QVC - Wikiwand

QVC's founding and television launch

QVC was founded on June 13, 1986, by Joseph Segel and investors including Ralph Roberts, the founder and chairperson of Comcast. Roberts was able to arrange deals in which cable companies received investment stakes in QVC in exchange for carrying the channel.^[1] Sears was one of the first brands that QVC would represent, with a two-year exclusive agreement to sell Sears products through television shopping.^[4][5] The corporation later set a new record for first full-year fiscal sales for a new public company of $112 million.^[6] The channel was launched on November 24, 1986, with program hosts Kathy Levine, John Eastman, Ellen Langas, Bob Bowersox, and Cindy Briggs-Moore.^[7] Each November 24, QVC celebrated their birthday annually through 2008.^[8][9] Initially broadcasting live from 7:30 p.m. until midnight ET each weekday and 24 hours a day each weekend, the channel extended its live programming to 24/7/364 in January 1987. Former QUBE host and producer, Ron Giles, was named an executive vice president and executive producer at QVC in late 1987.^[10] In October 1988, the board of directors elected Michael C. Boyd to the position of senior executive vice president and chief operating officer.^[11] In early 1990, Boyd would take the title of president, reportedly to relieve some of Segel's load.^[12]

Competitor buy-out attempts

In July 1989, QVC acquired the Cable Value Network, founded by Irwin L. Jacobs. The $380 million deal contributed to a loss of $17 million during the next fiscal quarter, and then led to difficulties in the couple of years that followed.^[13][14][15]

QVC first offered to buy out the Burbank-based Shop Television Network on March 16, 1991,^[16] a bid rejected by its producers and the Los Angeles Superior Court, and which carried blocks of time offering JCPenney merchandise. On May 21, 1991, it acquired the channel and its 4 million subscribers, with a liability of $2 million to its producers, along with a license to carry JCPenney brands on-air.^[17]

A QVC offer to buy rival Home Shopping Network in March 1992 was sidetracked by antitrust concerns.^[18] On July 12, 1993, QVC offered to acquire Home Shopping in a stock swap valued at about $1.1 billion, but talks faltered when QVC pursued a bid for Paramount in fall 1993.^[19] Liberty Media Corp. held a controlling interest in the St. Petersburg, Florida-based Home Shopping Network along with their share of QVC.^[20]

Diller's takeover and failure of Q2

Introduced to televised shopping by designer Diane von Fürstenberg a decade before their marriage, Fox founder Barry Diller pursued slick "infotainment"-style programming as his next television venture.^[21] After resigning as chairman of Fox Inc. in early 1992, Diller's Arrow Investments purchased a $25 million stake in QVC, or just under 3 percent of the company, in December 1992 and Diller succeeded Segel as chairman and chief executive on January 18, 1993.^[22]

Diller, known for building Fox as a fourth national television network in just five years, replaced QVC's second channel, The Fashion Channel, with Q2.^[23] Debuting in spring 1994, Q2 was aimed at younger, more economic shoppers, and broadcast from New York City. The spin-off network was shelved in 1996, costing QVC $55 million.^[24]

Failed Paramount takeover bid

QVC, under Diller, first placed a hostile $9.6 billion bid for Paramount in September 1993, when talks for a friendly merger between Paramount and Viacom, worth $7.2 billion at the time, were already under way.^[25] QVC's more attractive bid was forced on Paramount in the February 4, 1994 decision of Paramount Communications, Inc. v. QVC Network, Inc. by the Delaware Supreme Court. Following Viacom's merger with Blockbuster that gave Viacom the financial lead, Diller proposed that QVC financial backer BellSouth could buy QVC shares after the merger to boost the value of QVC's stock to Paramount shareholders.^[26] Diller dropped the proposal when reminded of its legal challenges and on February 14, 1994, QVC lost its bid for Paramount to a $9.85 billion bid from Viacom.^[27][28] Diller's reported five-word response to the end of what The Los Angeles Times called "the biggest takeover war of the 1990s" was: "They won. We lost. Next."^[29]

