# Shop at Home going away .... (not)



## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060516/cltu027.html?.v=53


> CINCINNATI, May 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The E. W. Scripps Company, citing ongoing operating losses and the absence of a suitable buyer for the business, announced today that it is ceasing all operations of its Shop At Home television and online retailing subsidiary.
> 
> Broadcasts of Shop At Home television programming and operation of the network's Web site - ShopAtHomeTV.com -- will be discontinued on June 22.


Ah, more bandwidth for something useful.


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## tomcrown1 (Jan 16, 2006)

Great news Richard now if the other shop at home networks will go buy buy.


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## LtMunst (Aug 24, 2005)

tomcrown1 said:


> Great news Richard now if the other shop at home networks will go buy buy.


Nope, my wife will keep ShopNBC in business forever. :lol:


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## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

"ongoing operating losses"? WTF? Geez, if you can't make money on a shopping channel, you ought to get out of the broadcasting business!

Unless this just means that they were paying Dish et al too much to carry it.


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## midnight75 (Jun 25, 2004)

Don't worry, I'm sure they'll add another shopping channel in it's place.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

LtMunst said:


> Nope, my wife will keep ShopNBC in business forever. :lol:


As a shareholder of ValueVision Media, a fine Minnesnowta company, (the REAL ShopNBC) please thank your wife for me. Then, please, tell me why I have owned this garbage forever.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

I own very little garbage -- most of it I cheerfully give away! :grin:


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## jegrant (Mar 24, 2002)

Wow. I would have expected they'd do some kind of merger with HSN or QVC before they'd close entirely. IMO the mistake was selling off the OTA licenses. If they could have continued to benefit from "free" must-carry on cable & satellite, they could have kept more money, rather than having to buy carriage.
Plus, they could have developed new networks to add as digital subchannels on OTA DTV stations. Even if the new channels were simply reruns of old shows from HGTV & DIY, it might have drawn a few more eyeballs.

However, maybe this will spur a few of the other shopping channels on E* to become FTA. SAH has been the only one for a long time now. I never could understand why shopping channels wouldn't want to be available to everyone, not just those who buy a programming package.


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

I used to watch the shopping channels when I was bored. Buying things off of Shop At Home seemed like buying 'used' stereo equipment out of some guys trunk in a mall parking lot. The hosts seemed shady and the products look like they were offered by fly by night manufactures.

QVC and HSN (and sister station AS) have been around forever, and are the only two shopping channels I'd ever trust. My mother buys crap off those channels all the time, and even DVRs a lot of the jewelry and cooking shows, but everything she has ever brought was in complete working order. I don’t know, but I imagine buying something from Shop At Home and having UPS deliver a box of rocks, then dialing the 1-800 number and hearing *do-do-do* The number you are trying to reach is no longer in service”.

I still will never forget that hick Walker Johnson that used to do Electronics 2000. Mr. ‘’This computer has more technology then the first TV station I worked at”. If nothing at all, this channel provided me with a lot of good laughs over the years.


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## Joe Capitano (Aug 13, 2002)

Seems like for every one of these channels that waves bye-bye, there's always another one to take their place. Case in point: Worldwide Shopping Source.

Their programming replaced SAH on one broadcast channel here in Western Washington at the start of the year. I can imagine WSS might be calling some stations about switching over before the closedown. As to a 24/7 spot on E* or D*...

But then, this channel "Discount Dan" tried to start up a couple of years ago just sputtered and died, didn't it?


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

WSS was started by a bunch of people who, for one reason or another, left ShopNBC (ValueVision Media). It, like ValueVision is based in Minneapolis. ValueVision was started years ago by a bunch of people who left QVC, which also started in Minneapolis, but moved on to another location. When they moved, many employees stayed and started VV. Some of those same people are now at WSS.


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## rnbmusicfan (Jul 19, 2005)

jegrant said:


> Wow. I would have expected they'd do some kind of merger with HSN or QVC before they'd close entirely. IMO the mistake was selling off the OTA licenses. If they could have continued to benefit from "free" must-carry on cable & satellite, they could have kept more money, rather than having to buy carriage.
> Plus, they could have developed new networks to add as digital subchannels on OTA DTV stations. Even if the new channels were simply reruns of old shows from HGTV & DIY, it might have drawn a few more eyeballs.
> 
> However, maybe this will spur a few of the other shopping channels on E* to become FTA. SAH has been the only one for a long time now. I never could understand why shopping channels wouldn't want to be available to everyone, not just those who buy a programming package.


Huh? Scripps still owns the 5 stations in these markets: San Francisco, Boston, Cleveland, Raleigh-Durham, N.C. and Bridgeport, Conn. (NYC DMA)

Scripps went out of their way and bought the network and those stations. They must feel like big losers here. They didn't just inherit the shopping network from a merger or sort. They saw QVC successful but couldn't produce a successful Shop At Home.

As for the 5 stations that are left without programming, they'll probably just run infomercials, initially.

