As part of a stock re-purchase plan announced last year, Liberty Media Corp. paid $49.5 million to its chairman, John Malone, for 4.5 million shares of common stock. Forbes Oct. 9, 2008
Oct 092008
QVC’s annual breast-cancer fundraiser, sponsored by the Fashion Footwear Association of New York, starts next Wednesday, but the company is already benefitting from the free media exposure. You know the drill: thousands of pairs of shoes, half the retail price, big designers and more than $28 million donated to breast cancer research over the past 14 years. Hats off! Here are a couple of clippings. Hartford Courant (CT) Oct. 9, 2008 Macon Telegraph (GA) Oct. 7, 2008
Oct 092008
At least that’s the way it’s going to be for Time Warner Cable subscribers in the California desert. The cable operator has bumped a religious channel up the dial to digital and replaced it with HSN on its basic TV package. Chock one up for consumerism! The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA) Oct. 9, 2008
Oct 092008
Designer Nate Berkus
The senior Mr. Berkus, Mike, is a lifelong sports-memorabilia collector, dealer and card-show promoter, who sold collectibles on HSN years ago. Now, son Nate, the famed interior designer and Oprah guest, will make his HSN debut on Monday, Oct. 13. Nate Berkus will particpate in HSN’s Home Design Event, a five-week series of hour-long, trend-driven shows running through mid-November and produced in conjunction with ELLE DECOR. According to the designer, Berkus’ line will include a new mix of products for HSN — including affordable, custom upholstery that can ship in two to six weeks. A couch, for example, is priced at $600. Source link includes a lengthy interview with Mr. Bewkes, covering his experiences surviving the 2004 Tsunami in Sri Lanka, coming out to his family as a gay man, and working with Oprah. Windy City Times Oct. 8, 2008
Analyst: Holiday Season May be Worst in 25 Years
Bricks-and-Mortar, Research, Trends, Forecasts
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Oct 082008
With September sales info for retail stores coming in, there’s no surprise: it’s bad. Same-store sales at Stein Mart, J.C. Penney and Dillard’s all dropped by double-digit percentages last month, while warehouse clubs bucked the trend to post gains. “In general, the weakest categories were non-essentials like house wares, electronics, jewelry and women’s apparel. Sales were driven by and large by necessities like food and, in some cases, children’s clothing.” One observer worried that this could be a Holiday seasons of movie tickets and board games. The New York Times Oct. 8, 2008
HSN to Use Web-to-TV Technology in Hawaii
Carriage (Cable & Satellite TV), DRTV Retailer
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Oct 082008
HSN will take advantage of technology from ActiveVideo Networks that converts worldwide web video for viewing on a television set to give customers of Time Warner Cable’s Occeanic system in Hawaii greater control over their viewing experience. The roll-out of this technology by Time Warner comes on the heels of a successful test during the summer Olympics, which allowed subscribers to view “…single-screen mosaic coverage of multiple channels of broadcast and cable Olympics programming as well as Olympics news, photo albums, schedules and other content acquired from Web RSS feeds.” Presumably, that functionality will enable HSN to offer a “hybrid-type” shopping experience, incorporating the breadth of a website or catalog with the depth and excitement of a live, TV pitch. Broadcasting & Cable Oct. 8, 2008
Oct 082008
Looking to generate more revenue from its gigantic audience, YouTube has added new shopping functionality to its site. Buttons will appear underneath the video pitching music, movies, entertainment tickets and other products that are featured in or related to the content of the video. Viewers clicking on a button will be taken to third-party sites like Amazon, and YouTube will receive a commission from sales. Associated Press Oct. 7, 2008
Oct 082008
A federal judge has banned omnipresent infomercial pitchman Kevin Trudeau from TV selling for three years and ordered him to pay a $5 million fine for violating a provision of a 2004 court order that prohibits Trudeau from misrepresenting the content of his books. The Federal Trade Commission said that the “cure” Trudeau trumpets in informercials for his book The Weight Loss Cure ‘They’ Don’t Want You to Know About amounted to a flat-out lie. Forbes WSYR-TV (Syracuse, NY) Oct. 7, 2008
Oct 072008
A small item in The Miami Herald suggests so. A correspondent to the newspaper’s new commenting section of the website asked for help securing a refund in the amount of $321 for a robotic vacuum that went out-of-stock after her payment-by-check had cleared. The customer claims to have made repeated calls to HSN and being told each time that the check as in the mail. Confirmation of this (in the form of the refund check itself) only came after a call placed by the newspaper. The Miami Herald Oct. 6, 2008
Oct 072008
The latest boost in CMG’s effort to inject new life into its music sales will be an appearance by 80-year-old Burt Bacharach, who will sell a new, live album at 10 p.m. ET tonight (Tuesday, Oct. 7). The new CD will be available to QVC viewers three weeks ahead of its street date, and come bonus disc, created especially for QVC Detroit Free Press Oct. 6, 2008
