QVC
In 1986, Segel decided to start QVC ("Quality Value Convenience") after watching a videotape of the Home Shopping Network. Immediately, he identified many potential improvements, from the items offered for sale to their presentation. To lend credibility to the new company, QVC made a two year deal to sell Sears products. Fifty-eight cable systems in twenty states signed on for the 7:30pm to 12:00 midnight broadcast. He raised over $20 million in capital and launched on November 24, with an audience of 7.6 million TV homes for the November 24 launch. He reached this wide audience by offering cable companies stocks for as little as 20ยข a share. Publicly offered at $10, QVC stock closed its first trading day at $20 per share.
Segel demanded that the presenters sell by informing, not pressuring the viewers about the product. This meant that presenters would have to study each product, explain the many benefits of the product, and know the products sales history in order to make the sell more informative and entertaining. He forbid the hard sell and, unlike the Home Shopping Network, established that customers could purchase at any time, with no last minute price cuts, and no high pressure tactics. From 1986-1989 the Plymouth based Cable Value Network was the dominant player in the industry with HSN second and QVC a distant third. Through the backing of cable operators, QVC launched a hostile takeover of CVN and wound up buying it out, only to take CVN off the air and replace it with QVC programming. QVC emerged as HSN's only serious competitor, out of hundreds of copycats. even though it was on the verge of collapse in the early 1990s until Barry Diller came on board. Today QVC employs a total of over 10,000 people, and does around $7 billion in business annually, making it the second largest American television network, surpassed in size only by CBS.
Joseph Segel retired from QVC in 1993 upon Dillers hire.
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