Scripps does operate a general entertainment independent KMCI 38 in Kansas City, but that's as a duopoly that gets programming from a major station, KSHB 41 (NBC). Such a business model may work in Cleveland/Canton where they run WEWS 5/WOAC 67.

Such a model may not be feasible in some of the larger markets like San Francisco and Bridgeport/New York, where there are lot of other stations running syndicated programs.

But there maybe a different opportunity in Boston - they may try to bid for MyNetwork in Boston for WMFP 62, if they can fill other programming during other hours. Such may make the station salable to Fox later on, since Scripps intends to sell the station(s). WZMY 50 might be a more apt candidate (they already market themelves as My and run syndicated programs), but they are a more distant signal from the city of Boston, and aren't corporate owned, which puts WMFP as an equally potential candidate.

WRAY 30 probably could be sold off - and flipped to be the Telemundo or Telefutura station for Raleigh. NBC and Univision are right there and one of em could buy it right out. San Francisco would be the toughest market (to get a station unloaded), as the market already is oversaturated with independents.

HSN is still seen on many Low power stations, along with their cable/satellite coverage, despite losing lot of full powered stations when USA Broadcasting was sold to Univision -- lot of those stations became Telefuturas. Maybe a deal could be worked with HSN, that HSN returns to full power in San Francisco and Bridgeport/NY, or any markets that have no potential for something better. Such a deal would save cable operators a bandwith spot in those markets - rather than carrying both HSN on cable, and a full power station just filling time, it would be contracted to 1 station carrying HSN thru must-carry.

Of course, one option is selling to TBN. I am not privy to their finances, nor would I suspect Scripps selling stations to them, but TBN would like more over the air coverage. TBN's last purchase was WGTW 48 in Philadelphia. They have no San Francisco or Boston station.


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## Paul Secic (Dec 16, 2003)

Richard King said:


> http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060516/cltu027.html?.v=53
> Ah, more bandwidth for something useful.


Hmm. I wonder what CH 38 in San Francisco will do? Be Sold, change formats? For a long time, preacher Gene Scott owned 38. It's not on DISH. I hope it doesn't turn Spanish because we have 5.


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## eckertman (May 20, 2005)

tomcrown1 said:


> Great news Richard now if the other shop at home networks will go buy buy.


Who wants them. They are only for people to spend money. And doing it that way is the devils gain. But, then again, on the other hand, people need to make money.


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## BretG (Jun 2, 2006)

I feel the same way about the shopping channels that I do about the religious channels, please don't shove them down our throats. If you want them, subscribe to them. Free up the bandwidth for something that is entertaining.


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## tsmacro (Apr 28, 2005)

BretG said:


> I feel the same way about the shopping channels that I do about the religious channels, please don't shove them down our throats. If you want them, subscribe to them. Free up the bandwidth for something that is entertaining.


Nah, shopping channels are a good thing. They pay to be carried, that's less money they have to charge the subscribers (us). It's not like they're taking up bandwidth that'd be used for anything else anyway. So if you don't ever watch the shopping channels (I know I don't) that's fine but just remember they're helping pay the bills so we don't have to pay a bigger share ourselves.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

I seriously doubt that the presence of shopping channels affects our sat bills one way or the other. It's just more $$$ in the pockets of Rupert and Charlie.


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## tsmacro (Apr 28, 2005)

Nick said:


> I seriously doubt that the presence of shopping channels affects our sat bills one way or the other. It's just more $$$ in the pockets of Rupert and Charlie.


Oh i'm not naive enough to believe that our bills are going to go down everytime they add a shopping channel, however you can bet if the total amount of money coming in wasn't enough to keep things running our bills would go up. And the money that the shopping channels bring in does contribute to that total.


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## LtMunst (Aug 24, 2005)

All those $$'s going to the shopping channels are increasing our GDP. Good for the economy.

Just wish my wife's share of the GDP boost was a little less.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Not quite dead ...
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. --Jewelry Television has agreed to buy certain assets of E.W. Scripps' Shop At Home television and online retailing subsidiary for $17 million, the companies announced Wednesday.

Jewelry Television will continue operating Shop At Home part time under a new company called Shop At Home Network LLC.​http://www.boston.com/news/local/co...to_keep_shop_at_home_on_air_retain_many_jobs/


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

James Long said:


> Not quite dead...
> 
> Jewelry Television will continue operating Shop At Home part time
> under a new company called Shop At Home Network LLC


 Ahhh, some good news at last! The economy is saved! :lol:


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Joe Capitano said:


> Seems like for every one of these channels that waves bye-bye, there's always another one to take their place. Case in point: Worldwide Shopping Source.
> 
> Their programming replaced SAH on one broadcast channel here in Western Washington at the start of the year. I can imagine WSS might be calling some stations about switching over before the closedown. As to a 24/7 spot on E* or D*...
> 
> But then, this channel "Discount Dan" tried to start up a couple of years ago just sputtered and died, didn't it?


Worldwide Shopping Source has assumed room temperature as of July 12. Their web site is already gone. So much for the former ShopNBC guys who tried to start that one.


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