HSN, Inc.
TypePublic
Nasdaq: HSNI
IndustryCable Television
Satellite Television
Founded1977 (1977)
FoundersLowell Paxson
Roy Speer
FateAcquired by Liberty Interactive Corporation in 2017, now co-owned with QVC
Headquarters
St. Petersburg, Florida
,
United States
Key people
Mindy Grossman (CEO, 2006–2017)
ParentQurate Retail Group (since 2017)
DivisionsCornerstone Brands
WebsiteHSN.com
HSN
CountryUnited States
Broadcast areaWorldwide
HeadquartersSt. Petersburg, Florida, United States
Programming
Picture format1080i (HDTV)
(HD feed downgraded to letterboxed 480i for the SDTV feed)
Ownership
OwnerQurate Retail Group (formerly Liberty Interactive)
Sister channelsHSN2
History
LaunchedSeptember 20, 1982 (1982-09-20)
Former namesHome Shopping Club (1982–1985)
Home Shopping Network (1985–2000)
Links
Websitewww.hsn.com
Availability
Terrestrial
ABC Owned Television Stations-DT4 channel position; list of stations
Over-the-air as a subchannelConsult local listings
Streaming media
Digital media receiverRoku and Apple TV (4th generation)
WebsiteHSN Live Stream
HSN2 Live Streaming

HSN, an initialism of its former name Home Shopping Network, is an American free-to-air television network owned by the Qurate Retail Group, which also owns catalog company Cornerstone Brands. It is based in the Gateway area of St. Petersburg, Florida, United States.

History

The forerunner of HSN was launched by Lowell Paxson (who later established PAX-TV, which is now Ion Television) and Roy Speer in 1982 as the Home Shopping Club, a local cable channel seen on Vision Cable and Group W Cable in Pinellas County, Florida. It expanded into the first national shopping network three years later on July 1, 1985, changing its name to the Home Shopping Network, and pioneering the concept of a televised sales pitch for consumer goods and services. Its competitor and future owner QVC was launched the following year.[1]

In 1986, HSN began a second network that broadcast free-to-air on a number of television stations it had acquired under the name Silver King Broadcasting. In 1992, HSN spun off from Silver King Broadcasting, and afterwards saw Liberty Media acquire stock in the network.[2] In 1996, the station group was sold back to Silver King Broadcasting, which was now owned by Barry Diller,[3][4] and changed its name to "HSN Inc." after its merger with Silver King was completed.[5] Under Diller's leadership, the HSN also acquired the USA Network, Sci-Fi Channel and Universal Television in October 1997.[6] This resulted in HSN Inc. being changed to USA Network Inc.[7] The purchase was finalized in February 1998.[8]

In September 2000, Home Shopping Network changed its name to HSN.[9]

Mindy Grossman became CEO of HSN in 2006,[10] and aggressively reinvented and relaunched the brand. She took HSN public in 2008, and has overseen its multibillion-dollar retail portfolio and multimedia expansion.[11] Grossman left HSNi in May 2017 to helm Weight Watchers.[12]

In April 2017, HSN CEO Mindy Grossman stepped down to assume the CEO position at Weight Watchers.[13] On July 6, 2017, Liberty Interactive announced it would buy the remaining 62% of HSN stock it did not already own in order to acquire the company for its QVC Group. QVC CEO Mike George would be CEO of the combined company.[14]

In September 2018, HSN had partnered with Pickler & Ben for a "shop the show" feature that allows viewers to buy featured items from HSN via the show's website and HSN.com.[15]

In May 2023, HSN's parent Qurate Retail Group's stock was facing a delisting from the Nasdaq if share prices are unable to rebound, as their stock has declined over 80% over the past year.[16] In October 2023, CreditRiskMonitor reported that Qurate Retail Group was nearing a potential Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.[17]

Sister channels

  • HSN2, launched on August 1, 2010, acts as a timeshift channel carrying tape-delayed presentations of products and programming. Dish Network has carried it since launch.[18]
  • America's Store, formerly the Home Shopping Club Overnight Service, was HSN's secondary service that was on the air from 1988 until April 2007.

