The price is £68m as shopping channel hopes to clear debt
SHOPPING channel operator Sit Up TV will ask its creditors next week to agree to a deal to write off its debts and allow it to continue broadcasting.
The operator of channels Bid TV and Price Drop TV, once promoted by former Bargain Hunt star David Dickinson, was acquired in December after losses racked up amid growing competition from the internet.
TnuiCapital, owned by restructuring specialist Bryan Green, plans to place the company into a Company Voluntary Arrangement – a form of insolvency – that would wipe out debts and pave the way for new funds.
Paul and Val Wright, who launched rival channel Ideal Shopping, have pledged to invest £6million into the business if the restructuring can be completed to settle debts of around £68million.
Sit Up TV broadcasts on Freeview with more than 300 hours of live demonstrations a week and employs 350 staff.
The main creditors are understood to be broadcast infrastructure firm Arqiva and ITV subsidiary SDN, whose support is vital to the completion of the plan. It is understood that a significant amount of money owed is for contractual breaches that were made as the company slid into mounting losses.
Stakeholders are scheduled to meet on March 18. The proposal will need support from parties representing at least 75 per cent of creditors.
Will Wright, a partner at accountancy giant KPMG and the proposed supervisor of the CVA, said: ‘It’s difficult to say whether these things can be agreed ahead of the meeting, but my sense is that there is a willingness to do it.’