HSN history

The forerunner of HSN was launched by Lowell "Bud" Paxson (who later established PAX-TV, which is now Ion Television) 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.

The forerunner of HSN was launched by Lowell "Bud" Paxson (who later established PAX-TV, which is now Ion Television) 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.

In 1986, HSN began a second network that broadcast free-to-air on a number of television stations it had acquired under the name Silver King Broadcasting.

In January 1987 HSN announced plans to build a new telecommunications center and corporate headquarters in St Petersburg, Florida.

Harrington was responsible for developing the infomercial in Europe through Quantum International, a company he formed in 1988.

These distinctions by 1990, however, still had not succeeded in reinteresting wary investors.

The federal government’s Cable Act of 1992 ensured that 4.8 million other homes also would be covered through the agreement, since the rules specified that cable operators must carry all broadcasters with signals in the areas.

In May 1993, Liberty Media Corporation acquired HSN. Then a month later HSN experienced some trouble in the forms of civil suits accusing the company of taking kickbacks and unavailable lines of credit.

HSN launched its first international venture—a home shopping company in Japan—in February 1994.

Diller sought to purchase the cash-rich Savoy Pictures Entertainment Inc. in December 1995 to add its four VHF television stations to his holdings.

Earlier, with Sumitomo Corporation, a large Japanese trading company, HSN brought televised home shopping to Japan through 30-minute programs broadcast in Tokyo, Osaka, and nearby regions beginning in 1996.

Similarly, Jupiter Programming and HSN introduced the SHOP channel in Japan in November 1997.

When USA Networks completed its transaction with Seagram for Universal TV Studios in 1998, the Wall Street Journal (February 13, 1998) reported, "Some entertainment executives were puzzled when the deal was announced" and others were unsure what Diller's role at Universal would be.

In 1999, USA Networks planned to buy Lycos Inc., an Internet search engine portal.

In September 2000, Home Shopping Network officially changes its name to HSN.

The Wall Street Journal (November 15, 2002) reported that Diller was frustrated with trying to market USA Networks to investors.

Sales for 2003 came to $2.2 billion.

Fortune magazine (May 3, 2004) later claimed that Diller had at first envisioned USA Networks as his second Fox.

Mindy Grossman became CEO of HSN in 2006, and aggressively reinvented and relaunched the brand.

She took HSN public in 2008, and has overseen its multibillion-dollar retail portfolio and multimedia expansion.

In an attempt to engage with younger consumers in 2009, HSN produced a 14-episode online video series, Faces of Beautiful You, which follows three young women who find solutions to many of life's problems through HSN's beauty products.

On August 19, 2012, HSN co-founder Roy Speer died after a long illness.

Bud Paxson died on January 9, 2015.

In April 2017, HSN CEO Mindy Grossman stepped down to assume the CEO position at Weight Watchers.