QVC, HSN parent takes livestream shopping to new channel
The QVC and HSN streaming services are now more widely accessible to digital shoppers.
Multiplatform video commerce provider Quarate Retail Inc. is launching a web version of its interactive streaming shopping service for its QVC and HSN banners. The QVC+ and HSN+ streaming experience is available to approximately 120 million internet-connected homes across the U.S. at plus.qvc.com and plus.hsn.com, as well as across several popular streaming platforms.
QVC+ and HSN+ offer live, on-demand and streaming-only content together in one fully shoppable app. The streaming service combines QVC and HSN’s five linear channels (QVC, QVC2, QVC3, HSN and HSN2) with two digital-only linear channels (a third is slated to launch July 1) and approximately 20 original, streaming-only shows.
Streaming-only shows include exclusive deal drops, documentary-style deep-dives on specific brands and celebrities, and culinary programs. Digital-only linear channels include fashion, culinary, and Spanish-language offerings.
“Streaming is all about choice – the ability to watch whatever you want, whenever, wherever and however you want to watch it,” said David Apostolico, senior VP platform strategy, development & distribution for Quarate Retail Group. “No one offers a richer, more diverse array of v-commerce programming than we do on our streaming app – with easy, in-app purchasing – and we’re expanding our library with new shows and fun content every day. The web version of our streaming app gives millions of people more control over their video shopping experiences than ever before.”
The QVC+ and HSN+ streaming offering is part of vCommerce Ventures, a new business unit designed to accelerate Qurate Retail Group’s involvement in digital live streaming shopping, beyond QVC’s and HSN’s traditional multiplatform experiences.
According to Quarate Retail Group, this launch reflects a continued strategic initiative to expand the reach of its channels and streaming offering across new media and digital platforms, including over-the-top devices and services, shoppable apps, social media, digital over-the-air networks, mobile apps, and websites.
QVC partners with FuboTV
QVC also recently launched the first livestream shopping channel on FuboTV. QVC is offering 20 hours a day of live video commerce programming (and four hours of prerecorded content), featuring premier brands and new products presented by celebrities and other personalities who engage with customers in real-time across multiple platforms. FuboTV, which has 1.06 million subscribers in North America (as of the first quarter of 2022), is available across most connected and smart TVs, gaming consoles, mobile apps, tablets and the web.
With the launch, QVC is now available on the top subscription services for digital livestreaming TV, which have a combined total of approximately 14 million subscribers in the U.S. These services are also known as vMVPDs, or virtual multichannel video programming distributors. As a result, QVC now reaches nearly 95% of pay digital livestreaming TV households in the U.S.
QVC and HSN reach more than 200 million homes globally via 14 TV networks and reaches millions more via multiple streaming services, websites, mobile apps and social pages. The retailers are part of Qurate Retail, whose brands also include HSN, Zulilyand the Cornerstone brands (collectively, "Qurate Retail Group), as well as other minority interests and green energy investments.