QVC, Inc.

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Do you want what they’re selling?

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QVC, Inc. is an American television network and multimedia retailer; its name stands for quality, value, and convenience. QVC sells retail goods through three television networks (QVC, QVC2, and QVC3), a mobile app, and its website. The company is headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

QVC was created in 1986 by Joe Segel, who had founded The Franklin Mint, a company known for selling commemorative items such as coins, plates, and other collectibles. Segel launched the channel as an alternative to the Home Shopping Network (HSN), which had been operating for almost a decade.

One of the early financial backers of QVC was Ralph Roberts, who was chair of Comcast Corporation (CMCSA), then the fourth largest cable operator in the U.S. In exchange for a stake in QVC, Roberts provided seed money and helped convince other cable companies to air the channel. The first item sold when the channel went live in November 1986 was an $11.49 shower radio.

QVC differentiated itself from HSN through its approach to selling, eschewing a focus on low prices to emphasize the product itself. “The network required its hosts to be deeply familiar with the products they were pitching,” according to a 2019 obituary of Segel in The New York Times. “He preferred the soft sell to the hard sell, information to pressure tactics, and wanted hosts to convey a product’s virtues through relatable storytelling.”

Part of that strategy involved featuring celebrity hosts, including Joan Rivers and Diane von Furstenberg, to engage audiences and boost sales. QVC has also created celebrities of its own: Lori Greiner parlayed her show’s success into a role as an investor on the reality TV show Shark Tank.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, QVC widened its reach through numerous acquisitions of other shopping networks, including The Fashion Channel, CVN The Shopping Channel, and JCPenney Television Shopping Channel. By late 1992, QVC and HSN dominated the market.

Segel retired in 1993, and Barry Diller, who created the Fox Broadcasting Company, took over. Also in 1993, QVC expanded the channel’s broadcast internationally, including to the United Kingdom and Mexico. That year also saw QVC enter a bidding war with Viacom Inc. to purchase Paramount Communications Inc., which Viacom ultimately won.

QVC launched its third channel, Q2, in 1994, following the earlier debut of the QVC Fashion Channel. Q2 aimed to capture “consumers who are younger and more active than those who buy from QVC Network,” but it lasted less than two years.

In 1995, after Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approval, Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI) and Comcast bought QVC in a $1.42 billion deal. The FTC had expressed concern that the acquisition could give TCI excessive influence in the home shopping sector, as it held a 65% voting stake in HSN through its subsidiary Liberty Media. At the time of the sale, TCI was the largest cable company in the United States. Diller also resigned from the company following the sale’s completion in February.

In late 1995 the company launched iQVC, an online shopping service, as part of The Microsoft Network (MSN), which then operated as a subscription-based online service. Home office, kitchen, and jewelry products were the service’s first merchandise categories.

The company branched into brick-and-mortar retail when it opened QVC @ The Mall, a flagship store at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, in 2001. The space included a television studio with broadcasting capabilities. The store closed in 2011.

In 2003, Liberty Media exercised its right to exit its partnership with Comcast, prompting Comcast to sell its stake in QVC for $7.9 billion and return the company to Liberty, which had separated from TCI following AT&T’s (T) acquisition of TCI in 1999.

The following year, the FTC sued QVC, alleging that the channel had made false or unsubstantiated claims about several health and weight-loss products, including a claim that Lite Bites bars and shakes could lead to more than 125 pounds of weight loss.

Liberty Interactive acquired HSN in 2017, bringing QVC and HSN under the same corporate umbrella. The following year, Liberty Interactive adopted the corporate name Qurate Retail, Inc. Its retail businesses operated under the name Qurate Retail Group, which included QVC, HSN, Zulily, and several home and fashion brands.

After shifting to a more remote format during the COVID-19 pandemic, QVC continued reorganizing its operations. In 2023, Qurate laid off about 12% of its workforce, including longtime on-air hosts Carolyn Gracie and Dan Hughes. More changes followed in 2024, when host Kerstin Lindquist left the network after 13 years.

Also in 2024, QVC recalled about 1.1 million pairs of Temp-tations oven gloves after nearly 100 reports of burns linked to inadequate heat protection. That same year, the company reported a $1.2 billion loss while expanding its social media presence and streaming services.

In 2025, QVC said it planned to move HSN’s production to its headquarters in Pennsylvania from St. Petersburg, Florida, by year-end as part of a broader effort to consolidate operations. At about the same time, Qurate Retail Group was renamed QVC Group to reflect a renewed focus on its flagship shopping network and the growing market for live social commerce. Qurate Retail, Inc. remained the parent company.

QVC has also continued to feature celebrity collaborations, including the 2024 launch of the Aunt Sandy Claus Collection by television chef and author Sandra Lee, introduced through a special three-part QVC broadcast.