Home Shopping Network

Home Shopping Network (HSN) is an American broadcast, basic cable and satellite television network that is owned by HSN, Inc. (NASDAQ: HSNI), 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.

Home shopping

Home shopping is the electronic retailing and home shopping channels industry, which includes such billion dollar television-based and e-commerce companies as Liquidation Channel, HSN, QVC, eBay, ShopHQ, Buy.com, Naaptol, Kaymu Pakistan and Amazon.com, as well as traditional mail order and brick and mortar retailers as Hammacher Schlemmer and Sears, Roebuck and Co. Home shopping allows consumers to shop for goods from the privacy of their own home, as opposed to traditional shopping, which requires one to visit brick and mortar stores and shopping malls.

There are three main types of home shopping: mail or telephone ordering from catalogs; telephone ordering in response to advertisements in print and electronic media (such as periodicals, TV and radio); and online shopping.

History