The Star Television Network (commonly branded as Starcast initially, then STN , prior to launch, then Star from its launch up to the network's shutdown), was an attempt, though unsuccessful, at a fifth television network based in Orlando, Florida . The network was notable as the first television network to have featured exclusively direct response commercials and infomercials among standard programming.
32-512: Star featured classic, though cheaper and lesser-known, 1950s and 1960s programming, movies and game shows under the TV Heaven slogan, with direct response infomercials rounding out the schedule. The network expected to buy newer programs and originate its own programming once on a firm operating status. Star was facing competition from the Home Shopping Network and Fox , which went after
64-554: A joint venture with the Tribune Company , Six days earlier, on October 27, Chris-Craft Industries announced the launch of the United Paramount Network ( UPN ), in a programming partnership with Paramount Television division of Viacom (which would become part-owner of the network in 1996). As a result, the core Chris-Craft independent stations (as well as those owned by Paramount ) would serve as charter stations of
96-497: A new September 1 deadline for enough affiliates to sign on for a possible November 1 launch. The network expected to be based at the then-new Universal Studios Florida in Orlando. At this time, the network restructured its affiliate agreement in dropping the annual carriage fee for the addition of some infomercials and a refundable deposit of $ 1,500 to $ 175,000 based on the station's size. The number of affiliates at launch and infomercials
128-621: A new viable fifth television network would be launch by one of PTEN's parent companies; Warner Bros. would partner with the Tribune Broadcasting subsidiary of the Tribune Company to launch The WB Television Network. Meanwhile, PTEN's other parent company would launch a viable sixth television network: the United Television subsidiary of Chris-Craft would partner with the Paramount Television subsidiary of Viacom to launch
160-421: A phase where a phone system from GTE was used. HSN claimed that the system's 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. HSN developed its original order-taking system on a Burroughs Large System mainframe using
192-504: A rented studio in Winter Park, Florida . Additionally, broadcasting hours were reduced to 8 hours a day, plus 4 hours of infomercials. The network expected to have revenue reach $ 100 million in its second year of operations. By July 1990, Star had been granted a federal permit for a station in Austin, Minnesota . Star launched on September 29, 1990 with 10 affiliates reaching 9 million homes, as
224-567: A viewer went online and ordered merchandise. HSN National began 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
256-569: The LINC 10 fourth generation language. Prime Time Entertainment Network The Prime Time Entertainment Network ( PTEN ) was an American television network that was operated by the Prime Time Consortium, a joint venture between the Warner Bros. Domestic Television subsidiary of Time Warner and Chris-Craft Industries . First launched on January 20, 1993, and operating until 1997,
288-548: The United Paramount Network (UPN). Both The WB & UPN would eventually be replaced in 2006 by The CW Network, another viable fifth television network joint venture between CBS Corporation (successor to the original Viacom & eventual full owner of UPN) & Warner Bros. Meanwhile, with the launch of The CW in 2006, News Corporation , then the parent company of Fox , would take its stations formerly affiliated with UPN & use them to launch in 2006 what then
320-864: The April 1989 launch date and have 18 hours of broadcasting a day. After the Black Monday stock market crash in October 1987, Starcast's investors pulled out. By January 1988, the company had 70 stations willing to sign on to the network. By April 1989 (the projected launch date), the network, now under the STN branding (having changed from Starcast), pushed back their launch to July due to programming negotiations and financing hold ups. 64 stations had provisionally signed on as affiliates in markets like Los Angeles , Chicago , Philadelphia , Boston , Jacksonville, Florida and Orlando to an estimated reach of 40 million households. The network
352-460: The CEO position at Weight Watchers . On July 6, 2017, Liberty Interactive announced it would buy the remaining 62% of HSN stock it did not already own in order to acquire the company for its QVC Group. QVC CEO Mike George would be CEO of the combined company. In September 2018, HSN had partnered with Pickler & Ben for a "shop the show" feature that allows viewers to buy featured items from HSN via
