The publisher of titles including Radio Times and Top Gear is to make its first move into television by buying TV shopping channel Jewellery Maker.
Immediate Media has acquired the channel – which broadcasts 24 hours a day on Sky, Virgin, Freesat and Freeview to devotees of jewellery making – to expand its reach into the lucrative £3bn market for craft-loving British consumers.
The channel, which employs over 100 people, also includes a web-based operation of live streams, video tutorials and workshops.
Immediate Media controls about a 40% share of the magazine craft market with 16 titles including Simply Knitting, Simply Sewing and Mollie Makes.
However chief executive Tom Bureau says that the market for magazines is worth about £50m, a fraction of what the company could be making by tapping into the £3bn craft fans spend on their hobbies and loves.
“We don’t think about ourselves or talk about ourselves as a magazine company,” said Bureau. “We position ourselves as a special interest content and platform company. We see magazines as a very important platform for us which will continue to be so for years to come. But investing in other ways to economically develop relationships with special interest audiences, in particular in craft, is a highly proven model.”
Bureau reckons £400m is spent on jewellery making annually, the second biggest sector after paper craft at £500m.
While Immediate Media doesn’t have a title that targets jewellery making per se, Bureau said that 24% of its overall craft audience are jewellery makers.
Bureau said that the company is looking to expand into TV, video and e-commerce on other sectors of craft.
The Jewellery Maker channel is being sold by parent company The Genuine Gemstone Company.
The new TV brand will be overseen by Francois-Regis Coumau, Immediate’s group managing director, who joined in September from eBay where he was general manager for continental Europe.
In January, Immediate acquired wedding planning website Hitched.co.uk.
Last year, Immediate paid £24m for a slew of Future Publishing’s titles including BikeRadar.com, Simply Knitting and Mollie Makes.
