Fresh start for The Outlet Channel?

[Deleted member 16796]

According to posts on the official facebook page of The Outlet Channel, they will be making a return to The Mall, Sky Digital Channel 682, in late September. Whats-more, in communication with viewer Garry Vaux via Facebook, the channel revealed that they are introducing changes to the format following feedback from viewers and the public.

"The fact we are changing the format of the channel shows we do listen, and have listened to many viewers, who have let their feelings be known, and let us know what direction they believe the channel should go in. We have listened to this and we are adjusting."

This is great news and it is reassuring to learn that perhaps our comments didn't fall on deaf ears after all!

I think that maybe Ross should come back onto the forum to keep us all in the loop, and I certainly think that maybe we could all have a fresh start and maybe get behind this venture, after all, how many of the other shopping channels actually go to great lengths to not only listen to our feedback, but communicate with us openly on this forum? How many Managing Directors do that? Credit to Ross for actually participating on this forum when he did.

I don't mind admitting that I gave Ross quite a hard time on here, but it did, at times, feel like I was banging my head against a brick wall. After careful consideration, I have concluded that some of the answers we got on here came across in the wrong way because Ross was simply defending his brand and reputation of the start-up company, and quite rightly so having put so much time and money into putting the new service on air. I think in reality where things went wrong was that the feedback only started arriving after the service launched, by which time everything was already pre-recorded and it was too late to implement any
changes. Ross was probably equally as frustrated that changes couldn't be implemented quickly.

I was too harsh and judgmental, and for that I owe and will happily offer an apology. It will be interesting and exciting to see which direction the channel takes in the future, and I hope that Ross can perhaps consider signing back up to the forum to interact with us all once again. Maybe this time we can all work together to help shape the quality of the output while it is in the stages of production? If you really love shopping channels, and if you are a member of this forum I am sure that you do love or at least enjoy shopping channels, I am sure that helping a channel is something you would all love to do and would take pride in? So, again to Ross if you are reading this, how about launching an interactive focus group? Something potential viewers and customers can join in with to help the channel?

I know some people on here won't agree with me on this, and perhaps will ask why I have suddenly changed my attitude, but I think instead of being critical of broadcasts, we actually have (did have) a good opportunity to work directly with a shopping channel to help improve it and make it better for viewer and customer alike, but we blew it and pushed that chance away. It would be a shame to lose that chance if we had it again.

On a side note, I admit have been overly critical in the past, not just with Outlet but about other newer channels too, but I believe in helping others, not working against them. When I post comments on here, I do so as genuine feedback and concern rather than being harsh for the sake of it. We all have opinion, and it shouldn't be a bad thing to share it, and to get balanced views in the process, but admittedly when new concepts and companies are being launched and tested, some degree of patience and sensitivity should be applied as everyone learns from mistakes, and perfection does take time to achieve. I know that now, and future participation from me on here will reflect that new understanding and attitude. I believe in positivity and working towards achieving success. I certainly don't want to be negative or perceived as being so, and looking back, I feel I didn't exactly articulate my comments in the best possible way on this forum at times.

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Regarding The Outlet Channel, this is some of what appeared on facebook:
(And in case anyone wonders or asks, no, I am not Garry Vaux or Stephen Bennett)

It just seems a bit amateurish. Surely you would have a business plan mapped out in the first instance, with projections of expected profit/loss to help secure funding, products, air time, presenters etc and to discard it within a couple of weeks shows how flimsy those plans must have been in the first instance. You say you're listening to feedback but shouldn't you have done some research to begin with?

Totally agree with you. Were no lessons learned from bid tv. The out let channel looked amateurish when they were on air. Why take the website offline as well.

Apologies here Garry if this may seem a bit aggressive, but I really don't think you're accounting whatsoever the enormous cost and technical implications of setting up a project like this. You can't set up a profit/loss forecast based on nothing. How would we ever predict how many sales we would get when firstly, the mall channel 682 is unable to provide viewing figures for whatever reason, and secondly, we can't assume that people would trust us, and therefore buy. It would have been a waste of time. Our film perhaps looked amateurish because we had to outsource production to another company. The expense of hiring out a studio and production kit quickly runs into £000's. It would not be wise business at all to plough so much money into something which you cannot guarantee will work. The fact we are changing the format of the channel shows we do listen, and have listened to many viewers, who have let their feelings be known, and let us know what direction they believe the channel should go in. We have listened to this and we are adjusting. Stephen we can't learn a great deal of lessons from Bid as they were on a completely different scale to us. They had cameras which cost £15,000 each +. We can't compare ourselves to them as we simply had nowhere near the financial means they did. We took the website offline because we are changing the format and therefore had stopped stocking products which we sold. We sold the final ones and didn't order any more from suppliers. Therefore the website would have been full of out of stock products. I am sure you'll agree that this would have looked awful.

I can totally appreciate the effort needed to launch a project from scratch, but if there were such enormous cost and technical implications to setting up such a project, then I would have thought you would have put in the research beforehand as to what viewers would like to see so you didn't have to end up pulling it off air after a couple of weeks and subsequently making yourself look amateurish, that was the point I was trying to put across. Please consider it as further feedback.

