Qvc Is Filing For Bankruptcy After 40 Years On The Air—is This The End Of Home Shopping?

Key Takeaways

• QVC Group said it would file for Chapter 11, with billions in debt and a plan to exit bankruptcy in about 90 days.
• QVC and HSN lost about half their cable TV viewers between 2018 and 2024 as cord-cutting reshapes how people shop from home.

QVC Group (QVCGA), whose home shopping channels hawked everything from faux-diamond jewelry to dancing Santa figurines, said late Wednesday it would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

To paraphrase Hemingway, the losses came gradually—a decade of American cord-cutting and shrinking audiences—and then all at once as debts mounted and its stock price entered free fall.

But QVC's problem isn't that Americans have stopped buying off a screen at 2 a.m. It's that most have moved online.

Why This Matters To You

QVC's bankruptcy is the clearest sign yet that live television shopping, which once reached 100 million American homes, has lost audience to social media platforms like TikTok Shop, where U.S. sales have doubled in recent years.

QVC, which also owns HSN, said in its 10-K filing that it planned to file for bankruptcy in the Southern District of Texas. The company said it expects to emerge in about 90 days under a prearranged deal with creditors. (As of Thursday afternoon, no filings appeared in online court records. QVC Group didn't respond to a request for comment.) The company twice delayed its annual filing, noting in late March "substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern."

Founded in the mid-1980s, QVC's first broadcast reached 7.6 million cable homes in 20 states. By the mid-2010s, QVC could be seen by more than 100 million U.S. households and aired in eight countries. The network helped launch household names—SPANX, IT Cosmetics, bareMinerals, and philosophy skin care all gained early traction on its channels.

The company's peak wasn't that long ago. In 2017, QVC bought HSN, a longtime rival, and three years later, annual revenue hit $14.18 billion. Over the next five years, revenues dropped 35%, down to $9.23 billion in 2025, with a net loss of $2.4 billion. The company ended last year with $6.6 billion in debt.

The stock price has fallen more than 99% since 2021, when home shopping got a pandemic-era boost.

QVC could long bank on loyal customers: 97% of the company's 2025 sales came from repeat buyers, who spent an average of about $896 (down from $1,460 the year before).

But the company never reached beyond its base—in 2024, almost three-quarters of QVC shoppers were women over 50, with an average age near 60. Active customers dropped from 8.1 million in 2023 to about 7 million by September 2025.

Note

Chapter 11 doesn't shut down a business. Courts typically approve "first day" motions that keep customer service, shipping, and returns running during reorganization. But things can deteriorate—when Joann's second bankruptcy filing in 2025 shifted from restructuring to liquidation, the company stopped honoring gift cards.

Home shopping isn't dying, but cable packages are. In 2015, according to Pew Research, 76% of Americans subscribed to cable or satellite TV; by 2025, that had dropped to 36%. Meanwhile, QVC and HSN lost about half their viewers from 2017 to 2024.

But the format QVC popularized—a charismatic host selling impulse buys with a countdown clock—is among the fastest-growing segments of American retail. With the global livestream commerce market estimated at about $128 billion in 2024, TikTok Shop is thriving. The social media platform's built-in marketplace is projected to surpass $20 billion in sales in 2026, more than double 2024's total.

QVC isn't the stereotype of a company caught flat-footed by new technology. In 2022, the company rebranded itself as a "live social shopping company," and in April 2025, it launched its TikTok Shop livestream. Ninety percent of new customers last year made their first purchase through a digital channel.

But even as QVC poured resources into the pivot, digital revenue dropped about $250 million year over year in 2025 to $3.97 billion. TV-driven sales were falling even faster. The live shopping market is exploding, but QVC's share of it isn't.