citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . september 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message home shopping network launched 1982 owned by hsn inc. picture format 1080i hdtv hd feed downgraded to letterboxed 480i for sdtvs slogan it s fun here . country united states broadcast area worldwide headquarters st. petersburg florida united states formerly called home shopping club 1982 1985 sister channel s hsn2 website hsn.com availability terrestrial available in most markets check local listings for stations ion television o & os xx .6 check local listings for channel number satellite dish network 84 hsn sd only 226 hsn2 sd directv 240 sd only 1240 vod cable check local listings available on most cable providers iptv at & t u verse 1422 hd 422 sd verizon fios 651 hd 151 sd streaming media digital media receiver roku and apple tv 4th generation home shopping network hsn is an american broadcast basic cable and satellite television network that is owned by hsn inc. nasdaq hsni which also owns catalog company cornerstone brands . based in st. petersburg florida united states the home shopping channel has former and current sister channels in several other countries . hsn also has an online outlet at hsn.com . mindy grossman is the current ceo of the company . 1 she became ceo of hsn in 2006 and aggressively reinvented and relaunched the brand . she took hsn public in 2008 and currently oversees its multibillion dollar retail portfolio and multimedia expansion . 2 contents 1 history 2 high definition 3 sister channels 3.1 hsn2 3.2 america s store 3.3 united states 3.4 united kingdom 3.5 germany 3.6 japan 3.7 canada 3.8 philippines 3.9 italy 4 technology 4.1 call center 4.1.1 interactive voice response 5 competitors 6 see also 7 references 8 sources 9 external links history edit the forerunner of hsn was launched by lowell bud paxson and roy speer in 1982 as the home shopping club a local cable channel seen on vision cable and group w cable in pinellas county florida . it expanded into the first national shopping network three years later on july 1 1985 changing its name to the home shopping network and pioneering the concept of a televised sales pitch for consumer goods and services . its competitor qvc was launched the following year . the idea for hsn had its roots in a radio station managed by paxson . in 1977 due to an advertiser s liquidity problem the company was paid in can openers . left with having to raise the funds on air personality bob circosta went on the radio and sold the can openers for 9.95 each . the can openers sold out and an industry was born . circosta later became the new network s first ever home shopping host and would eventually sell 75 000 different products in over 20 000 hours of live television . in 1986 hsn began a second network that broadcast over the air on a number of television stations it had acquired under the name silver king broadcasting . in 1999 the stations were sold to iac founder barry diller and changed its name to usa broadcasting with a few of them ending hsn programming outside of overnight hours and taking on a local programming format equivalent to toronto s citytv . hsn continues to air on low power stations one of these is owned in agreement by univision . ventana television ventana meaning window in spanish has the same street address as hsn and is the holding company for its broadcast licenses . in 1997 hsn formally launched its second nationwide electronic retail venture a 24 hour network under the america s store name it had operated similar concepts of more limited scale since 1988 . in april 2007 america s store ceased operating permanently . most of the america s store hosts some of which were already splitting hosting duties between networks were absorbed into the hsn programming schedule . in 1998 home shopping network launched a spanish language service home shopping en espa ol on the univision owned galavision cable network . in 2000 the spanish version rebranded itself as hse and began broadcasting on low power stations in the u.s. and puerto rico . it also ceased to broadcast through galavision . in june 2002 hse ceased to operate . in 1999 the company launched hsn.com which as of 2009 is one of the 10 most trafficked e commerce websites . in an attempt to engage with younger consumers in 2009 hsn produced a 14 episode online video series faces of beautiful you which follows three young women who find solutions to many of life s problems through hsn s beauty products . the campaign included a facebook widget character blogs and profiles for the three main characters on twitter myspace and facebook . on august 19 2012 hsn co founder roy speer died after a long illness . bud paxson died on january 9 2015 . high definition edit in august 2009 hsn launched a high definition simulcast feed which broadcasts in the 1080i resolution format . at launch it was carried by time warner cable and verizon fios ; 3 it has since been added by other providers such as comcast and at & t u verse . when the hd channel launched the network had a different presentation than most hd channels choosing to present content on the standard definition feed using a left cut of the hd image rather than taken from the center of the screen within the standard 4 3 safe area . as of february 2013 the standard definition channel is now merely downscaled at the provider from the hd feed rather than having a devoted channel for 4 3 tvs . sister channels edit hsn2 edit hsn launched a companion channel hsn2 on august 1 2010 . dish network has carried it since launch . 