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#1732855007723384-628: The Gateway area of St. Petersburg, Florida , United States. As of July 2014, Joy Mangano holds the record for most units sold in a day with 216,000 units of pillow sets. The forerunner of HSN was launched by Lowell Paxson (who later established PAX-TV , which is now Ion Television) 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
416-488: The addition of programming on Tuesdays and Wednesdays on January 19, 1993, the day before PTEN launched). PTEN launched on January 20, 1993, with two series: the science fiction series Time Trax and the action drama Kung Fu: The Legend Continues . PTEN faced two obstacles created by its parent companies which would affect the network. On November 2, 1993, the Warner Bros. Entertainment division of Time Warner announced that it would form its own fifth network, The WB , as
448-532: The additional stations were not ready or failed to receive FCC approval. With fewer stations, the network sold less through the infomercials, thus not meeting company goals. The infomercial companies were having their own problems, and thus unable to produce newer shows. Lang could not add more funding into the company due to difficulties at Lang Communications. Lang and the company sought out other investors, to no avail. Star ceased operations on Monday, January 14, 1991, at 4:00 a.m. EST. All 25 staffers working for
480-587: The bigger markets. In light of this, the network explained that its key advantage is in terms of operating costs for the station, in which a station affiliating with the network could save about 90% on their programming costs, and a national advertiser advertising on the network could pay about 68% of the major network rates. The network was introduced under the Starcast branding in October 1987 as needing $ 15 million to launch and had just started contacting potential affiliates. The network expected to sign up 30 stations by
512-506: The closure of the Roanoke distribution center in favor of a combined QVC/HSN distribution center to be located in Bethlehem, PA. As of today, HSN and QVC is carried over the digital public airwaves and can be viewed without a cable subscription or a streaming device. Additionally a new Streaming service was introduced to cable providers which provides a different shopping experience compared to if
544-407: 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 and future owner QVC was launched the following year. In 1986, HSN began a second network that broadcast free-to-air on a number of television stations it had acquired under
576-470: The late 1980s and early 1990s. It offered packaged nights of programming to participating television stations, beginning with a two-hour block on Wednesday evenings, with a second block (originally airing on Saturday, before moving to Monday for the 1994-95 season) being added in September 1993. Originally, the station groups involved in the Prime Time Consortium helped finance PTEN's programs; however, that deal
608-700: The name Silver King Broadcasting. In 1992, HSN spun off from Silver King Broadcasting, and afterwards saw Liberty Media acquire stock in the network. In 1996, the station group was sold back to Silver King Broadcasting, which was now owned by Barry Diller , and changed its name to "HSN Inc." after its merger with Silver King was completed. Under Diller's leadership, the HSN also acquired the USA Network , Sci-Fi Channel and Universal Television in October 1997. This resulted in HSN Inc. being changed to USA Network Inc. The purchase
640-623: The network mainly aired drama programs aimed at adults between the ages of 18 and 54. At its peak, PTEN's programming was carried on 177 television stations, covering 93% of the country. At the time of PTEN's founding, co-owner Chris-Craft Industries owned independent television stations in several large and mid-sized U.S. cities (among them its two largest stations, WWOR-TV in New York City and KCOP-TV in Los Angeles ) through its BHC Communications and United Television divisions, which formed
672-599: The network were laid off. After Star's shutdown, another attempt at a viable fifth television network would be made in 1993, 2 years after, when the Warner Bros. Domestic Television subsidiary of Time Warner would partner with Chris-Craft Industries to launch the Prime Time Entertainment Network (PTEN). That network would eventually cease operations in 1995 when both of the network's parent companies went off on their own. It would also be in that year that
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#1732855007723704-513: The network, but did not commence broadcasting until after the network's closure in January 1991: One announced affiliate never broadcast: Home Shopping Network HSN, Inc. an initialism of its former name Home Shopping Network , is an American free-to-air television network owned by the Qurate Retail Group , which also owns catalog company Cornerstone Brands. It is based in
