Launched in early June, off air by the end of the month. Seen On TV has officially closed, according to the channel’s CEO Simon Iles.
This follows our report on Wednesday when the channel had abruptly crashed off air, days after cancelling live programmes.
Iles took to the channel’s Facebook page to assure customers that all orders had been fulfilled, despite customers still complaining of non-receipt of goods.
Explaining the closure, Iles said “financial and technical restraints out of our control have led to [Seen On TV’s] demise”.
The shopping channel had been unique in not allowing customers to order goods via telephone. Instead, customers were directed to the channel’s website. The on-screen WhatsApp number was solely for communicating with presenters in the studio.
Seen on TV was reportedly modelled on Iles’ success of demonstrating and selling goods through the social media platform TikTok. The Seen On TV Tiktok account was swiftly rebranded back to Seen On TikTok days before it was announced the channel was closed. RXTV understands that an attempt to secure additional investment failed.
The TV channel featured many familiar items which had appeared on both Shop Extra – the short-lived general shopping service on Create & Craft – and the previous version of Ideal World. Iles was a presenter on both channels.
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When live programmes were suspended, sources connected to the channel indicated that Seen On TV’s Freeview carriage costs had unexpectedly increased. Therefore, the channel needed to seek extra funding.
On Tuesday 25th June, the channel announced via its Facebook page that it had lost access to its technology platforms. That meant it could no longer broadcast and no longer had access to its email system. Customers were asked to submit enquiries via Facebook Messenger. Squashed financially and without any further investment, the channel couldn’t survive.
Accusations of insider sabotage soon followed, with social media posts making various allegations, some of which have since been taken down. RXTV has been unable to verify the contents, nor approach the channel directly due to the loss of their email system.
With regards the cost of Freeview carriage, a pre-launch placeholder for Seen On TV was added to Freeview channel 94 on the 22nd May, as recorded by Freeview’s own service updates page*. However, RXTV’s own monitoring of the Freeview platform confirmed the placeholder was only added to Freeview in the Manchester area. On 12th June, the signal went nationwide by switching to the national Arqiva-operated COM6 multiplex. This change would have triggered a substantial change in the cost of Freeview carriage to reflect the larger potential audience.
Furthermore, Seen On TV had taken over EarthxTV’s old multiplex slot, but hadn’t bought EarthxTV’s channel number. That meant the channel was advertising the wrong channel number to viewers – anyone who had recently retuned their Freeview device would see the channel on 94, not 79.
This is the latest significant blow for shopping TV industry. Previous sudden channel closures, including the collapse of Ideal World in 2023 and Price Drop TV in 2014 have left consumers out of pocket and unsure of whether to trust teleshopping businesses. And those in the broadcast chain are wary of whether they’ll get paid for their services.
In the meantime, viewers who purchased items, but haven’t received them, or they’re different to that described, may be able to complain to their card issuer and raise a chargeback or Section 75 claim. The Financial Ombudsman website has more information on your rights and how the process works.
Under Sky’s channel listing rules, if a channel can’t broadcast, it is removed from the Electronic Programme Guide. That happened swiftly on Tuesday, shortly after Seen On TV could no longer broadcast.
However, Freeview and Freesat allow broadcasters to suspend programmes for a period of time before losing their slot. Following the social media confirmation that Seen On TV has officially closed, the Freeview slot, but not necessarily the channel number, becomes available to other broadcasters.
At this stage, it is unclear if negotiations have begun to fill Seen On TV’s slot on Freeview with an alternative content provider.
Arqiva was responsible for distributing the channel on both satellite and Freeview. It’s not commented on the situation.
*RXTV has included a link created through the Internet Archive, as Freeview removes service updates pages after several weeks.
