NJ
Neil Jones
Founding member
Yesterday, October 5th, would have been the 17th anniversary of what started as Bid-Up.tv, eventually bid TV, later just bid and ultimately the last crap incarnation of Shop at Bid. Sadly we all know how the story ended two and a half years ago.
The network, probably more so a few years after launch and with its sister channels, was pretty much the eBay equivalent of shopping channels at the time, while the likes of QVC would spend an hour or so on a product or related products Bid rattled through produce at a rate of knots with low prices and people loved it. It was quite a sustainable business model and very successful.
I don't think there's been a shopping channel like it since or probably never will be again - something bright, bold, with simple graphics and 18hrs of live TV every day where anything and everything could go wrong and it quite often did. YouTube is full of videos of Peter Simon falling over, phone lines breaking down, Peter Simon falling over and other shenanigans over the years, as well as Peter Simon falling over. Most of which you'd never see on any other network as while Ideal World and QVC kept things corporate and professional, at Bid/Price/Speed it was like a constant sugar rush.
Of course the legacy lives on, see DanielC's excellent simulator in The Gallery and there was that "attempt" to relaunch the service which never came to anything. Whether it was a hoax or things just never got off the ground we'll probably never know.
I always liked this era of the graphics, simple and effective. I'd hate to think how much this call cost Peter Simon from his mobile, definitely more than £1.50 though!
The network, probably more so a few years after launch and with its sister channels, was pretty much the eBay equivalent of shopping channels at the time, while the likes of QVC would spend an hour or so on a product or related products Bid rattled through produce at a rate of knots with low prices and people loved it. It was quite a sustainable business model and very successful.
I don't think there's been a shopping channel like it since or probably never will be again - something bright, bold, with simple graphics and 18hrs of live TV every day where anything and everything could go wrong and it quite often did. YouTube is full of videos of Peter Simon falling over, phone lines breaking down, Peter Simon falling over and other shenanigans over the years, as well as Peter Simon falling over. Most of which you'd never see on any other network as while Ideal World and QVC kept things corporate and professional, at Bid/Price/Speed it was like a constant sugar rush.
Of course the legacy lives on, see DanielC's excellent simulator in The Gallery and there was that "attempt" to relaunch the service which never came to anything. Whether it was a hoax or things just never got off the ground we'll probably never know.
I always liked this era of the graphics, simple and effective. I'd hate to think how much this call cost Peter Simon from his mobile, definitely more than £1.50 though!