Commentary

Home Shopping On TV Takes Surprise Turn With HSN, QVC Merger

Like other aspects of retail sales today such as the creeping obsolescence of brick-and-mortar stores, the business of retail-on-TV would also seem to be an anachronism-in-progress.

But HSN and QVC have long occupied their own mysterious corner of the television business. Many of us regard the ubiquity of all of the home-shopping networks with fascination when we come across them while grazing with our remotes.

Who on earth is buying all this stuff? we ask ourselves. And are the sales and “call volume” claims that appear continuously on screen even true? Really? Hundreds of “boyfriend cardigan” sweaters now on display have been sold since the current show came on less than an hour ago? Are there that many people even watching QVC or HSN at any given time?

Whether or not these claims are true, there is apparently enough perceived value in this business for QVC and HSN -- long-time rivals in this sector -- to agree to a merger worth an estimated $2.1 billion, according to the Friday Wall Street Journal.

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Of course, one way of looking at this merger is to consider it to be a consolidation or retrenchment. By combining two companies that essentially do the same thing, cost savings related to operations can conceivably be achieved, while at the same time continuing to operate both networks.

According to the WSJ story on the merger, QVC -- based in West Chester, Pennsylvania -- is the larger of the two companies, with $10.2 billion in revenue last year. HSN, based in St. Petersburg, Florida, has $3.6 billion in revenue.

From a quality standpoint, QVC's production standards have always struck me as somewhat higher than HSN's. It is not something I can quite put my finger on. But when watching both channels, I find QVC's sets to be airier and brighter, and the close-ups on products seem easier to "read" on QVC.

The people who work at QVC will tell you that they have worked hard to make their show hosts into true TV personalities who their viewers really seem to take to. One of the most tireless of the QVC on-air salespeople is Shawn Killinger, seen in the above screen grab with Isaac Mizrahi, who has become a ubiquitous presence himself on QVC.

Killinger is a super saleswoman. How does the old saying go? She could sell ice to an Eskimo.

One of the enduring mysteries for all of us outsiders who have never called or bought anything from either QVC or HSN is the conventional wisdom that anyone who is lucky enough to be chosen to hawk their product lines on either network will become fabulously wealthy.

One assumes that someone such as Isaac Mizrahi wouldn't be keeping up the pace of his appearances on QVC if this was not the case for him. On the other hand, I can recall Joan Rivers insisting that she didn't make that much from her jewelry sales on QVC, even though she was on the network constantly, and was for a time the network's best-known personality.

Most of us have long assumed that the core customers for products on HSN and QVC are people who live alone, perhaps don't sleep well at night, and/or live in areas that are so rural that they have no actual stores to go to.

Home shopping on TV has been with us since HSN (which stands for Home Shopping Network) was created in 1977. QVC launched in 1986. The network's name is an acronym for Quality, Value, Convenience.

While I never foresee myself ever becoming an HSN or QVC customer, I wish them both well in their merger. They are staples of TV --  just like infomercials, televangelists and local news. May they sell their faux-snakeskin espadrilles and stretch-denim Capri pants forever.

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