Copycat QVC Has A Shop-By-Remote Offering In The Works, Like HSN’s

We’re very late to the party on this one: MediaPost had it back in July.

But taking a page out of HSN’s book, namely HSN Shop By Remote, copycat QVC plans to also offer viewers shop-by-remote options. Thanks for the tip, Ensequence CEO Peter Lowe.

He’s a Cablevision Systems and MTV Networks refugee who we know from our former life at Multichannel News. We recall sitting next to him and his wife at a very, very long business dinner that Scripps Networks had at the gorgeous Rainbow Room, with its spectacular view of Manhattan. The wine was flowing, and we think at one point ol’ Pete made fun of our lipstick.

Take my word for it: Most business dinners are not like popping a cork on a bottle and enjoying great food with friends. They are more often like the forced socializing you see on “Mad Men,” like that fun Christmas party Sunday where Roger Sterling had to wear a Santa suit for that repulsive Lucky Strike client, the on-the-down-low guy who hit on Sal and got him fired.

Anyway, here is the press release that we are more than a day late and a dollar short on:

QVC Selects the Ensequence Interactive TV Platform to Enable QVC Viewers to Shop via the Remote Control

NEW YORK (July 26, 2010) – Ensequence, the interactive TV company, today announced that QVC, one of the world’s largest multimedia retailers, has selected the Ensequence Managed Services Group and the Ensequence iTV Manager Programmer Edition to deliver its customers an interactive TV remote control shopping experience.

“We are excited to be entering into a long-term relationship with QVC,” said Peter Low, Ensequence CEO. “Recent quantitative research has proven that consumers are interested in shopping and buying with their remotes. With interactive TV, viewers are able to respond immediately to product offers.”

Interactive TV from Ensequence will provide QVC the opportunity to offer a selection of products for viewing and purchase across cable set-top boxes. In addition, using the Ensequence iTV Manager Dynamic Data module, QVC will have the ability to change its “shop window” to suit the products available along with multi-product display capabilities. Product details will also be able to be quickly updated, modified and synchronized to video content on a daily or even hourly basis.

“We’re thrilled to roll out this service to our customers, with our initial deployment scheduled for next year,” said Al Ulozas, QVC’s senior vice president of affiliate sales and marketing. “Ensequence will provide QVC with the necessary tools needed to deliver iTV to our viewers, making it easy for them to complete purchases using their remote controls.”

HSN Shop By Remote is now in more than 30 million homes, HSN CEO Mindy Grossman said on a second-quarter conference call Wednesday. That rollout has been in Cablevision Systems, Comcast and Verizon FiOS homes.