QVC is a West Chester, Pennsylvania, USA, multinational corporation, specializing in televised home shopping. Founded in 1986 by Joseph Segel, QVC broadcasts in four countries (US, UK, Germany and Japan) to 141 million consumers. The name is an initialism—standing for Quality, Value, Convenience, the three pillars of Segel's vision for the company.
Corporate history
QVC was founded on June 13, 1986. The first live broadcast took place at 7:30 ET on November 24 of that year. Hosts Kathy Levine and Bob Bowersox featured a shower radio for $11.49. Initially running live for 16 hours a day, the channel extended its broadcast hours to 24 at the beginning of 1987. The corporation set a new record for first full-year fiscal sales for a new public company of $112 million.
In a move that many considered risky, QVC acquired its top competitor, the Cable Value Network (CVN), in 1989, despite the fact that CVN was about twice QVC's size. By February 1990, many cable systems nationwide had replaced CVN with QVC. The $380 million deal contributed to a loss of $17 million during the next fiscal quarter, and then to difficulties in the couple of years that followed. However, with a major piece of its competition out of the picture, the network eventually progressed to renewed and stronger profitability.
In 1993, QVC, Inc. formed a deal with British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) to create a UK version of the channel. QVC—The Shopping Channel first broadcast in the UK on October 1 .
On February 2, 1995, Comcast purchased a majority shareholding in QVC, Inc., taking control of the corporation. QVC kicked off the "Quest for America's Best 50 in 50 tour," a 50-week nationwide product search.
QVC's shopping network went online on September 9, 1996, when the company's interactive division, iQVC, launched QVC.com, allowing customers to purchase their items online via the Microsoft Network. QVC Germany launched in December of that year.
QVC launched a spinoff shopping channel, Q2, carried in major cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Boston, Baltimore, and Dallas-Fort Worth.
QVC was named "Official National Retailer for the 53rd Presidential Inaugural" in 1997, and US operations at Studio Park commenced on September 24 .
In 1998 a class-action suit was brought against QVC. Two former hosts of QVC sued the network, 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.
On August 8 , 2001 , QVC @ the Mall, a flagship store at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, opened.
July 3, 2003 saw Comcast sell its majority share to Liberty Media, setting the value of the company at $14 billion.
In March 2004, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charged QVC with making "deceptive claims" about weight loss products and the United States Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the company. This case has since been dismissed. Around the same time, QVC Inc. bought out BSkyB's 20% holding of QVC UK, thus becoming sole owners of the network.
Also that year, over 105 million units were shipped, more than 160 million phone calls were handled, 2 million new customers were gained, and QVC had its biggest sales day ever, December 4 , both online and on air.
On January 7, 2007, QVC hosted a 20th anniversary cruise for both customers and employees. Bob Bowersox and Pat James DeMentri accompanied others on the cruise. There was a special broadcast from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and David Venable flew in for the occasion.
Later that month, QVC partnered with AOL to launch a free, live, streaming version of the channel on AOL Video. Claims that it is the first of its kind have been called into question by Virtual Digital Cable, which has offered the channel online on a subscription basis.
QVC shipped its billionth package on March 22, 2007.
In the summer of 2007, QVC held an internal contest to win $10,000, which challenged its employees gain visibility of themselves in a t-shirt emblazoned with a "QForce" logo. Entries included appearances on Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show by Tina Fey, on behalf of her brother, Peter Fey, a QVC employee. The winning entry (of more than 725) was a belly-flop contest to benefit Cure Autism Now which was shown on internet video sites such as YouTube. The contest generated an estimated 65 million impressions and was the brainchild of Jeff Charney, the Chief Marketing Officer of QVC.
On September 23, 2007, QVC US rebranded itself, changing its logo and on-air and online graphics. The rebranding was accompanied by an advertising campaign with the tagline "iQdoU?" ("I shop QVC, do you?") that had preceded the rebrand with "teaser" billboards in major US cities, most notably in New York's Times Square. On 9/23 the corner of the billboard was "torn" away to reveal the new QVC logo and to associate the tagline/billboards with QVC. The iQdoU campaign also included a teaser website found at iQdoU.com.
On December 21, David Venable announced that Bob Bowersox was resigning from QVC to pursue other writing and acting ventures, effective immediately. David filled in for Bob on In the Kitchen with Bob, which followed a pre-taped farewell from Bob to his fans. David has since permanently replaced Bob as the new host on "David's Kitchen" (previously "In the Kitchen with Bob").
Operations
All four QVC networks run 24 hours a day, although live programming hours vary between each region.
QVC US
QVC's U.S. operations are based in the Studio Park complex in West Chester, Pennsylvania, which houses its corporate headquarters, studio and broadcasting facilities, and distribution warehouse. Studio Park is the former corporate offices of Commodore Business Machines. Call center facilities are located in Chesapeake, Virginia; Port St. Lucie, Florida; San Antonio, Texas; and West Chester, Pennsylvania. Additional distribution centers are situated in Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Suffolk, Virginia; Florence, South Carolina; and Rocky Mount, North Carolina, in order to ensure the fastest possible delivery of items.
QVC U.S. also operates a series of retail stores across the country, including one at the Mall of America in Minnesota.
QVC broadcasts via cable and satellite TV 24 hours a day, 364 days a year (the Christmas show is pre-recorded), to 90 million homes, and ranks as the number two television network in terms of revenue (#1 in home shopping networks), with sales in 2006 giving a net revenue of $7.1 billion. Recently, Comcast has added a high definition simulcast of the channel in a few markets, including Chicago and the San Francisco bay area.
QVC UK
Main article: QVC (UK)The UK arm of the company operates from two venues in the United Kingdom. Corporate headquarters and broadcasting facilities are located at Marco Polo House in Battersea, London, while call centre and distribution facilities are situated in Knowsley, Liverpool. Prior to 1998, these facilities were based at the McIntyre and King facilities on Harrington Dock also in Liverpool.
QVC UK runs two small outlet stores, one in Warrington, the other in Shrewsbury.
QVC—The Shopping Channel broadcasts live 17 hours a day (although the channel runs 24 hours a day), 364 days a year, to 5.4 million viewers of cable, satellite, and digital terrestrial services in the UK. Satellite also relays the channel across much of mainland Europe. Retail sales for the year 2004 reached £265 million. Also there is a QVC Active service that runs on cable, satellite, and digital terrestrial in the UK.
QVC Germany
Main article: QVC GermanyQVC Deutschland GmbH, incorporated in Düsseldorf, runs call centre operations from two sites in Bochum and Kassel, whilst distribution is handled from a dedicated site in Hückelhoven.
QVC Germany broadcasts live 24 hours a day, 363.5 days a year (off-air Christmas Eve (no program after noon) and Christmas Day), with 33.8 million households reached. In 2004, sales of $643 million were made.
QVC Japan
QVC Japan is based in Makuhari, where its corporate headquarters and call center facility are located. Distribution facilities are located in Sakura City.
QVC Japan broadcasts live 24 hours a day (as of June 2004—previously running for 15 hours—making it the first broadcaster in Japan to run a 24-hour live service), to 7.5 million homes, with $416 million sales in 2004.
QVC Italy
QVC Italy was planned to launch in Italy on Digital terrestrial television in 2008, requiring to be allocated to one of national multiplex, but the AGCom refused the request.
However on June 19, 2009, a "QVC" channel, without video/audio stream, was launched on Telecom Italia Media digital terrestrial television network and in November 14, 2009, a test card with QVC "ITALIA" logo was added on LCN 26. The launch is planned for October 2010.
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QVC.com
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