QVC vs HSN: How the Shopping Channels Differ Since the Buyout

calendar Nov 2, 2026 / · 8 min read · shopping channels qvc hsn  ·
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QVC and HSN: one owner, two separate channels

QVC and HSN have had the same owner since December 29, 2017. On that date Liberty Interactive bought the 62% of HSN's parent company, HSNi, that it did not already hold. Both are now brands of QVC Group, Inc., and both have their headquarters in West Chester, Pa. They still sell under their own names, on their own TV channels and websites, with their own deal formats and store cards.

The move to Pennsylvania was set in January 2025. HSN's St. Petersburg headquarters was to close within months and move with sister network QVC to an 80-acre campus in West Chester called Studio Park. Under the plan HSN and QVC stayed separate brands.

The parent has changed as well. On Aug. 6, 2026, QVC Group emerged from the U.S. Chapter 11 process with total debt reduced by more than $5 billion.

How the deal came together

In July 2017 Liberty Interactive, which owned QVC, agreed to buy the rest of HSN in an all-stock deal. Reports at the time gave different values for it: $2.1 billion in one and about $2.6 billion in another. Liberty already held 38% of HSN, so the deal covered the remaining 62% of HSNi.

At closing, HSNi shareholders received a fixed 1.65 shares of QVCA for every HSNi share they held. The plan at signing kept HSNi's headquarters in St. Petersburg under Mike George, then QVC's president and CEO.

Both channels sold into a shrinking market. Home-shopping sales fell 2.9% in the U.S. and 2.3% globally between 2011 and 2016.

The parent has had three names. Liberty Interactive became Qurate Retail, Inc. on April 9, 2018, and QVC Group, Inc. on February 21, 2025. When it came out of Chapter 11, its common stock was approved for trading on Nasdaq under the symbol QVCG. At the same time, President and CEO David Rawlinson stepped down. Mike George took over as interim CEO and chair of the board. He had already spent almost 16 years as president and CEO of QVC Group.

Merchandise: where each channel leans

When the deal was announced, George called QVC the stronger channel in fashion and beauty. He gave HSN the edge in electronics, fitness and health. Under Mindy Grossman, HSN had built up its ecommerce business and turned itself into a lifestyle network. Grossman left as HSN's CEO a few months before the buyout to run Weight Watchers.

Today the two category lists overlap more than they differ. HSN sells health & beauty, home and lifestyle, fashion and accessories, and electronics, and pitches "one-of-a-kind finds, how-tos, celebrity sizzle" to U.S. shoppers only. QVC sells home, fashion, beauty, electronics and jewelry, "built on a foundation of Quality, Value, and Convenience," in six countries.

Both sell jewelry. HSN's menu has a full Jewelry department. QVC names jewelry in its brand description, and The Jewelry Channel is one of its streaming channels.

In 2017, health and fitness counted as HSN's strength. Now both sites have a department for it: HSN's menu has a Health section with Health & Fitness inside it, and QVC's menu has a Health & Fitness department.

Channels, streaming and where to watch

In the U.S., QVC airs on three networks: QVC, QVC2 and QVC3. It has 13 TV channels across all its markets. HSN has two TV channels, HSN and HSN2. Each has its own live feed, program guide and list of recently aired items on hsn.com. All of these channels are carried on cable, satellite, broadcast and digital livestreaming TV, and the group's 15 television networks reach more than 200 million homes worldwide.

QVC+ and HSN+ are free to stream, and each channel's website links to both. QVC also has named streaming channels: The Kim Gravel Channel, the QVC Outlet Channel, The Jewelry Channel and The Beauty Channel.

Both channels also sell beyond TV. QVC sells on TikTok Shop. HSN reaches shoppers through TikTok Shop, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, its website and its mobile app. QVC uses the same social platforms plus its own websites and apps.

Deals, payment plans and store cards

Each channel leads with one featured offer: QVC's Today's Special Value and HSN's Today's Special. QVC's deals menu adds Big Deal, Beauty iQ Steal, Online-Only Deals, Lunchtime Specials and Primetime Specials. HSN's adds Deal Spotlight and Best Sellers on Sale.

The payment plans go by different names. QVC customers manage Easy Pay orders and Auto Delivery from their account menu. HSN customers have a FlexPay manager and an Auto-Ship manager. On HSN, FlexPay splits an item's price into a set of payments over time at 0% interest, and the number of payments depends on the item, so two products on the same live page can split into different numbers of installments. QVC's Easy Pay works on the same split-payment idea.

Each channel has its own store card. QVC's QCard comes with 12+ VIP Savings Events a year. The HSN Card gives 5% off the Today's Special and has an opening offer for new cardholders; both offers carry a symbol that points to terms.

Reach and history: U.S.-only HSN vs global QVC

HSN

Home Shopping Network -- TV and online retailer (Qurate Retail Group, sister brand to QVC) selling home, fashion, beauty, and electronics.

Visit HSN →

HSN is the older channel. It began on radio out of Clearwater in 1977. In 1982 it moved to local cable TV as Home Shopping Club, based in St. Petersburg. It went national as Home Shopping Network in 1985 and was renamed HSN in 2000. It serves customers in the U.S. only.

QVC

Television and online home-shopping retailer (Qurate Retail Group) selling apparel, jewelry, electronics, home, and beauty.

Visit QVC →

QVC first broadcast in the U.S. in November 1986, a year after HSN went national. It now sells in the U.S., the U.K. and Ireland, Germany and Austria, Italy, and Japan. A shopper in those other countries can watch QVC but has no local HSN.

At the time of the deal, HSN made half its revenue from ecommerce, listed more than 50,000 products on its website and broadcast to more than 90 million households. Together the two produced over 55,000 hours of shoppable video. The combined company was expected to serve about 23 million customers worldwide and ship more than 320 million packages a year.

The catalog side: the Cornerstone brands

In 2017 HSNi was HSN plus Cornerstone, a group of home and apparel lifestyle brands: Ballard Designs, Frontgate, Garnet Hill, Grandin Road and Improvements. Those catalogs passed to QVC's owner along with the channel.

Today Cornerstone has four brands: Ballard Designs, Frontgate, Grandin Road and Garnet Hill. Each runs its own ecommerce site. Together they mail more than 90 million catalogs a year and run 33 retail and outlet stores.

Ballard Designs

Giftware, Household Items, Holiday Items etc...

holiday-only
Visit Ballard Designs →

Frontgate

Home furnishings and accessories from Frontgate.

Visit Frontgate →

Garnet Hill

Natural fibers bedding, as well as Women's, Children's, and Maternity clothes.

kids|maternity
Visit Garnet Hill →

Grandinroad

Tools, outdoor items.

tools
Visit Grandinroad →

Improvements is missing from that list. QVC Group's six brands are QVC, HSN, Ballard Designs, Frontgate, Garnet Hill and Grandin Road. The name is still on hsn.com, where Improvements appears among the featured Kitchen & Food brands.

Print catalogs are still one of QVC Group's sales channels, alongside streaming apps, social platforms, websites, apps and in-store destinations. The mailing figure belongs to the Cornerstone brands.

Where to request / shop

References

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