4 america s store edit america s store as began in 1988 as the home shopping club overnight service which aired on broadcast stations around the usa from midnight to 9 a.m. and in particular on wwor tv from 3 to 6 a.m. in the new york city metropolitan area along with its national superstation feed . in 1989 hsn purchased a number of low power television stations and began operating the service 24 hours a day as home shopping spree . in 1997 the name was changed again to america s jewelry store to reflect a switch to selling exclusively jewelry . this incarnation met with limited success and as a result in 1998 the selection was expanded to include all of hsn s inventory categories with the word jewelry being removed from the network s name . in 2003 america s store began to be carried on directv . the network went off the air in april 2007 . united states edit hsn s u.s. operations are based in st. petersburg florida which houses its corporate headquarters studio and broadcasting facilities . additional call center facilities are located in roanoke virginia & toledo ohio . distribution centers are situated in roanoke piney flats tennessee and fontana california in order to ensure rapid delivery of items . hsn also operates retail outlet stores in orlando brandon bardmoor tampa and st. petersburg emplorium . hsn broadcasts 24 hours a day 364 days a year . on christmas a mix of special programming airs from christmas eve afternoon until midnight on december 25 . for the first twelve years a looping yule log was aired from noon christmas eve to midnight december 26 . the show allows members of the staff to go on camera with their families to say hello to relatives back home . united kingdom edit hsn had a uk sister network called hse which has ceased operating . germany edit hsn has a sister network in europe called hse24 . japan edit hsn s sister network in japan is known as the shop channel . canada edit the shopping channel was launched in 1987 as canadian home shopping network chsn hsn s sister network in canada . in 1999 the station was sold to rogers communications and is no longer affiliated with hsn . philippines edit home shopping network is currently aired in the philippines via shop tv a shopping channel owned by solar entertainment corporation . it is also aired as a paid advertising block on gma gma news tv beam tv aksyontv and most of the channels owned by solar entertainment corporation including diva universal philippines which is a joint venture with nbcuniversal . in 2015 the hsn brand is no longer named on screen but they used the shopping channel s name . italy edit home shopping europe was launched in italy in 2001 as home shopping europe replacing h.o.t. italia when this acronym intended the television channel home order television . in 2003 the frequencies of hse were sold to mediaset and the channel was renamed mediashopping . 5 in 2011 home shopping europe bought the channel back ; the channel was renamed hse24 . technology edit call center edit hsn national started life with a standard rotary phone system that concentrated calls to the front of the queue . this corresponded to the front row of order takers in the hsn studio at the levitz center so named as the location was a former levitz furniture store in clearwater florida . after several months this system was no longer adequate and hsn entered a phase where a phone system from gte was used . hsn claimed that the systems inability to handle the high call volumes resulted in a loss of business . hsn sued gte for 1.5 billion . in a counter libel suit gte claimed that hsn had slandered the company ; gte won a 100 million judgment . both parties settled out of court . 6 in the interim hsn found another telephone vendor to handle its call volume . the rockwell corporation s galaxy line of switches was used for the current call center as well as the new locations in st. petersburg . hsn has an in house call center in st. petersburg florida which mostly handles customer service calls . hsn also employs several hundred customer service representatives from work at home positions who take calls and place orders via hsn s customer service intranet . hsn also contracts call centers to handle its sales calls especially when hsn is broadcasting shows with highly popular items . interactive voice response edit hsn was an early adopter of an interactive voice response ivr system for order entry . this system allowed customers to place orders through the ivr rather than an agent . the original ivr was a product supplied by precision software incorporated psi of st. paul minnesota . the product made use of an intel pc chassis and dialogic boards for call termination . as the system also needed to communicate with the burroughs mainframe it used a serial connection to communicate with the online application . while psi had off the shelf components it required a great deal of customization to create scripts and interface with the order entry system . psi ran up a high amount of hours and this caused hsn to actually purchase psi rather than pay their bill . once released the system was branded tootie after the bicycle horn that show hosts used to help excite the audience and was the network s mascot up until the mid 1990s . as the size of hsn s call center kept increasing it decided to create a new ivr platform that could handle more load . as nothing available on the open market could handle the volume hsn required the psi subsidiary started work on a customer platform called the tsp