse auction (also known as buyer-determined auction or procurement auction) is a type of auction in which the traditional roles of buyer and seller are reversed. Thus, there is one buyer and many potential sellers. In an ordinary auction al ...

jewelry shopping channel. The channel was available on DirecTV, Dish Network and other local networks. The channel operations were based in

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...

History

Gems TV launched exclusively on

DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. I ...

. On January 15, 2007, Gems TV also became available through select cable providers in the U.S. and some TV affiliates such as KLDT in

Lake Dallas, Texas Lake Dallas is a town in Denton County, Texas, United States. It is located in North Texas, northwest of the city of Dallas, on the shores of Lewisville Lake. The community's name derives from the original name of the lake. It is also one of the 4 ...

. The channel was also streamed live on the website. On August 30, 2007, Gems TV became available on Dish Network.

Bankruptcy and closure

In March 2010, it was announced that the US operation would close and be wound down. On April 7, 2010, Gems TV USA filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, blaming the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...

. Gems TV ceased broadcasting on April 15, 2010. The website and customer service team continued operating until May 6, 2010.

Criticism

On February 1, 2010, the manufacturing operations at its factory in Chanthaburi,

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

were closed down due to the change in sourcing and manufacture. The new strategic decision to fully outsource its gemstone jewelry supply was aimed at reducing operating costs, increasing supply, improving manufacturing flexibility and the main reason of increasing profit margins. This was one of the principles the company was originally well known for - Going direct to the mines and handcrafting gem set jewelry in their own in-house facilities. The consequence of this has resulted in a large number of redundancies. DirecTV has filed a lawsuit against Gems TV (USA) Limited, claiming that Gems TV refused to pay their satellite bills.

References

External links

Official site

History

Bankruptcy and closure

Criticism

References

External links

See also