TV Travel Shop was a British

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

channel that sold holidays. It launched in April 1998, primarily on

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...

and

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

, broadcasting between 6am and 5pm, sharing space with Challenge. In 1999, the channel began broadcasting 24 hours a day. In 2000, the channel launched on ONdigital, using capacity from ONrequest 2 (later ITV Select 2), and broadcast 6am-12pm weekdays, and 6am-10am weekends, free to air on channel 44. Its hours were extended in January 2002 to be broadcast from 6am-6pm daily. However, after the demise of

ITV Digital ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television broadcaster which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network. Its main shareholders were Carlton Communications plc and Granada plc, owners ...

, TV Travel Shop made a deal with the multiplex operator, SDN, to carry the channel 24 hours a day using the newly freed up capacity. It moved to channel 17 at the launch of

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), a ...

. However, by December 2003,

Top Up TV Top Up TV was a pay TV service in the United Kingdom which launched in March 2004, operating on the digital terrestrial television platform. The aim of the service was to "top up" Freeview customers by providing additional content and services ...

were looking to buy slots for their new subscription platform, and acquired the slot and LCN occupied by TV Travel Shop. The channel went off air on 16 April 2004, and its stream was replaced in April 2004 by a Top Up TV subscription stream.

TV Travel Shop 2

From 2000, TV Travel Shop 2 was introduced broadcasting on cable and satellite, offering late bargains, new places and repeats of shows from TV Travel Shop. This was positioned next to TV Travel Shop on Sky Digital and

NTL NTL may refer to: Companies * NTL Incorporated and NTL Internet, later Virgin Media, communications media company ** NTL Ireland, later Virgin Media Ireland * Arqiva, UK company formerly ''NTL Broadcast'' and ''National Transcommunications L ...

. By late 2004, the channels were suffering from lack of customers and were scheduled for a shut down. Previously, in 2003 TV Travel Shop was taken over by the IAC Corporation and all sales were moved to an Expedia call centre in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

, whilst the cruise department remained in

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, c ...

until the channels were permanently closed in March 2005. They were replaced by auction channels

iBuy iBuy was a British satellite-based home shopping channel. Created & launched on 18 April 2005, by Andy Sheldon, who was one of George Spitaliotis's senior management figures at Auction World.tv and also created their sister channel Chase-It ...

and

2 on Sky Digital. {{DEFAULTSORT:Tv Travel Shop Defunct television channels in the United Kingdom Television channels and stations established in 1998 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2004 1998 establishments in the United Kingdom 2004 disestablishments in the United Kingdom