QVC UK is a television

shopping channel Shopping channels (also known in British English as teleshopping) are a type of television program or specialty channel devoted to home shopping. Their formats typically feature live presentations and demonstrations of products, hosted by on-air pr ...

broadcast from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

to the United Kingdom and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. It was formed in 1993 when QVC, Inc. agreed to a deal with Sky TV to create a UK version of the US channel. "QVC – The Shopping Channel" first broadcast in the UK on 1 October 1993.

History

The original US channel was founded in

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

West Chester, Pennsylvania West Chester is a borough and the county seat of Chester County, Pennsylvania. Located within the Philadelphia metropolitan area, the borough had a population of 18,461 at the 2010 census. West Chester is the mailing address for most of its neighb ...

by Joseph Segel. It grew into a multinational corporation, specialising in televised

home shopping Home shopping is the electronic retailing and home shopping channels industry, which includes such billion dollar television-based and e-commerce companies as Shop LC, HSN, Gemporia, TJC, QVC, eBay, ShopHQ, Buy.com and Amazon.com, as well as tradit ...

. It now broadcasts in five countries to 141 million

consumer A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. T ...

s. The name is an

initialism An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

—standing for Quality, Value, Convenience. However, unlike in the US, the expansion of the initialism is no longer used on air in the UK. The UK venture launched on 1 October 1993, becoming the UK's first full-time home shopping channel and in 1998 the UK venture turned its first net profit (£12.5 million), against a loss of £228,000 in 1997. Originally 20% owned by Sky, it became a wholly owned subsidiary of the US broadcaster in 2004. In 2008 QVC UK launched a multiscreen video service accessible via the interactive television layer, making three video streams available to

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...

viewers via the red button: *QVC Live *QVC+1 (a time delayed service) *Today's Special Value presentation In February 2020, QVC UK had a whole new rebrand with a whole new logo.

QVC Beauty

On 26 October 2010 a second channel was launched in the UK, QVC Beauty, available to viewers of

Freeview Freeview may refer to: *Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia *Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), a ...

and Freesat. The channel broadcasts from 4:00 am to 2:00 am daily on Freeview channel 35. 2:00 am QVC Beauty HD on Freeview channel 112 only broadcasts from 2:00 am to 4:00 am daily due to the channels over rating. QVC Beauty HD ceased broadcasting on Freeview with the closure of the COM7 multiplex.

QVC HD, QVC Extra and QVC Style

QVC had planned to begin broadcasting in high-definition from September 2012, to be followed by the launch of two new 24-hour channels on

. On 11 February 2013 Sparkle TV and Twinkle TV launched on Sky. On 1 July 2013, Twinkle TV was renamed QVC Style. Sparkle TV became QVC Extra on 12 August 2013, with both channels added to Freesat. The following day saw the channels relaunch with availability expanded to Freeview via the connected red button on QVC Beauty. In July 2014, QVC Extra launched on Freeview channel 57, but closed in 2015, while QVC Style launched on Freeview channel 36 in August 2016, replacing QVC +1. QVC Style changed its hours to 2:00 am to 4:00 am on 31 March 2020, allowing QVC Beauty to extend its hours. On 21 April 2015, QVC +1 HD launched on Freeview channel 111, becoming the second high-definition timeshift service in the UK (after Channel 4 +1 HD). From 2016 to 2018, QVC Extra was temporarily rebranded as QVC Christmas. QVC Extra launched on

Virgin Media Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, Cable television, television and Internet access, internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Engla ...

on 27 July 2021. QVC HD ceased broadcasting on Freeview with the closure of the COM7 multiplex. QVC HD was later launched on Freesat and Sky in April 2022.

QVC Active

QVC Active was an interactive television service made accessible using the red button on QVC UK's cable,

and

digital terrestrial Digital terrestrial television (DTTV or DTT, or DTTB with "broadcasting") is a technology for terrestrial television in which land-based (terrestrial) television stations broadcast television content by radio waves to televisions in consumers' ...

services. Across each enhanced television platform, QVC provided information including a 24-hour

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

, bestselling products of that day and an ability for the viewer to interact with QVC UK's inventory. Customers viewing the

and cable TV platforms could buy products using their

set-top box A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of sign ...

. On 13 August 2013, QVC Active closed as a result of more customers using mobile devices for ordering.

Operation in the UK

QVC UK operates from two main sites. From launch until June 2012, its headquarters and broadcasting facilities were at Marco Polo House, the former

British Satellite Broadcasting British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) was a television company, headquartered in London, that provided direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom. They started broadcasting on 25 March 1990. The company was merged with ...

headquarters in

Battersea Battersea is a large district in south London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and extends along the south bank of the River Thames. It includes the Battersea Park. History Batter ...