Operations

HSN's United States operations are based in St. Petersburg, Florida, which houses its corporate headquarters, studio and broadcasting facilities. Additional call center facilities are located in Roanoke, Virginia & Toledo, Ohio. Distribution centers are situated in Roanoke, Piney Flats, Tennessee, and Fontana, California. In October, 2018 Quarate announced the closure of the Roanoke distribution center in favor of a combined QVC/HSN distribution center to be located in Bethlehem, PA.[19]

As of today, HSN and QVC is carried over the digital public airwaves and can be viewed without a cable subscription or a streaming device. Additionally a new Streaming service was introduced to cable providers which provides a different shopping experience compared to if a viewer went online and ordered merchandise.[20]

Technology

Call center

HSN National began with a standard rotary phone system that concentrated calls to the front of the queue. This corresponded to the front row of order takers in the HSN Studio at the Levitz Center (so named as the location was a former Levitz furniture store) in Clearwater, Florida. After several months, this system was no longer adequate and HSN entered a phase where a phone system from GTE was used. HSN claimed that the system's inability to handle the high call volumes resulted in a loss of business. HSN sued GTE for $1.5 billion. In a counter-libel suit, GTE claimed that HSN had slandered the company; GTE won a $100 million judgment. Both parties settled out of court.[21]

Original order-taking system

HSN developed its original order-taking system on a Burroughs Large System mainframe using the LINC 10 fourth generation language.[22]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "qvc launches 1986 - Google Search". www.google.com. Retrieved 2020-11-04.
  2. ↑ "Silver King, HSN to merge". CNN. August 26, 1996. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
  3. ↑ "Silver King to buy HSN". UPI. August 26, 1996. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
  4. ↑ Hofsmeister, Sallie (August 27, 1996). "Diller Makes 1.26". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
  5. ↑ Martin Peers (December 19, 1996). "Silver King annexes HSN". Variety. Archived from the original on 2016-02-20. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  6. ↑ Quinones, Eric R. (October 20, 1997). "Barry Diller taking over USA Network and other Universal TV businesses". Associated Press. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
  7. ↑ Farhi, Paul (October 21, 1997). "HSN To Acquire Cable Networks From Universal". Washington Post. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
  8. ↑ Fabrikant, Geraldine (February 15, 1998). "Barry Diller, Media Titan, Wants a Shot at the Small Time". The New York Times. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
  9. ↑ "HSN". www.hsn.com. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
  10. ↑ "World's Most Powerful Women". Mindy Grossman. Forbes. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  11. ↑ Grossman, Mindy. "HSN's CEO on Fixing the Shopping Network's Culture". Harvard Business Review. December 2011. Reprinted in: Harvard Business Review. How I Did It: Lessons from the Front Lines of Business. Harvard Business Review Press, 2014. pp. 54–61.
  12. ↑ "Weight Watchers Hires HSN's Mindy Grossman As CEO". Fortune. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
  13. ↑ "Weight Watchers New CEO HSN Mindy Grossman". Forbes (Press release). 6 July 2017.
  14. ↑ Isidore, Chris (6 July 2017). "QVC buying rival Home Shopping Network". CNN Money. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
  15. ↑ "Faith Hill-Produced 'Pickler & Ben' Talk Show Launching in September". Taste of Country. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
  16. ↑ "QVC, HSN parent Qurate Retail Group faces delisting from Nasdaq is share price doesn't rebound". The Business Journals. May 3, 2023. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
  17. ↑ "11 retailers at risk of bankruptcy in 2023". Retail Dive. October 2, 2023. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
  18. ↑ HSN2 Set For Aug. 1 Dish Network Debut Archived copy Multichannel News June 14, 2010
  19. ↑ Harris, Jon (December 3, 2018). "At 1.7 million square feet, new QVC warehouse will be the largest in Lehigh Valley — maybe in Pa". The Morning Call. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  20. ↑ "QVC, HSN parent takes livestream shopping to new channel".
  21. ↑ AP (4 November 1989). "COMPANY NEWS; GTE Settles Dispute With Home Shopping". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 October 2017 – via www.nytimes.com.
  22. ↑ "The Home Shopping Network (HSN) Company Profile – COUPONSDIGEST.COM". Retrieved June 5, 2020.


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