Ideal World is a British TV shopping channel, broadcasting on DTT, satellite and online, with transactional websites, previously hosted from studios in Peterborough.
Ideal World had its origins in the 1980s as a mail order company selling products via national press adverts and consumer exhibitions.
They decided to move into television home shopping, and launched Ideal World on 17 April 2000 on digital satellite from studios in Peterborough.
[9] In May 2013, Ideal World became the subject of a BBC Watchdog investigation after viewer complaints about non-delivery of goods and allegedly poor quality of some products.
The Watchdog investigation followed claims by the Daily Mirror online that complaints about Ideal World submitted to its blog had "passed the 100 mark".
[13] On 1 August 2019, Ideal World and Create and Craft started to simulcast live broadcasts on ITV (and UTV) between midnight or thereafter until 3am, replacing Jackpot247.
CCXTV was launched by Ideal Shopping Direct Ltd on 15 April 2020 as an entertainment channel and took over Create and Craft's Freeview LCN 23, broadcasting from 0700h until 2200h, with a schedule of imports and re-runs of shows like The Bold and The Beautiful, Never the Twain and Hot in Cleveland.
[36] On 30 June 2023, it was announced that Ideal World was put up for sale by Kroll under the alias "Project Graystone", with the channel saying that they owe "hundreds of thousands [of pounds]" to suppliers.
The channels are (as of August 2023) still broadcasting via manually tuning on satellite (e.g. Sky, non-Freesat mode on Freesat) and on Freeview with the test card intact.
[6] On 7 July, it was revealed by the parent company that a "slump in trade" had caused its collapse, with the channel's co-founder Paul Wright, blaming the COVID-19 pandemic and a "dramatic change in the market".
On 23 September 2023, it was announced that TJC have acquired the rights to utilise the Ideal World brand, with intentions to revamp both the website and the Freeview channel.
Some former Ideal World presenters have found new opportunities, including positions at the newly launched Shop Extra TV channel, which was introduced by Create & Craft in August.
[44] This was after many suppliers had decided not to work with Hochanda anymore after failing to be paid for goods and after Create & Craft had stopped taking orders from customers.
On 4 October 2024, an Administrator was appointed to deal with the company, which resulted in the channel showing an on-screen message over repeats telling viewers not to call or place orders.
On 25 October 2024, after a party pulled out of a planned sale; Hochanda was placed into administration with immediate effect, of which Create & Craft had officially ceased operations after the repeats ended on Freeview with a placeholder being put up instead.
[49] On 30 June, Simon Iles confirmed that the service had completely ceased operations as the financial and technical restraints were deemed too expensive to fix.