Bid (TV channel)

Shop at Bid was a British television shopping channel based in the UK, that ran daily auction style and later fixed price demonstrations. It was the first channel of its kind in the world. The channel first launched as Bid-Up.tv. The channel was owned by Bid Shopping.

Bid Shopping later reopened with new owners. It was announced on Twitter under the name @bidtv that Bid was planning to relaunch on TV and online in December 2015, however a "server issue" was cited and as of August 2017 this has still not come to fruition.

The channel was launched by its parent company, Sit-Up Shopping, in October 2000. It started by broadcasting 12 hours a day, much of which were pre-recorded, with auction graphics overlaid so people could bid despite the video itself being pre-recorded. Bid later aired live broadcasts almost 18 hours a day from 7.45am to 2am, with recorded TV Shopping Network presentations during its downtime.

The channel amassed a cult-following as it spread to various digital platforms. This growth in popularity can also be partly attributed to the use of David Dickinson, ex-presenter of the BBC television series Bargain Hunt, in various television advertising campaigns.

In June 2003, Sit-Up Shopping launched sister channel Price-Drop TV.

In April 2004, a new system for bidding known as Best Bidding was introduced. It now meant all bids acted as proxy bidding, so instead of the bid being entered at whatever is bid, the computer would now automatically bid-up to the value specified, and not over. At the end of the auction, everyone paid the same price as indicated in the on-screen "auction arrow", thus amounting to a uniform price auction.

On the channel, an item was advertised with a specific quantity, and a bid-up from price triangle. Customers phoned in and bid up from the particular amount. The quantity was used to determine which customers 'win' the auction. For example, if there was a quantity of 50 for the product, then the top 50 bidders would win the auction.

In August 2004, the channel had an "Auction Choice" month, during which they featured both rising and falling price auction hours. The falling price auctions continued after this month and are now the only common auction format on the channel.

Prior to December 2004, each item also had a "guide price", described as being the manufacturer's recommended retail price or an average of prices from other retailers. However, these were removed following the collapse of shopping channel Auction World.tv, which was criticised for advertising misleading guide prices.