Home Shopping Network is an American broadcast, basic cable and satellite
television network that is owned by HSN, Inc., which also owns catalog company
Cornerstone Brands. Based in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States, the
home shopping channel has former and current sister channels in several other
countries. HSN also has an online outlet at HSN.com.
Mindy Grossman is the current CEO of the company. She became CEO of HSN in 2006,
and aggressively reinvented and relaunched the brand. She took HSN
public in 2008, and currently oversees its multibillion-dollar retail portfolio
and multimedia expansion. History
The forerunner of HSN was launched by Lowell "Bud" Paxson 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 QVC was
launched the following year. The idea for HSN had its roots in a
radio station managed by Paxson. In 1977, due to an advertiser's liquidity
problem, the company was paid in can openers. Left with having to raise the
funds, on-air personality Bob Circosta went on the radio and sold the can
openers for $9.95 each. The can openers sold out, and an industry was born.
Circosta later became the new network's first ever home shopping host and would
eventually sell 75,000 different products in over 20,000 hours of live
television. In 1986, HSN began a second network that
broadcast over-the-air on a number of television stations it had acquired
under the name Silver King Broadcasting. In 1999, the stations were sold to IAC
founder Barry Diller and changed its name to USA Broadcasting, with a few of
them ending HSN programming outside of overnight hours and taking on a local
programming format equivalent to Toronto's Citytv. In 2001, the stations
were sold again, this time to Univision Communications; the stations later
became charter stations of Telefutura when that network launched in 2002. HSN
continues to air on low-power stations. Ventana Television has the same street
address as HSN, and is the holding company for its broadcast licenses.
In 1999, the company launched HSN.com, which as of 2009 is one of the 10 most
trafficked e-commerce websites. In 2008, HSN also started MySpace and Facebook
pages. In an attempt to engage with younger consumers in 2009, HSN produced
a 14-episode online video series, Faces of Beautiful You, which follows three
young women who find solutions to many of life's problems through HSN's beauty
products. The campaign included a Facebook widget, character blogs, and
profiles for the three main characters on Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook. On
August 19, 2012, HSN co-founder Roy Speer died after a long illness. Bud
Paxson died on January 9, 2015. High definition
In August 2009, HSN launched a high definition simulcast feed, which
broadcasts in the 1080i resolution format. At launch, it was carried by
Time Warner Cable and Verizon FiOS; it has since been added by other providers
such as Comcast and AT&T U-verse. When the HD channel launched, the network had
a different presentation than most HD channels, choosing to present content on
the standard definition feed using a left cut of the HD image rather than
taken from the center of the screen within the standard 4:3 safe area. In
February 2013, HSN changed the SD transmission from a 4:3 left cut of the
HD image to a letterboxed format to match the 16:9 HD feed.
Sister channels = HSN2 =
HSN launched a companion channel, HSN2, on August 1, 2010. Dish Network has
carried it since launch. = America's Store =
America's Store began in 1988 as the Home Shopping Club Overnight Service,
which aired on broadcast stations around the USA from midnight to 9 a.m. and, in
particular, on WWOR-TV from 3 to 6 a.m. in the New York City metropolitan area,
along with its national superstation feed. In 1989, HSN purchased a number of
low-power television stations and began operating the service 24 hours a day as
Home Shopping Spree. In 1997, the name was changed again to America's Jewelry
Store to reflect a switch to selling exclusively jewelry. This incarnation
met with limited success, and as a result, in 1998, the selection was
expanded to include all of HSN's inventory categories, with the word
"Jewelry" being removed from the network's name. In 2003, America's Store
began to be carried on DirecTV. The network went off the air in April 2007.
= United States = HSN's U.S. 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 order to ensure
rapid delivery of items. HSN also operates retail outlet stores
in Orlando, Brandon, Bardmoor, Tampa and St. Petersburg. HSN broadcasts 24 hours
a day, 364 days a year. On Christmas, a mix of special programming airs from
Christmas Eve afternoon until midnight on December 25. For the first twelve
years, a looping Yule log was aired from Noon Christmas Eve to Midnight December
26. The show allows members of the staff to go on camera with their families to
say hello to relatives back home. In 1997, HSN formally launched its
second nationwide electronic retail venture, a 24-hour network under the
America's Store name. This channel took advantage of HSN's already extensive
network of low-power transmitters located in many major metropolitan
markets throughout the United States. Eventually, the network was also picked
up by some cable and satellite providers. While America's Store closely
mirrored HSN's programming strategy and schedule format, it functioned primarily
as an outlet for distressed and discontinued HSN merchandise in various
categories. Occasionally however, new merchandise would be showcased
concurrently on both channels at varying schedules. Like its sister network,
America's Store also had a full service website that shared most of its
functionality with the HSN parent site. In April 2007, America's Store ceased
operating permanently. Most of the America's Store hosts were absorbed into
the HSN programming schedule. In 1998, Home Shopping Network launched
a Spanish-language service Home Shopping en Español on the Univision-owned
Galavision cable network. In 2000, the Spanish version rebranded itself as HSE
and began broadcasting on low-power stations in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. It
also ceased to broadcast through Galavision. In June 2002, HSE ceased to
operate. = United Kingdom =
HSN had a UK sister network called HSE, which has ceased operating. On the April
18, 2005, the falling price auction channel iBuy, was created by the
ex-senior management figure of Auction World.tv, Andy Sheldon.
