In 1981, HSN began marketing products on a
local-access cable television channel. By 1985, it was
broadcasting nationally. The channel, a subsidiary
of IAC/InterActiveCorp that is headquartered in
St. Petersburg, Florida, first began airing direct re-
sponse advertising at a small AM radio station in
- The concept developed by accident, when one
of the station’s advertisers could not pay a bill. The
owner of the station took 112 can openers as pay-
ment and then auctioned them off to listeners. The
auction, billed as Suncoast Bargaineers, led to a reg-
ularly scheduled radio show, from there to local-
access cable, and from there to a home shopping
empire. HSN evolved into a global multichannel re-
tailer, with product offerings of thousands of unique
items in fashion, beauty, home, jewelry, and elec-
tronics. It also acquired competitors, particularly
QVC (whose initials stand for quality, value, and con-
venience), based in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and
the Shop at Home channel of Knoxville, Tennessee.
During the 1980’s, these channels primarily mar-
keted moderately priced, mass-produced merchan-
dise. Often, they marketed commodities that were
not available in conventional retail stores, either be-
cause their manufacturers had chosen not to incur
the expenses necessary to secure shelf space or be-
cause they could not produce enough items to stock
national chains. Later, the channels would expand
their offerings to include merchandise provided
by upscale retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloom-
ingdale’s, and Nordstrom and designers such as
Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Todd Oldham, and Marc
Jacobs.
Impact The availability of cheap, targeted advertis-
ing time on cable television transformed the prac-
tice of advertising and marketing in the United
States. One of its consequences was the rise of home
shopping channels, which provided small manufac-
turers or specialty firms with the wherewithal to mar-
ket their products to a national audience. It also
introduced American consumers to a form of con-
sumption that provided instant gratification in the
privacy of one’s own home. In later years, the Inter-
net would take advantage of this same model of pri-
vacy and convenience.
Further Reading
Berman, B., and J. R. Evans.Retail Management: A
Strategic Approach. 9th ed. Upper Saddle River,
N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2004.
Dickerson, K. G.Inside the Fashion Business. 7th ed.
Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2003.
Leigh SouthwardSee also Advertising; Business and the economy in
Canada; Business and the economy in the UnitedCable television. Cable News Network.SeeCNN
Home video rentals
Definition Short-term rentals of prerecorded
videocassettes to be viewed at home
Small stores began renting videocassettes, and sometimes
the equipment on which to play them, in the 1980’s. The
rentals made it affordable for Americans to watch—and
control the playback of—full, uncut motion pictures on
their own televisions at home, significantly changing U.S.
movie-viewing habits and forcing Hollywood to modify its
filmmaking and marketing practices.
The development of the videocassette recorder
(VCR) dates back to the 1950’s, when an inventor476 Home video rentals The Eighties in America
With the advent of twenty-four-hour home shopping channels in
the 1980’s, the sleep-deprived viewer with a credit card became an
important new market for direct sales products.(PhotoDisc)