Is This The Beginning Of The End For QVC And Home Shopping TV? | Fast Five Shorts

QVC Group has disclosed that it anticipates issuing a going concern warning in its delayed annual report, citing $6.6 billion in debt.

Wow.

And ongoing negotiations with lenders.

According to Retail Dive, QVC Group disclosed it cannot submit its 10k within the prescribed time period without unreasonable effort or expense, citing ongoing lender negotiations.

The company carries approximately $6.6 billion in total consolidated debt, including a critical $2.9 billion credit facility maturing in October of this year, making near term refinancing the single most urgent priority for the business.

The decline in QVC's core business has been stark.

QVC and HSN Home Shopping Network once reached over 90 million American homes at the company's peak.

By last September, the active consumer base had shrunk to 7 million people from 11.6 million as recently as 2020.

Chris?

QVC has just issued a going concern warning.

Is this the beginning of the end for Home shopping Television, or is there still a version of this business that can survive in the streaming and social commerce era?

Oh, wow.

I think there's probably still a version of it that survives, but it's not qvc.

I think it's, it's the end of qvc.

I mean, I mean, it's going to.

The version of it that survives is called TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

Let's just call it like it is, you know, and I, I said this back in the day because qvc, I think it was last year, even the year before, they said they're overtly pivoting towards social media.

And I said at the time that it was game over then, like, that was the side to me that was game over.

And, and now it really is.

I mean, sales, like you said, sales have gone from $15 billion in 2020 to, to $10 billion.

Somehow the debt got out of control, you know, as well, which I mean, and it may still be tempting because I think there's probably some people out there that are, they're still tempted to say, oh, yeah, but they're still doing $10 billion, Laura.

Like $10 billion is a lot of volume.

Yeah, but it's $10 billion of typewriters.

Because the brands and the influencers, they no longer need the services that QVC once provided.

They can do that themselves.

The business model just is no longer valid, in my opinion.

So that $10 billion is just going to continue to shrink and shrink and shrink.

And there's no amount of refinancing or remodeling.

The business strategy that I think is going to save it in the long run, you might be able to still squeeze some juice out of that Lemon, but that $10 billion is going to ultimately end up being zero to me.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean it's, it's just a real bummer.

I mean, that 50 billion in 2020, I do we assume that is like a little goose by everybody sitting in front of their TVs, like, I guess that's the other thing.

We're even talking about a number that might not even be have been real, quote unquote.

But yeah, I really kind of pre.

TikTok explosion too, in the U.S. yeah, TikTok exploded after that.

You're right.

You're right.

And that has become our shopping platform.

Yeah, I mean, it's a shame.

I think it set the tone and the standard for what we see in social video shopping.

But, you know, nobody has cable TV anymore.

It's your first nail on the coffin.

Like, of course the customer base shrunk.

You know, the Oscars are going to be on YouTube.

Like they're just everything in the, the base of the world that produce QVC is just gone.

It does highlight for me the fact that livestream shopping, you know, as we were talking about five years ago, or even at the shop talk where you and I were, we were still talking about, never came to the US in the same way that it, it has, you know, really lived and thrived in Asian countries, as, you know, generalizing there.

But it does succeed in very narrow worlds, like, you know, whatnot is in collectibles.

I think there's some sneaker platforms and stuff.

So it does, you know, if we're thinking in a productive way about qvc, not that it would survive.

But it does bring me back to my questions about assortment.

Like there's just the model of just sort of having anything and everything and not having a platform.

Like we'll get again mentioned tjx, like a TJ Maxx store, you know, that people want to visit.

If it doesn't seem, it doesn't work.

And so if you don't have a clear value proposition with a specific assortment, then you know, you're out.

So, you know, this one's just kind of a bummer.

Yeah, I think, I think.

But I think it's important what you're bringing up because I think the way I think about what you just said is QVC wasn't successful because of the live aspect of what was the programming.

QVC was successful in retrospect because it was the closest approximation we could get to Doom scrolling for product inspiration that you wanted to buy because that was the only outlet you had to go and occupy your time.

But now it's like Carter Jensen always talks about who's on the show.

A couple weeks ago, it's all about where do you spend your time?

And now people are spending their time on what is a better experience in terms of how you can doom scroll in real time, whether it's a live event or not.

You have the option deciding that.

And that, that's really.

I think, I never thought about that.

I've never said that until you just mentioned that.

But I think that's really what, what has hit the business model more so than the actual live nature of, of what it did.

Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's.

The old mass media is gone.

And so the idea that everyone's flipping through the channels, the same channels at the same time and stumbling on something and, you know, I think you could still make the argument that they had stuff people wanted and they had good deals and stuff.

And I think there were personalities at one time who maybe people like to watch.

But yeah, when you've, when you've.

Splintered where people spend their time, you know, people aren't going to the movies.

It's like mass media just isn't a real.

It's the upheaval that we've been talking about for a long time.

So, yeah, I think it's.

Yeah, yeah.

And then with technology and AI, you just.

You don't need the influencers or the people that actually bring the attention to the products.

You don't need that QVC requires to do that.

Right.

Yeah.

I think it's just a tough game.