Shopping For Guys
Cable shopping service Shop At Home is hoping to get men to pick up the phone and order knives as often as women order jewelry.
The 75 million subscriber service — which has 80% of its distribution on cable systems — will target its on-air products to a male audience, eliminating such distaff-skewing items as beauty aids, according to Andy Caldwell, vice president of affiliate marketing.
As part of the network relaunch, Jewelry Television, which purchased Shop At Home from E.W. Scripps Co. last June for $17 million, will scale back the network’s live content to 13 hours. The remaining 11 hours will be filled with programming and merchandise from Jewelry Television.
During its live broadcast, Caldwell said the network will concentrate on products that appeal to male audiences such as watches, collectible coins, knives and sports memorabilia. Shows that will remain on air include The Coin Vault with Robert Chambers and Skip Connelly, The Sports Room with Elliot Smith and Kevin Height, The Watch Show with Tim Temple, and Knife Collectors Show with Shawn Leflar.
He said such categories have been the most profitable for the service and attract the majority of purchases, although he would not reveal figures.
Categories going by the wayside as part of the revamp include home and garden products, jewelry and health and beauty items, according to Caldwell.
“We took a hard look at our product lines that existed at home and found that the [male-skewing] lines were the most profitable,” he said. “We know from our database that it’s mostly a male-driven audience that’s driving these purchases.”
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While Caldwell said the network is not actively looking to add more product lines, the service has an interest in securing licensing deals for sports and fitness equipment, men’s skin care products, and other sports-related categories.
Caldwell said the network will actively promote its new focus through a variety of trade magazines, as well as direct mail and Web site postings to its database of male subscribers.
R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.