, London. These operations then moved to Chiswick Park, a 'campus'-style development on the site of a former derelict London Transport bus depot in West London. Its call centre and distribution warehouse is located in

Kirkby Kirkby ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside, England. The town, historically in Lancashire, has a size of is north of Huyton and north-east of Liverpool. The population in 2016 was 41,495 making it the largest ...

, Knowsley, in

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

. These facilities were moved in 1998 from Liverpool's

Harrington Dock Harrington Dock was a dock on the River Mersey and part of the Port of Liverpool. Situated in the southern dock system, it was connected to Toxteth Dock to the north and Herculaneum Dock to the south. History The first dock on the site was kno ...

. The company also has outlet stores in

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...

and

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

. In June 2011, it was reported that QVC UK had begun carrying out trials of 3D broadcasting. This was merely an experiment, a spokesperson said. The channel broadcasts live from 9:00 am to 1:00 am (the remainder being repeated content) year round. QVC UK claims a market penetration of 15.4 million homes on cable,

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

, and

TV. The

Astra 2E Astra 2E is one of the Astra communications satellites owned and operated by SES S.A., launched to the Astra 28.2°E orbital position on 30 September 2013 after a 10-week delay caused by launcher problems. The satellite provides free-to-air ...

footprint also takes in much of Western

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. Retail sales for the year 2008 reached £360+ million.

Products

QVC organises its product range into nine distinct categories: * Beauty * Fashion * Shoes & Accessories * Jewellery * Home & Kitchen * Electronics * Garden & Leisure * Health & Wellbeing * Gifts QVC also stock a wide range of Christmas Products, with Christmas items available from July 25 when the Channel Celebrates "Christmas in July".

Current presenters

* Simon Biagi * Charlie Brook * Anne Dawson * Annaliese Dayes * Ophelia Dennis * Chloe Everton * Debbie Flint * Dale Franklin * Jill Franks * Kathryn Goldsmith * Pipa Gordon * Will Gowing * Jilly Halliday * Catherine Huntley * Jackie Kabler * Alison Keenan * Alex Kramer * Miceal Murphy * Eilidh Nairn * Katy Pullinger * Julia Roberts * Craig Rowe * Alison Young

Regular current guests

* Simon Browne * Rylan Clark-Neal * Amanda Holden * Richard Jackson * Ruth Langsford * Cait Penfold * Michael Perry *

Andi Peters Andi Eleazu Peters (born 29 July 1970) is a British television presenter, producer, journalist and voice actor, currently employed by ITV and known for presenting Children's BBC, roles on breakfast TV shows ''Live & Kicking'', ''GMTV'', '' Good ...

* Rosa Speyer * Rick Stein * Gok Wan * Lee Hohbein * Gail Samways * James Murden * Leanne Stott * Julien MacDonald * Beverley Cressman * Gill Gauntlett * Lorna Ko * Anne Dorrington * Mark lane * Lucy Piper

Past presenters

* Kara Baker * Julian Ballantyne * Sophia Barnes *

Jon Briggs Jon Briggs (born 24 January 1965) is an English television, radio presenter and narrator. He is best known for his voice-over work, and particularly as the British voice used by Apple Inc.'s Siri virtual assistant software. Career Briggs's vo ...

* Suzanne Evett * Harry Greene *

Debbie Greenwood Debbie Greenwood (born 16 September 1959 in Liverpool) is a British television presenter and a former beauty queen who won the title of ''Miss Great Britain'' in 1984. Career Greenwood began her broadcasting career in 1984, presenting regional p ...

* Anthony Heywood * Katy John *

Paul Lavers Paul Lavers (born 1950) is a British film, television and stage actor. He has been a presenter for Anglia television and for several shopping channels. Early life and career Paul Lavers was born in Bristol in 1950, the son of Josephine (née Ri ...

* Rob Locke * Claudia Sylvester * Kara Tritton *

Steve Whatley Steven Rae "Steve" Whatley (11 July 1959 – 7 November 2005) known as 'Gadget Man', 'Mr Diamonique', 'Whatters' and 'Mr Zhuzh!', was a British theatre actor, consumer expert, journalist, and television presenter. Early career Whatley spent sev ...

* Carmel Thomas * Anna Cookson * Michaela Hyde * Tim Goodwin * Claire Sutton * Kathy Tayler

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Qvc (Uk) Shopping networks in the United Kingdom Television channels and stations established in 1993 1993 establishments in the United Kingdom UK