Shopping For Guys
New Owner Steers Shop at Home Toward Men
By R. Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 12/17/2006 7:00:00 PM
Cable shopping service Shop At Home is hoping to get men to pick up the phone and order knives as often as women order jewelry.
The 75 million subscriber service — which has 80% of its distribution on cable systems — will target its on-air products to a male audience, eliminating such distaff-skewing items as beauty aids, according to Andy Caldwell, vice president of affiliate marketing.
As part of the network relaunch, Jewelry Television, which purchased Shop At Home from E.W. Scripps Co. last June for $17 million, will scale back the network’s live content to 13 hours. The remaining 11 hours will be filled with programming and merchandise from Jewelry Television.
| Home Shoppers | |
|---|---|
| Estimated annual revenue in fiscal 2005 for top TV-shopping players: | |
| SOURCE: Company reports. |
|
| QVC | $4.6 billion |
| HSN | $1.9 billion |
| ShopNBC | $691 million |
| Shop At Home | $359 million |
During its live broadcast, Caldwell said the network will concentrate on products that appeal to male audiences such as watches, collectible coins, knives and sports memorabilia. Shows that will remain on air include The Coin Vault with Robert Chambers and Skip Connelly, The Sports Room with Elliot Smith and Kevin Height, The Watch Show with Tim Temple, and Knife Collectors Show with Shawn Leflar.
He said such categories have been the most profitable for the service and attract the majority of purchases, although he would not reveal figures.
Categories going by the wayside as part of the revamp include home and garden products, jewelry and health and beauty items, according to Caldwell.
“We took a hard look at our product lines that existed at home and found that the [male-skewing] lines were the most profitable,” he said. “We know from our database that it’s mostly a male-driven audience that’s driving these purchases.”
While Caldwell said the network is not actively looking to add more product lines, the service has an interest in securing licensing deals for sports and fitness equipment, men’s skin care products, and other sports-related categories.
Caldwell said the network will actively promote its new focus through a variety of trade magazines, as well as direct mail and Web site postings to its database of male subscribers.
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