The recession indicators aren’t just ringing, they’re blaring as the owners of QVC and HSN, a.k.a. the Home Shopping Network, file for bankruptcy. Why, it seems like only yesterday the company was reporting $10 billion in revenue, but that was actually one year ago. According to The Hollywood Reporter, QVC Group will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after several years of slipping sales amid a pivot to social media. But those in desperate need of a Diamonique Silver Choice Cut Eternity Band Ring (only $59 if you call now) or a 12-pack of Kansas City Steaks, All Beef Hot Dogs (just $58 while supplies last) don’t have to suffer in silence. The company will continue operations as usual as it undergoes restructuring.
We’ll admit it’s hard to understand the problem with QVC’s financials—then again, the shoe company Allbirds became an AI company yesterday and sent stocks soaring, so there’s lots about the economy we don’t understand. Last year, shortly after reporting $10 billion in revenue, QVC Group fired 900 people in an effort to reconsolidate. In 2024, it announced a year-over-year revenue drop of eight percent, falling from $10.9 billion to $10 billion. While $10 billion sounds like a lot of money, it’s actually not enough money. The company blamed the losses on stiff viewership competition from the Olympics and the 2024 election, as well as a “conservative consumer environment,” which probably wasn’t helped by the President’s easy-to-follow tariff plan.
But even with the $10 billion, the last few years have been difficult for the company. In 2021, a fire at a North Carolina fulfillment center killed an employee. The fire also cost QVC $500 million, and in the years since, the company slashed its corporate workforce, sold its e-commerce unit, Zulily, to an investment firm, and began airing live Pickleball matches. More recently, it attempted to pivot to TikTok, but the QVC addicts didn’t follow. The social media field was already crowded with people trapped in MLMs, so the once-powerful, name-brand in-home shopping failed to make a foothold.
One could pin some of the trouble on a problem endemic in the media industry: Consolidation and monopolization. Owned by libertarian billionaire John Malone, the largest landowner in the country and so-called “Cable Cowboy” whom Al Gore referred to as “Darth Vader,” the QVC Group bought its key competitor, The Home Shopping Network, in 2017 for $2 billion. With a decade’s hindsight, it may have put itself out of business. Sadly, where the tip just got us, Odell, is in the loss of home-shopping bloopers and injuries that have powered fail compilations for the better part of two decades. We’ll miss those more than a Little Giant Jumbo Step 3-Step Aluminum Step Ladder—$140 for the next 20 minutes, so call now!
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