Sit-up Ltd

Infobox_Company
company_name = sit-up Channels
company_
company_type = Limited Company Subsidiary - Virgin Media Television
company_slogan = The UK's fastest growing TV retailer
foundation = 2000
location = sit-up Channels
sit-up House
179-181 The Vale
London. W3 7RW, UK flagicon|GBR
key_people = Ian Percival, sit up Channels - Chief Executive
Clive Bradshaw - Director of Information Systems
Joe Barry, sit up Channels - Director of Operations
Bryan Crenol - Director of Finance
num_employees = 766 (As of 31 December 2005)
industry = Broadcasting
products = Shopping Television Channels
revenue = Unknown
homepage = [http://www.sit-up.tv sit-up Channels company website]

sit-up Channels (or commonly "sit-up") is a UK based broadcaster which launched in 2000.

To over 12 million homes, it delivers a portfolio of mainly auction shopping TV channels. They are ultimately owned by media company Virgin Media, via its Virgin Media Television content division - this follows partial ownership prior to May 2005. sit-up runs the channels bid tv, price-drop tv and speed auction tv each day from "7.45am" through to "1.30am". The downtime is covered by their rolling advertisement arm, Screenshop. The channels are designed to sell consumer products via digital TV (currently carried by digital satellite, cable, and terrestrial) or the Internet.

Channels

bid tv

bid tv (known as "bid-up.tv" until 21 January 2005) is a television channel based in the UK - the first of its kind in the world - it runs live televised auctions every day through various digital television platforms

The channel was launched by its parent company, sit-up Channels, in October 2000. It started by broadcasting 12 hours a day, many of which were pre-recorded, with auction graphics overlaid so people could bid although the video itself was pre-recorded. It later extended its hours to 17hrs a day (8am - 1am every day) and is now completely live.

price-drop tv

price-drop tv (which dropped the dot from its name "price-drop.tv" on 21 January 2005) is a shopping channel that is focused on falling prices, using a form of uniform-price Dutch auction.

It began broadcasting on 11 June 2003, with broadcasting hours of 4pm - midnight, Wednesday to Saturday. This was later extended to 8am-1am 7 days a week. It is available to more than 12 million homes in the UK, and is achieving weekly revenue of over £3 million.

peed auction tv

speed auction tv was launched on the 27 July 2005, and used to feature rising price auctions lasting about 4 minutes. Now however it changed to the falling price format in order to match its sister channels, Bid and Price-Drop TV.

The channel runs from 8am-1am every day and is only live between 4pm and 8pm and then from 9pm until midnight on Wednesday through to Saturday.

speed auction tv is now falling price with the help of new launch auctioneers Lindsey Gundersen,Kathryn Camsey And Justin Hazell And the channel is Live Full Time

When the channel came falling price the hours on the channel Went 45 Minutes Extended 15 Minutes Earlier Start (7:45 AM) 30 Minutes later (01:30 AM) This Also affected bid tv and price-drop tv

creenshop

Screenshop is an infomercial-based shopping channel. It broadcasts 24 hours a day on the Sky Digital platform, and during the hours of 1am-8am every day during sit-up's downtime on its other channels. A deal in July 2004 meant that Vector Direct will now broadcast their presentations exclusively on the channel, this has led to the channel being striped of its identity, it is now broadcasts under Vector Direct own band 'TV Warehouse', but is still owned by Sit-Up.

Defunct Channels

In early January 2005, it was announced that sit-up would launch two free-to-air movie channels called real-movies.tv and Movies On 333. real-movies.tv was to be female orientated with an emphasis on true stories, whilst Movies On 333 (intended for Sky Digital channel 333) would focus on western and niche films. [cite web | author=Neil Wilkes | year=2005 | title= sit-up to launch two movie channels | work=www.digitalspy.co.uk | url=http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/a18118/sit-up-to-launch-two-movie-channels.html | accessmonthday=May 10 | accessyear=2008]

However, another company would launch their own free-to-air movie channel just ahead of sit-up's in the 333 slot; True Movies was also female orientated with an emphasis on true stories. sit-up changed their original channel proposals, with matinee movies and bad movies emerging as their new channels (details below), which both launched in April 25, 2005. [cite web | author=Neil Wilkes | year=2005 | title= Sit Up changes movie channel proposals | work=www.digitalspy.co.uk | url=http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/a19807/sit-up-changes-movie-channel-proposals.html | accessmonthday=May 10 | accessyear=2008]

matinee movies

matinee movies was a part-time movie channel owned by sit-up Ltd. It was then on Sky Digital channel 336 and ran daily from 9am-9pm. The last hour of the channel was occupied by some of sit-up's shopping auctions, such as speed auction tv.

The channel was aimed for families, showing classic and rare black & white British films such as "Love in Pawn" and the Frankie Howerd bequest comedy "A Touch of the Sun". Films on the channel were introduced by film critic Paul Ross. As an interlude, or at the start of the broadcast day, there were showings of a film magazine programme called "Sprockets" (not to be confused with the SNL sketches with Mike Myers.

In under a year, the channel / EPG slot was sold to Dolphin Television who rebranded it as a new 24-hour channel called Movies4Men in February 1, 2006. sit up have no involvement with this channel.

bad movies

bad movies was a part-time movie channel owned by sit-up Ltd. It was then on Sky Digital channel 339 and ran daily from 9pm-9am. The first three hours however showed sit-up's shopping auctions, so bad movies content did not actually appear until midnight.

The channel was aimed at a young adult audience, showing a variety of cinematic "turkeys", though some of the content was increasingly from matinee movies, especially after 5am. Films included "Plan 9 From Outer Space" and "Revenge of the Cheerleaders" starring David Hasselhoff. The channel also featured introductions by Paul Ross and episodes of Sprockets.

As per matinee movies, the channel / EPG slot was also sold to Dolphin Television who rebranded it as a new 24-hour channel called ACTIONMAX in February 1, 2006. sit up have no involvement with this channel.

References

External links

* [http://www.sit-up.tv sit-up Channels company website]
* [http://www.bid.tv bid tv website]
* [http://www.price-drop.tv price-drop tv website]
* [http://www.speedauction.tv speed auction tv website]
* [http://delicast.com/tv/uk/15 bid TV - link to live streaming]
* [http://delicast.com/tv/uk/24 price-drop TV - link to live streaming]