Worldwide reach

Diller changed the name of QVC Network to QVC, Inc. in 1994, while creating a holding company to allow the firm to diversify and build assets and divisions separately. Among the changes were the creation of two new divisions, Q Direct, to produce infomercials and 60- and 120-second direct response TV commercials, and QVC Interactive, an online-shopping service.^[30] QVC launched their internet shopping site, iQVC, on September 15, 1996.^[31]

QVC's shopping channel based in Mexico, airing in non-primetime programming hours on Canal 4, launched November 1, 1993 in a partnership with Televisa, and known domestically as CVC (a Spanish translation of the network's full name).^[32] The operation closed on August 4, 1995, after the devaluation of the Mexican peso during a monetary transition, and a general national loathing of long-form home shopping and paid programming content.^[33]

Legal hurdles and Comcast's exit

In 1998, two former hosts filed a class-action lawsuit against QVC, claiming that they were discriminated against by the shopping channel based on their race. The lawsuit went on to state that QVC refused to allow non-white hosts any permanent daytime/primetime spots, which relegated them to the overnight hours, otherwise known as the "graveyard shift." Because of this, the non-white hosts were paid considerably less than the white hosts.^[43][44]

On July 3, 2003, Comcast sold its majority share to Liberty Media, which purchased the remaining 56.5% of QVC it didn't already own for $7.9 billion. Comcast, for which QVC was a financial asset, not a strategic one, continued to carry QVC for its 21 million cable subscribers.^[45]

On Wednesday, March 24, 2004, the FTC sued QVC over violating a June 2000 order barring the company from making misleading claims about dietary supplements.^[46] A March 2009 settlement with the FTC charged QVC with paying $6 million for consumer redress and a $1.5 million civil penalty and for QVC to discontinue the dietary supplements products.^[47][48]

In 2006, the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia settled a dispute between QVC and HSN over the use of the phrase "Christmas in July," QVC maintaining their use of it since 1987, and HSN claiming copyright on it in 2000.^[49]

Mergers with Zulily and HSN into Qurate

In August 2015, QVC acquired the online retailer Zulily for $2.4 billion.^[59][60]

On July 6, 2017, QVC's parent company, Liberty Interactive, announced its intention to purchase the remaining 62% of stock it did not already own of HSN, the rival home shopping channel. The all-stock deal is valued at $2.1 billion ($40.36 a share).^[61][62][63] In 2018, Liberty Interactive rebranded itself as Qurate Retail Group, trading under the new NASDAQ tickers QRTEA and QRTEB, with Mike George remaining as president and CEO.^[64]

In 2018, Qurate named Leslie Ferraro as President of their QVC and HSN units. Ferraro concluded her 17-year run at The Walt Disney Company where she most recently served as co-chair of Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media and president of Disney Consumer Products and reported to work at Qurate on September 16.^[65] On February 6, 2019, QVC again rebranded itself, the new logo with a square shape intended to resemble a computer or a phone screen emphasizing its digital and mobile platforms. The reimagined 'Q' in a sleek, mobile-friendly format, has a lever that is supposed to symbolize an open door, said Susan Ripke, QVC's vice president of brand strategy.^[66] On Monday, October 7, 2019, QVC ceased its 24/7 live broadcasting model in favor of airing nineteen hours of live and five hours of repeated programming daily.^[67]

COVID-19 pandemic response on-air and online

As early as March 16, 2020, QVC saw changes to their operations due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, with on-air product representatives appearing via Skype from around the world, calling in to live broadcasts with program hosts and models practicing social distancing. QVC remained live on-air 20 hours a day, with QVC2 temporarily cutting back to one live hour per day. Employees not essential to the West Chester, Pennsylvania live broadcast shifted to remote work, while all fulfillment centers in Pennsylvania, Virginia, California, and North and South Carolina remained operational with the introduction of health and safety measures and enhanced sanitation practices.^[68] Additionally, despite posted revenue gains, Qurate laid off 450 employees in July 2020 "to simplify and streamline its operating structure."^[69]

Approximately 75% of QVC's 1.2 million-square-foot Rocky Mount, North Carolina distribution center was damaged in a fire on December 18, 2021, fire, which resulted the death of an employee, along with the furloughing of the facility's 2,000-person workforce, as QVC chose not to restore operations at the site and sold it off in the spring of 2023.^[70][71]