Shopping channel Ideal World has ceased broadcasts, with the company entering administration. 250 staff are losing their jobs, whilst the channel is unlikely to return to TV screens.
Signs of difficulty have been apparent for a few weeks now, with Ideal World being removed initially from cable platform Virgin Media. Late nigh simulcasts on ITV1 also ended around this time. Then on Monday 3rd July (2023), the channel suspended broadcasts on all other platforms. Satellite platform Sky removed the channel from its EPG, with a on screen message continuing to be shown to Freeview and Freesat viewers advising the channel had “temporarily suspended broadcasting”.
Administrators Kroll Advisory UK have now confirmed the company behind the channel will not resume broadcasts. Customer orders will be “fulfilled where possible”, according to a statement, with the intention to orderly wind down the business. It is unlikely that Ideal World will return to screens any time soon.
Entrepreneur Hamish Morjaria acquired Ideal World in 2022, after a period which saw Ideal World stripped of assets which were sold off, including a high EPG number on Freeview, and its former sister channel Create & Craft. It is understood ownership has since changed in recent weeks, a further indication of the turbulence at the channel.
Ideal World broadcast for 23 years, having been founded by Paul Wright and Val Kaye in 2000. Its founders sold the channel in 2011.