TV channels Shopping

Home shopping television runs on a single live format invented decades ago and still unbeaten: presenters demonstrating products, gemstones and gadgets on air, with deals available while the show runs. It is one of the most international genres of television, because the big shopping brands operate separate channels for every major market. The backbone of it all is the QVC family - the American pioneer of shopping television - surrounded by national networks from Germany, Japan, Russia and Australia and by a cluster of channels that sell nothing but jewelry and gemstones.

The American Home Shopping Networks

The United States supplies the genre's founding names. QVC - Quality, Value, Convenience - has been broadcasting live from West Chester, Pennsylvania since 1986 and remains the biggest name in the business it created. Its American family fills several channels: QVC2, which grew out of the QVC Plus timeshift into a channel of its own, QVC3 with encore presentations around the clock, and QVC In the Kitchen®, devoted entirely to cookware, food and appliances. The rival tradition is represented by HSN, the Home Shopping Network, and its second channel HSN2, while ShopHQ TV sells watches, jewelry, skincare, fashion and home goods from Eden Prairie, Minnesota, Jewelry Television has specialized in jewelry and loose gemstones from Knoxville, Tennessee since 1993, and Gem Shopping Network presents fine jewelry and colored gemstones from Duluth, Georgia. The streaming-era newcomer Global Mall TV delivers live retail presentations online.

QVC and Home Shopping in Europe

Europe localizes the same formula. QVC UK has been on air since 1 October 1993 as the United Kingdom's first full-time home shopping channel, QVC serves German viewers with its own assortment, and QVC Italia covers fashion, beauty and home for the Italian market. Germany is the strongest European home shopping market: HSE Live TV has been selling on screen since 1995, flanked by the fashion channel HSE Trend TV and HSE Extra TV; Pearl TV streams the retailer PEARL's shopping and tech programming in 4K; and Channel 21 sells everything from fashion and beauty to household goods and electronics. Berlin's Juwelo TV runs live auctions and sales shows for gemstones and jewelry. The United Kingdom adds Gems TV, part of the Gemporia network and on air since 2004, the long-running Ideal World TV and the craft specialist Hobby Maker TV, while the Netherlands contributes Tommy Teleshopping TV.

Jewelry and Gemstone Specialists

Jewelry is to shopping television what football is to sport: the genre's core product, with channels built entirely around the gemstone counter. Gem Shopping Network and Jewelry Television lead the American side, Juwelo TV and Gems TV the European, and Japan's GSTV broadcasts live jewelry programs every day with rings, necklaces and precious stones at direct prices.

Home Shopping in Asia and the Pacific

Asia's home shopping markets are among the world's largest. Japan is present with QVC Japan and Shop Channel in addition to GSTV, and South Korea with Hmall Tv, the channel of Hyundai Home Shopping, broadcasting live shopping programs with fashion, beauty, home goods and food. Australia's TVSN serves Australian and New Zealand viewers, and the early Optus platform channel Expo channel completes the pair. The geography of teleshopping spreads from Israel's Shopping channel 21 to Vietnam's BTV 11.

Russian Shopping Channels

Russia's teleshopping market answers with its own networks. Vitrina TV runs the telemagazin format around the clock, Shopping Live and TopShop TV mix product presentations with fashion shows, and Shop&Show positions itself as a new-generation channel combining shopping with entertainment. Together with the global brands they show how the format invented in Pennsylvania became a television constant from Berlin to Tokyo.