QVC has revealed that it is already considering a new version of its online video platform, less than a month after it launched the latest incarnation, QVC On Demand.
Speaking at a conference in London last week, QVC director of engineering and new media Richard Burrell said he expects the latest platform to have a limited lifespan. He said: “It will last about 18 months and then we will chuck it away and start again.”
He said that the TV shopping channel is trying to follow in the footsteps of internet TV platforms such as BBC iPlayer, adding that iPlayer has provided great free publicity for the concept of watching video on
the web.
The company’s other channels to market are also up for review. Burrell said that QVC’s digital shopping channel will implement changes next year, because it is “costing a fortune” and its penetration rates are falling.
The company’s mobile site is also regarded as a work in progress. Burrell added: “The mobile site cost very little deliberately –£20,000 – because we will chuck it away and do a new one.”
He also confirmed that the QVC Beauty channel – which is available through the red button to Sky viewers – is already paying its own way after it launched less than two months ago.
QVC’s web channel, which is 10 years old this month, now generates 18 per cent of the company’s UK sales, but attracts 50 per cent of its
new customers.

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