736-403: The new network; Chris-Craft also chose to pull out of the partnership to focus on operating UPN. The network also faced issues from some PTEN-affiliated stations that took issue with the network's barter split, which gave nine minutes of advertising time per hour to the syndicator, leaving only five minutes for the stations to sell and program locally. PTEN also ran into difficulty when the studio
768-453: The nuclei of the network. PTEN was launched in 1993 as a potential fifth television network (the second since the demise of Star Television Network , launched in 1990, but shutdown the year after, in 1991), and was created in reaction to the launch of the Fox network (which debuted in October 1986, seven years before PTEN launched) as well as the successes of first-run syndicated programming during
800-869: The show's website and HSN.com. In May 2023, HSN's parent Qurate Retail Group's stock was facing a delisting from the Nasdaq if share prices are unable to rebound, as their stock has declined over 80% over the past year. In October 2023, CreditRiskMonitor reported that Qurate Retail Group was nearing a potential Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. HSN's United States 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 October, 2018 Quarate announced
832-662: Was a requirement to bring on replacement investor Dale W. Lang, owner of Lang Communications, which then owned several magazines including Success and Working Woman magazine. The infomercials would bring a steady source of income for the network and were mostly to be provided by Quantum Marketing International. Missing the September 1, 1989 affiliate total deadline, the network, under the Star branding (its second & final name change), pushed back its launch to September 1990. As of August 12, 1990, there were 21 signed stations reaching 13.7 million households. Also, Star moved operations to
864-535: Was finalized in February 1998. In September 2000, Home Shopping Network changed its name to HSN. Mindy Grossman became CEO of HSN in 2006, and aggressively reinvented and relaunched the brand. She took HSN public in 2008, and has overseen its multibillion-dollar retail portfolio and multimedia expansion. Grossman left HSNi in May 2017 to helm Weight Watchers . In April 2017, HSN CEO Mindy Grossman stepped down to assume
896-403: Was forced to let stations out of their back-end commitments for several series. PTEN adopted a variable schedule for the 1995-1996 season, for affiliates to schedule around The WB and UPN's programming on the night of their choosing. With Chris-Craft pulling out of the venture, PTEN essentially became a syndication service for its remaining shows, before ceasing operations altogether in 1997. One of
928-518: Was restructured at the beginning of the network's second year. The service sought affiliations with various television stations not affiliated with the Big Three television networks . However, close to half of PTEN's initial affiliates were stations that were already affiliated with Fox; as a result, these stations usually scheduled PTEN programming around Fox's then five-night prime time schedule (although Fox would expand its schedule to seven nights with
960-596: Was the newest sixth television network, MyNetworkTV . However, by 2009, amidst poor ratings & viewership, MyNetworkTV would be switched from a TV network to broadcast TV syndication service. Star's schedule was of four hours of infomercials and eight hours of classic shows under the TV Heaven slogan. Some of the programs known to have aired on Star included: Honey West , Judge Roy Bean , Mr. and Mrs. North , and Richard Diamond, Private Detective were also announced as part of Star's line-up in August 1988, though it
992-468: Was then in talks with an additional 33 stations. At this time, an affiliation fee ranging from $ 2,750 to $ 60,000 annually would be paid by the stations based on their market size instead of the standard network payments to affiliates. 36 minutes a day would be allocated for advertising sold by the network, with the remainder given to its affiliates. STN missed the July launch due to lack of additional funding and set
Star Television Network - Misplaced Pages Continue
1024-477: Was unknown if these series had aired. Infomercials are listed in schedules under various names, such as Star Showcase , Star Opportunities , Star Collections , Star Sensations , Star Innovations , Market Place , Morning Star and Direct to You . As with other networks, affiliates fill the rest of the time with their own local and syndicated programming, as well as sports, which would preempt Star programming. The following stations signed up as affiliates of
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