The iBuy shopping channel closed in May 2007, when 85 jobs were lost. The
reasons for the channel's closure were cited to be connected to financial
difficulties at iBuy, due to their failure to successfully break into a
market already dominated by shopping channels such as QVC, sit-up Ltd, Ideal
World and Gems TV. It was suggested that there were a growing number of customer
complaints over products, and controversy over the channel allegedly
selling fake products, in particular Tiffany jewellery.
On March 18. 2007, iBuy Senior Presenter Adam Freeman, revealed while on air,
that it was to be his final shift. It was also revealed, that unlike many of
the other staff at iBuy, he was not to be out of a job. As like the previous
iBuy Head of Broadcasting, Andy Sheldon, Freeman in fact was moved over to HSN
for employment in the United States. On March 27, 2007, it was officially
announced on the iBuy website that the channel had ceased live broadcasting. In
its slots, iBuy began offering a variety of programming over the intervening
weeks, which included pre-recorded iBuy Unique, and Rye by Post Collectibles.
= Germany = HSN has a sister network in Europe
called HSE24. = Japan =
HSN's sister network in Japan is known as The Shop Channel.
= Canada = The Shopping Channel was launched in
1987 as Canadian Home Shopping Network, HSN's sister network in Canada. In 1999,
the station was sold to Rogers Communications and is no longer
affiliated with HSN. = Philippines =
Home Shopping Network is currently aired in the Philippines via Shop TV, a
shopping channel owned by Solar Entertainment Corporation. It is also
aired as a paid advertising block on IBC and most of the channels owned by Solar
Entertainment Corporation including Diva Universal Philippines which is a joint
venture with NBCUniversal. = Italy =
Home Shopping Europe was launched in Italy in 2001 as Home Shopping Europe,
replacing H.O.T. Italia. In 2003, the frequencies of HSE were sold to Mediaset
and the channel was renamed Mediashopping. In 2011, Home Shopping
Europe bought the channel back; the channel was renamed HSE24.
Technology = Call center =
HSN National started life 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 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
systems' 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. In the interim, HSN found another telephone
vendor to handle its call volume. The Rockwell corporation's Galaxy line of
switches was used for the current call center.
HSN has an in-house call center in St. Petersburg, Florida, which mostly
handles customer service calls. HSN also employs several hundred customer service
representatives from work at home positions who take calls and place
orders via HSN's customer service intranet. HSN also contracts call
centers to handle its sales calls especially when HSN is broadcasting
shows with highly popular items. Interactive Voice Response
HSN was an early adopter of an Interactive Voice Response system for
order entry. This system allowed customers to place orders through the
IVR rather than an agent. The original IVR was a product supplied by Precision
Software, Incorporated of St. Paul, Minnesota. The product made use of an
Intel PC chassis and Dialogic boards for call termination. As the system also
needed to communicate with the Burroughs mainframe, it used a serial connection
to communicate with the online application. While PSi had off-the-shelf
components, it required a great deal of customization to create scripts and
interface with the order entry system. Interestingly enough, PSi ran up a high
amount of hours and this caused HSN to actually purchase PSi rather than pay
their bill. Once released, the system was branded TOOTIE.
As the size of HSN's call center kept increasing, it decided to create a new
IVR platform that could handle more load. As nothing available on the open
market could handle the volume HSN required, the PSi subsidiary started
work on a customer platform called the TSP. This platform was installed in
HSN's new facility and could handle a large number of T1 lines. This system
originally communicated through a Stratus computer to the mainframe, but
this was later changed to a direct TCP/IP connection. This system was
dubbed Tootie II internally. = Computer systems =
The original computer system used for the local Home Shopping Club channel was
an IBM System/36. Once HSN decided to go national, a new mainframe called the "A
Series" from Burroughs was used. This new system, named the A3, went live on
July 1, 1985 and by April 1986, HSN was on an A15j. The main order entry system
was written in a 4GL code generator called the Logic and Information Network
Compiler – since renamed Agile Business Suite by Unisys. Some controversy
existed around the role of the original IBM code's use in the development of the
new system. As Pioneer Data Systems provided the software for the HSN local
operation, the code was licensed to run the national version. The problem is
these systems were not compatible. An IRS court ruled that the code was
inspirational to the new system and thus the license agreement was valid for
taxation purposes. Competitors
Jewelry Television QVC
EVINE Live See also
Ballard Designs Home shopping host
Shopping channels WJXR
KTOU-LD List of Home Shopping Network affiliates
References Sources
A Man. A Plan. A Can Opener. ClickZ Network
"Can You Believe This Price?" Time Magazine
Bob Circosta Interview about HSN Media Talk
It started with 112 can openers St. Petersburg Times
GTE Settles DIspute with Home Shopping NY Times
External links Official website
View of HSN Headquarters