Iconic TV shopping channel on brink of going bankrupt | Personal Finance | Finance
QVC Group is planning to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US (Image: Getty)
The owner of an iconic shopping channel is planning to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States. Since the 1980s QVC has gained the attention of millions of television viewers looking for a bargain.
The filing about imminent bankruptcy protection by the channel’s parent company, QVC Group, comes as TV shopping networks struggle to adapt to a rapid consumer shift as people are turning increasingly to livestreams on TikTok, or online marketplaces such as Shein.
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QVC continues to operate channels in the UK (Image: Getty)
According to an annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week, QVC Group said it intends to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection at the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas after reaching a restructuring agreement with creditors.
Its goal is to emerge from bankruptcy protection before the summer is over. However, the Pennsylvania based company warned its access to funding is difficult to predict.
The Retail Gazette reports that the filing does not directly affect QVC’s subsidiaries operating outside the United States.
QVC Group said there were significant fees and other costs in connection with the preparation for the bankruptcy protection.
It wrote: “We cannot assure that cash on hand, cash flow from operations will be sufficient to continue to fund our operations.”
Besides QVC, QVC Group also owns HSN, which used to be known as the Home Shopping Network.
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Its global business, QVC International, includes the UK, Germany, Italy and Japan. It remained profitable at operating level last year, generating nearly £1.8billion ($2.4bn) in revenue and almost £161million ($218m) in operating income, according to the Retail Gazette.
That business continues to operate UK channels including QVC Beauty, QVC Extra and QVC Style.
The US business has been trying to revive flagging sales for some time. In 2024 sales were down almost 30% compared with its peak of more than £10.3billion ($14bn) in 2020.
Shares in QVC Group, which went for over £663 ($900) a decade ago, were trading for less than £2.21 ($3) earlier this week. At the end of 2025, QVC Group employed around 16,900 staff.
Founded in 1986 by Joseph Myron Segel, QVC, built a following primarily of women aged 50 and older, according to Lawrence Duke, a clinical professor of marketing at the university’s LeBow College of Business.
He said in a blog post that QVC benefited from repeat purchases by its base of viewers. Mr Duke added that this group has aged and is shrinking. Competition has also increased substantially.
Mr Duke said shoppers have increasingly dropped cable TV subscriptions and look less towards scheduled programming.
Such programming has been replaced by live platforms such as TikTok Shop, where people can buy products touted by influencers with tens of thousands of followers on Instagram and YouTube.
Mr Duke wrote that low-cost marketplaces such as Shein and Temu are also commanding more attention from consumers.
QVC, which is short for Quality Value Convenience, has significantly expanded its digital sales and its presence on social media, but those manoeuvres appear to have fallen short.
Mr Duke said QVC “competes in a crowded marketplace where attention is fragmented and switching costs are low”.
