Desmond Announces Launch Of Home Shopping Channel
Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell has announced its first foray into retail with the launch of a home shopping channel intended to compete with the likes of QVC and Price Drop TV.
The Express Shopping channel will launch on the Sky digital satellite platform later this year. It will be run as a joint venture with N Brown, the mail order business, which owns a number of catalogue brands aimed at the over 45s.
Programming planned for the channel includes a range of specialist genres such as travel, gardening and home improvement, to be presented by celebrities and people from the news. Products will be provided and distributed by N Brown.
Commenting on the launch, Northern & Shell Business development director, Chris Haslum, said: “The Express Shopping Channel will offer a unique blend of lifestyle, entertainment and shopping to the 11.5 million shoppers who have access to satellite and cable and are mail order purchasers.”
David Holmans has left his job at media super-regulator Ofcom to become controller of the new channel. He said: “I believe that this is the most significant entry into the home shopping market for more than a decade.”
The business plan for the channel anticipates a turnover of more than £100 million from a home-shopping market thought to be worth around £500 in Britain alone. The channel will initially broadcast for sixteen hours a day and is expected to be profitable by the end of its second year of trading.
The Express Shopping channel will have its work cut out if it is to overtake the market-leading QVC in terms of share of viewing. However, the channel looks set to benefit from extensive cross-promotion across Northern & Shell’s portfolio of newspaper and magazine businesses.
Earlier this year Northern & Shell successfully unveiled a Bollywood channel aimed at the burgeoning Asian market. Desmond is also understood to be considering an interactive horse racing channel, which could launch sometime next year.
Yesterday afternoon Northern & Shell chairman, Richard Desmond, ended months of speculation by reaffirming his commitment to launching a free-sheet evening newspaper in London to compete directly with the Evening Standard (see Desmond Reaffirms Plans To Launch London Free-Sheet).
Northern & Shell: 020 7308 5090
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