We did put research in, and that's why we believe we put a decent set of products to air, varying across the homewares category. We also had gardening essentials for anyone with green fingers. Thank-you for the feedback. Also it's worth noting that however much research you put in the expected outcome will not always actually occur. For example our research showed that high quality high ticket branded products (for example, the Vax Hooaver) would sell the best, whereas in reality , our best selling product from the Lisa show was a £14.99 solar buddha light.

 

[The Insider]

No sir, no fresh start until the boy apologises for blatantly lying and misleading potential viewers through his posts on here and their Facebook page.

Also, nothing new posted on their Facebook page since June - I'd bank more money on Peter Simon getting employed by QVC than this shady outfit returning.

 

[The Insider]

Oh Rossy Rossy Rossy, does this boy never know when to keep quiet and act professional???

Taken from Outlet Advertisers Facebook page:

"Its a shame when competitors have to hide behind an alias such as 'The Insider' on Shopping Telly forum websites in order to do everything they can to poison the success of a start up business. There are some jealous people in this world!"

https://www.facebook.com/theoutletchannel

Perhaps someone could explain to Rossy Wallis what the definition of "competitor" is and "channel" whilst we're at it.

The channel I work for is actually a channel!!! We're on air 24 hours a day and very much outlasting Outlet's measly 1 week on air.

Shock horror...... "The INSIDER" works at a channel, although check my post history and I post constructive & honest critique on all the channels.

My posts about Outlet have been nothing personal, I merely raised valid questions and made factual comments (because of my professional experience) about shady claims made by Rossy on this website and on Facebook.

Do love ya though Rossy :mysmilie_59:

 

[Graham]

As the forum was mentioned I thought that it was only fair that I replied on their Facebook Page, I asked a friend to check if my comments were OK and they were unable to see them, looking into this more I found out the problem.

 

[Dave]

Seems to me the O.C are not going to get off to good start - already blaming others! You made the right call in replying Graham. I don't have Sky any more, and if the O.C is starting again, I for one am glad I don't. I did catch Ms Brash's show and frankly thought she could do a whole lot better. Hi Lisa :mysmilie_59: As far as the Outsider's comments - very valid points and a pleasure to hear about the way things are. That's what this forum is all about - as long as it doesn't turn into a bun fight!! Rant over - normal conditions now apply.

 

[The Insider]

Carla Rademan was apparently back in the studio today according to their Facebook page - "Busy in the studios creating something amazing!!"

I hope they weren't filming again using their naff DSLR digital camera that was also in shot.

In saying that, was she even there - the photo was posted along with another photo which was posted of her in the studio months ago.

 

[PJ.]

Carla Rademan was apparently back in the studio today according to their Facebook page - "Busy in the studios creating something amazing!!" I hope they weren't filming again using their naff DSLR digital camera that was also in shot. In saying that, was she even there - the photo was posted along with another photo which was posted of her in the studio months ago.

I don't mind them using DSLR cameras if it helps them get off the ground. Could be worse, could be shot on Vivatar cameras they got from a bid skip ;-)

 

[Graham]

Looks like the whole group has now vanished from facebook so who knows if we will ever see The Outlet Channel again.

Sent from my XT1052 using Tapatalk

 

[Dave]

Looks like the whole group has now vanished from facebook so who knows if we will ever see The Outlet Channel again.

Sent from my XT1052 using Tapatalk

"Was it something we said"? :mysmilie_17:

 

[Deleted member 16796]

I want to share with you all how I personally feel about this:

Obviously I don't have a say on how threads go, and cannot steer them in any direction as I am not an admin or moderator, but as thread starter, I feel some responsibility to try and keep things balanced and on topic, but I feel that I cannot really do this without some primary sources being added to the discussion.

The problem with this discussion is it cannot be balanced until such a time as someone that can represent The Outlet Channel comes on here to respond, and I said as much in my first post on the thread.

I wont be saying any more on the matter until such a time as someone from the Wallis group signs up and participates in this thread, otherwise it is not fair or reasonable.

I don't like jumping in or commenting about the actions of others (both parties) without understanding why certain events have taken place, but what I will say is from my point of view, as the thread starter, I particularly wanted to focus on the element of a fresh start, and that meant not dwelling on the past, and commenting purely on the present and the future. I am disappointed that this hasn't happened so far.

I appreciate that someone clever will probably highlight that I have broken my own rule by posting quotes from facebook about past broadcasts from The Outlet Channel on this thread, but that was to back up the statement that The Outlet Channel made about listening to feedback, and adjusting as a result. I am sorry if I didn't make that clear enough in the first instance. What you should, however, notice is that I did keep the quotes balanced by posting the responses given by The Outlet Channel. Equally I can say the same about Graham, he has kept it balanced by demonstrating that a comment has been followed up with a response.

Personally I don't feel comfortable enough to continue with this discussion in its current form, but I am hopeful that things will change and that I will happy enough to participate again at a later date.

 

[Deleted member 16796]

Some info, maybe even an update from The Outlet Channel would be nice. I would like to hear from anyone who actually contacted or bought anything from The Outlet Channel; was it a good experience? Were you satisfied with the service? How did you find out about the channel? I want to know how things were perceived from a customers perspective. Other than the info that was on the now inactive facebook page, and the posts on this forum, I didn't see the channel mentioned anywhere else. (Although I think it did get a brief mention on the Digital Spy forum and perhaps TV Forum, but I cannot remember for sure)