ShopHQ

ShopHQ (formerly ValueVision, ShopNBC, Evine Live, and Evine) was an American cable, satellite and broadcast home shopping television network and multi-channel video retailer owned by iMedia Brands Inc., whose assets were acquired by IV Media on August 16, 2023.

After being sold to its current owners, the network began to discontinue its carriage on cable and satellite services in what turned out to be an unsuccessful shift to social media live feeds of products. The network abruptly went off the air on April 17, 2025, several weeks after being removed from its largest presence, Spectrum, and though its website remains up and active, the company has filed a WARN notice notifying the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development that it intends to shut down its operations at its Eden Prairie, Minnesota headquarters by the end of June 2025 and layoff around 200 workers.

Overview

Launched on March 12, 1991 as ValueVision, the channel has Qurate's HSN, QVC, and Jewelry Television as its competitors. Between 2013 and 2015, it was branded as ShopHQ, which the name was restored in 2019.

In addition to ShopHQ, iMedia operated two other brands; ShopHQ Health, offering health and wellness products, and the Bulldog Shopping Network, which carries products for men. Controlled by The Clinton Group until 2023, Comcast had a 12.5% stake in the company.

Both ShopHQ and iMedia Brands (IMBI) are headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. In August 2023, they were acquired by IV Media, a subsidiary of Innovation Ventures, LLC.

History

ValueVision and ShopNBC/HQ

After being founded in June 1990, part of ValueVision Media (VVM) was sold to NBC ten years later. When ValueVision was renamed ShopNBC in June 2001, its rebranding included a new logo that featured the NBC peacock, but the parent company retained its name.

In 2010, it was reported that NBC was planning to sell its stake in ValueVision Media, due in part to a pending merger between NBCUniversal and Comcast. One month after formally announcing that it would sell its stake back to VVM,NBC to Sell Stake in ShopNBC
''MultiChannel News'', May 20, 2010 NBCU ultimately decided to maintain its investment in the company.

After acquiring NBCUniversal's financial interest in 2013, ValueVision Media announced the network would be renamed ShopHQ (visually branded as SHQP). ''Mark Cuban's American Dream'' aired on the network in 2014, and was part of a plan under the Clinton Group management to feature more celebrity hosts.

Evine

On February 13, 2015, the ShopHQ network was rebranded as EVINE Live, following ValueVision Media's acquisition of e-commerce company Dollars Per Minute, the owner of the EVINE trademark, in order to distance itself from the reputation it held under its previous brandings, ValueVision, ShopNBC, and ShopHQ.

The network hired former QVC host Kathy Levine, and featured merchandise branded under different reality television stars, including Lisa Vanderpump and Luann de Lesseps. It also premiered concepts from other well-known celebrities, including Paula Deen, Vanessa Williams, Nancy O'Dell, Holly Robinson Peete, Karen Fairchild, Terry Dubrow and Heather Dubrow, Todd English, Donny Osmond and Bob Vila. It also sold products on its e-commerce website, Evine.com.

EVINE Live launched a high definition feed of the channel in 1080i (including the acquisition of HD tier channel slots under new carriage agreements) the same year, but until September 2017, remained in standard definition, merely rebroadcasting the SD feed. The network converted to an upscaled standard definition widescreen presentation in the fall of 2016, and quietly upgraded to HD a year after.

In July 2016, EVINE removed "Live" from their on-air name.

Return to ShopHQ

On July 17, 2019, Evine Live Inc. began doing business under the new corporate banner of iMedia Brands Inc, with their shares traded under a new ticker of IMBI; Invicta Watch Group (which has a number of hours on the network as its largest vendor) invested an additional $6 million into the company.

The network rebranded as ShopHQ on August 21, which the company previously used the ShopHQ name between 2013 and 2015, with the cited reason being market research suggesting confusion with the "E" name being confused for an entertainment news brand such as E! or ''Entertainment Tonight''.

IMBI announced plans to launch a Spanish-speaking shopping channel called LaVenta Shopping Network, along with the male-focused Bulldog Shopping Network, itself a rebranding of EVINE TOO, a timeshift channel with only minimum cable distribution.

Though the channel slot for Bulldog Shopping Network was activated in the spring of 2020, its focus quickly changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ShopHQ Health, which sold health and wellness products including surgical masks, launched within weeks of the pandemic, and became its new official branding on September 1.

Bulldog relaunched in June 2021, but was discontinued on most providers at the end of December, after the network's satellite lease with Olympus expired. It was replaced with Kenneth Copeland's Victory Channel.

Some of ShopHQ Health's cable carriage was discontinued at the end of May 2022, and was replaced by QVC3; both properties continue streaming online and feature some over-the-air carriage.

Sale to Innovation Ventures, LLC, unsuccessful shift to online platforms

After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 28, 2023, the channel's parent company, iMedia Brands, said on July 10 that it could sell its assets to RNN Media Group for $50 million, in a deal scheduled to close in August. RNN already had an agreement with IMBI, having affiliated its stations with ShopHQ in a three-year agreement in 2021. This deal was eventually unsuccessful and in 2023, the company was instead sold to IV Media's Manoj Bhargava, founder and CEO of 5-hour Energy, and owner of NewsNet.

In the months after, both ShopHQ Health and Bulldog's programming were merged into the ShopHQ schedule, and the network's new management began to pursue an alternative model of increasing their live shopping presence through online platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. This was part of a broader shift from traditional television models that was also reflected in Bhargava's closure of NewsNet in August 2024. ShopHQ's cable and satellite carriage has begun to be discontinued with the change, as Optimum removed the channel on their systems on February 1, 2025, with Spectrum, their largest presence, following on April 1 as ShopHQ refused to provide further programming.

On April 17, 2025, the network's operations abruptly shut down mid-day on all platforms, including YouTube, with news of further layoffs from the network confirmed in the next few days after. After a clearance sale was completed on the website, by the second weekend of May it had been entirely replaced with an image claiming it was "under maintenance", and is expected that the network's website will completely shut down by next month.

Former logos

File:ShopNBC logo.svg, Logo for when the network was known as ShopNBC. The logo was used from 2000 to 2009 and the name was retired in 2013.
File:ShopHQ logo.png, Logo for when the network's prior ShopHQ iteration from 2013 to 2015.
Image:EVINE Logo.png, Evine's logo from 2015 to 2019; for its first year under Evine Live, it was rendered in the same form, except in an abstract design consisting of strips of varying colors vertically rendered in various red, orange and pink shades, and the text in white; the "e" on the right was also rendered backwards.
File:ShopHQ 2019 Logo.png, The second-to-last logo was used with ShopHQ's second iteration from 2019 to 2024.

References

External links

*
iMedia Brands, Inc.
corporate website
{{American broadcast television (English) defunct

Defunct television networks in the United States
English-language television stations in the United States
Television channels and stations established in 1991
Television channels and stations disestablished in 2025
Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2023
Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq
Shopping networks in the United States
1991 establishments in Minnesota
2025 disestablishments in Minnesota
Companies based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota
2023 mergers and acquisitions