Home Shopping Network

"After some few months, the legal entanglements came unstuck, and I also became chairman of the Home Shopping Network. I was definitely humbled, but I was back in business and I liked being back on the attack. I also more than liked being discounted again. I was in firm control of two public companies, and while of no size or circumstance, I had enough clay to get going. First up, though, was fixing the forlorn and broken-down Home Shopping Network."

"I was close to hopeless as I neared the end of my meandering up the Intracoastal. Could I end my career with such a whimper? Where could I find the match that would light my next move? I was down to less than a matchstick when I spoke with John Malone early in 1995. I told him the trouble I was having finding something to get me off zero. Joking and dismissive, he said, “Well, I control Silver King. You can have that if you want.” Silver King? What the hell is that? It turned out to be a string of UHF television stations that didn’t actually broadcast anything; they were repeater stations for the programming of the Home Shopping Network. HSN was the forerunner to QVC. It actually invented the interactive-shopping category. Silver King had revenues of only $40 million a year with no prospects other than its income from the Home Shopping Network."