Ideal World
Encyclopedia
Ideal World is a shopping channel
in the UK
whose sister shopping channels include Create and Craft, Ideal Extra and Ideal & More. It is owned by Ideal Shopping Direct Plc. Their sister health and beauty channel, Vitality, closed early in 2008. Ideal Shopping Direct also sell plants and flowers through Garden Bargains.com and pet and wildlife care via Animal Bargains.com. The channel broadcasts from its studios in Peterborough
. Ideal World currently broadcasts live 17 hours a day, with Create and Craft live 9 hours a day.
, 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, warehouse, and 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".
Ideal's motto of "Family, Friendship and Fun" that was used to launch the TV channel, and is still used to this day, was personified by the on-screen behaviour of its presenting team. Broadcasting live for just a few hours a day at Launch, the less authoritative and more casual look, feel and style of the channel was well received by the viewing public. At a time when QVC still had very little competition except for the Infomercials, this much more relaxed, warmer and friendlier style of traditional TV shopping appealed to many, and has now precipitated down into the other offerings that launch later, such as bid-up.tv (now bid tv
) and its sister channels. As well as the Launch team, the viewership was introduced to stalwart presenters Shaun Ryan and Ellis Ward (of You Bet fame), as well as some other familiar presenters and guests from elsewhere in Shopping TV. The chanel also featured Ali Paton, better known as Siren from ITV's 'Gladiators' series.
On 6 March 2001, the facility at Peterborough was completely destroyed by fire. The channel was back broadcasting within from weeks from various temporary facilities while the main building was rebuilt. The main building was not fully operational 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 website following on 23 August 2003. It is now possible to Join the Create and Craft Club to receive discounts on spends at the site, amongst other benefits and privileges.
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.
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.
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.
Other projects that have featured 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.
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 and instead, Ideal World is closed between midnight and 5am on Freeview, in order to allow 'Babestation' to broadcast its services on a separate channel.
On 3 March 2010, '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 1 June 2010. On 14 October 2010, 'Ideal Extra' launched on Freesat channel 810.
In January 2010, Ideal Shopping acquired Lead the Good Life, under which they run gardenbargains.com website. In September 2010, the company launched Pets and Wildlife Ltd, under which they run two transactional websites, lovepets.co.uk (formerly animalbargains.com) and britishwildlife.tv
The channel has been featured in the BBC TV series The Apprentice.
Infomercial
Infomercials are direct response television commercials which generally include a phone number or website. There are long-form infomercials, which are typically between 15 and 30 minutes in length, and short-form infomercials, which are typically 30 seconds to 120 seconds in length. Infomercials...
in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
whose sister shopping channels include Create and Craft, Ideal Extra and Ideal & More. It is owned by Ideal Shopping Direct Plc. Their sister health and beauty channel, Vitality, closed early in 2008. Ideal Shopping Direct also sell plants and flowers through Garden Bargains.com and pet and wildlife care via Animal Bargains.com. The channel broadcasts from its studios in Peterborough
Peterborough
Peterborough is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with an estimated population of in June 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. Situated north of London, the city stands on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea...
. Ideal World currently broadcasts live 17 hours a day, with Create and Craft live 9 hours a day.
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 MailDaily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
, 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, warehouse, and 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
Steve Whatley
Steven Rae "Steve" Whatley known as 'Gadget Man', 'Mr Diamonique', 'Whatters' and 'Mr Zhuzh!', was a British Theatre Actor, Consumer Expert, Journalist, and Television Presenter.-Early career:...
, and was called "Telly Sales".
Ideal's motto of "Family, Friendship and Fun" that was used to launch the TV channel, and is still used to this day, was personified by the on-screen behaviour of its presenting team. Broadcasting live for just a few hours a day at Launch, the less authoritative and more casual look, feel and style of the channel was well received by the viewing public. At a time when QVC still had very little competition except for the Infomercials, this much more relaxed, warmer and friendlier style of traditional TV shopping appealed to many, and has now precipitated down into the other offerings that launch later, such as bid-up.tv (now bid tv
Bid tv
Bid is a British television shopping channel based in the UK, that runs daily live reversed auctions. It was the first channel of its kind in the world. The channel first launched as Bid-Up.tv. The channel is owned by Bid Shopping.-Bid-Up.TV :...
) and its sister channels. As well as the Launch team, the viewership was introduced to stalwart presenters Shaun Ryan and Ellis Ward (of You Bet fame), as well as some other familiar presenters and guests from elsewhere in Shopping TV. The chanel also featured Ali Paton, better known as Siren from ITV's 'Gladiators' series.
On 6 March 2001, the facility at Peterborough was completely destroyed by fire. The channel was back broadcasting within from weeks from various temporary facilities while the main building was rebuilt. The main building was not fully operational 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 website following on 23 August 2003. It is now possible to Join the Create and Craft Club to receive discounts on spends at the site, amongst other benefits and privileges.
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.
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
Digital television transition
The digital television transition is the process in which analog television broadcasting is converted to and replaced by digital television. This primarily involves both TV stations and over-the-air viewers; however it also involves content providers like TV networks, and cable television...
, any home with a TV will be able to tune into Ideal World and purchase products.
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.
Other projects that have featured 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.
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 and instead, Ideal World is closed between midnight and 5am on Freeview, in order to allow 'Babestation' to broadcast its services on a separate channel.
On 3 March 2010, '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 1 June 2010. On 14 October 2010, 'Ideal Extra' launched on Freesat channel 810.
In January 2010, Ideal Shopping acquired Lead the Good Life, under which they run gardenbargains.com website. In September 2010, the company launched Pets and Wildlife Ltd, under which they run two transactional websites, lovepets.co.uk (formerly animalbargains.com) and britishwildlife.tv
The channel has been featured in the BBC TV series The Apprentice.
Current Presenters
- Andy Love
- Dave Bradford
- Dawn Bibby
- Dean Wilson
- Debbie Shore
- Dennice Robinson
- Ellis Ward
- Howard Griffiths
- Joanne Puttrich
- Leoni Pujol
- Loen Love
- Lottie Mayor
- Martyn Parker
- Nigel May
- Shaun Ryan
Former Presenters
- Abby Surgeon
- Alan Gear
- Anthony Heywood
- Barry Freestone
- Carla Laszlo
- Carmel O'Sullivan
- Caroline Lyndsay
- Chloe Marshall
- Christopher French
- Debbie Flint
- Gary Ashburn
- Gema Ensenat
- Ian Gardner
- Jenny Pickering
- Karen Witchalls
- Kate Amos
- Lori Leland (USA)
- Mark Goodwin
- Nikki Vincent
- Paul Lavers
- Rachel Harvey Jones
- Simon Biagi
- Stephanie Weightman (Craft)
- Steve WhatleySteve WhatleySteven Rae "Steve" Whatley known as 'Gadget Man', 'Mr Diamonique', 'Whatters' and 'Mr Zhuzh!', was a British Theatre Actor, Consumer Expert, Journalist, and Television Presenter.-Early career:...
- Trevor Blackman
- Victoria Showers
External links
- idealworld.tv
- Create and Craft with Ideal World
- http://www.animalbargains.com/
- http://www.gardenbargains.com/ideal
- http://www.britishwildlife.tv/
- Ideal World's Clips and Bloopers on YouTube
- http://www.davebradford.tv
- http://www.howardgriffiths.com
- http://www.andylove.tv