HSN’s Kim Parrish The Latest To Make The Switch To ShopNBC, According To Mindless Rants

Looks like yet another HSN defection to ShopNBC, snooped out by our fellow Jersey native Hugh Jee, master of the blog Useless Trivia and Mindless Rants (which has some great music, as well as political and sports coverage).

He reported Thursday that HSN host-turned-vendor Kim Parrish is taking her clothing line to ShopNBC.

Parrish announced the switch on her Facebook page, according to Hugh Jee and his Mindless Rants. Her collection will debut Nov. 13, Friday the Thirteeth.

Vendors are really playing musical chairs with home shopping networks this year. Suzanne Somers and Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Robert Rey moved from HSN to ShopNBC, while jewelry designers such as Dallas Prince went from ShopNBC to HSN.

It’s hard to know who instigated the switches: Were the vendors’ contracts not renewed, or did they want to jump ship?

We Bet Business Travelers Can’t Wait For This: HSN To Stream Live Video For New In-Flight Service, SkyTown Center

HSN will offer live online video programming as part of a new in-flight service called SkyTown Center, officials said Thursday.

The service is being launched by Row 44, a provider of satellite-based in-flight Wi-Fi for commercial aircraft. The walled-garden service is meant to allow airlines to rapidly offer additional revenue-generating entertainment, shopping and productivity options to the flying public.

SkyTown Center is the first of several products designed to fully leverage an airline’s investment in in-flight connectivity.

In addition to HSN, rollout partners include SkyMall, which will manage its retail partners and their operations; and specialists in travel and mobility like JiWire, BeDynamic and Pinger. First fly date is scheduled Nov.1, in time for the holiday shopping season.

“As an innovative leader in the multi-channel industry, HSN is the first retailer to offer live video streaming across three screens – television, online and via mobile – and we are thrilled to be partnering with Row 44 as the first TV shopping network to broadcast live via Wi-Fi more than 10,000 feet in the air,” John McDevitt, HSN’s vice president of advanced services, said in a prepared statement.

“This innovative new platform is a great opportunity for us to raise our brand awareness while generating revenue from a highly desirable customer base,” he added.

The walled garden is accessible at no charge to all passengers with Wi-Fi-enabled devices, regardless of their interest in purchasing Internet access. Flyers can use it to shop at major retailers, view live television, play games, and explore their destination cities-even booking ground-based services and events before they land.

“SkyMall is excited to expand its role as the in-flight retail consolidator to SkyTown Center,” Casey Christ, SkyMall’s vice president of airline marketing, said in a prepared statement.

“From this platform, we can offer customers the ability to shop from a wide variety of retailers during their flight, allowing them to be more productive when they are traveling,” Christ said. “For retailers, this new platform will provide another way to reach the highly desirable and captive air traveler. Row 44 has developed an outstanding platform and this program is a natural evolution of the SkyMall program which will allow us to drive more revenue for our airline partners while enhancing the overall customer experience onboard.”

A paid SMS-gateway texting feature will also be offered, allowing passengers to send and receive messages to mobile phone users on the ground.

Skytown Center will test various service models during a pilot period. It also includes a technical trial of live television streamed over IP (Internet Protocol) and simultaneous broadcast to multiple aircraft while in flight.

The Skytown Center portal is available for rebranding and customization by any airline using the Row 44 in-flight broadband system.

“Pent up demand for in-flight Internet access is the key driver in the airline industry’s desire to purchase connectivity for their fleets,” said Wendy Campanella, Row 44’s vice president of business development. “But our customers understand that it’s simply the first step in fully leveraging aircraft connectivity, and that there are many additional potential revenue streams. Skytown Center is designed to speed them down this path.”

Row 44 is the a leading broadband Mobile Service Provider to commercial aviation. The company’s Wi-Fi hotspots in the sky offer broadband speeds to the plane. Row 44’s broadband solution is supported by the global infrastructure of Hughes, which has shipped more than 1.9 million broadband satellite terminals to customers in more than 100 countries.

HSN Handbag Designer Carlos Falchi Is Profiled In New York Times, His Target Line Debuts Nov. 1

Designer Carlos Falchi, who has expanded his HSN line beyond handbags to shoes, clothes and accessories, is profiled in the “Thursday Styles” section of The New York Times today.

The second graph of the story talks about Falchi pullng an all-nighter at HSN, where sales for his $100 faux leather coat were at more than 16,000 pieces that day.

In the profile, The Times also talks about the designer’s move into additional products, not just handbags, for HSN with his new Chi by Falchi line.

The story was a good read for us, because we didn’t know much about Falchi’s background. And we weren’t aware that Falchi will be doing a line of purses for Target, priced at $20 to $50. They go on sale at Target Nov. 1, and will be available for two months, according to The Times.

Falchi’s signature leather bags for HSN are much pricier than that, topping out at $850, and he favors floppy, unconstructed designs.

He does about $100 million a year in retail sales, according to The Times.

After New Line On ShopNBC, Plastic Surgeon Dr. Robert Rey And HSN Seem To Have Parted Ways

Thanks to a tip from one of our readers, we’ve learned that Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Robert Rey’s fancy undies and bras have been pulled off, so to speak, HSN’s Web site.

We guess that answers our question — e-mailed three times to HSN and Reys’ PR people — about whether the physician will continue to be selling his Shapewear line even though last week he started to selll his Senuous Solutions skincare creams on ShopNBC.

A poster to one of HSN’s online forums first reported that Rey’s goodies on Monday were deleted fom the No. 2 home shopping channel’s site. HR passd on that information to us.

Rey is the star of the E! Entertainment Television’s “Dr. 90210.”

We Take Third Shot At Finding Out If Plastic Surgeon Dr. Robert Rey Will Keep HSN Gig, While Also Selling Product On ShopNBC

Call us crazy, but we’re taking a third shot to try to find out if Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Robert Rey will continue to appear on HSN now that he’s got a gig at rival ShopNBC.

Rey, star of E! Entertainment Television’s “Dr. 90210,” has been selling Shapewear, fancy undies and bras, on HSN for some time. But last weekend he went on  ShopNBC selling a skincare line, Sensual Solutions.

We don’t offhand recall a time when a vendor was selling goods on two home shopping networks at the same time. We want to know if Rey’s tenure with HSN is over.  

So far, we have sent three e-mails to HSN corporate, which states it will only take questions  from “a media professional with a specific request.” No response yet. Maybe HSN doesn’t think The Homeshoppingista is a media professional.

Not for nothing, and not to toot our own horn, but we will when we must. We went to one of the best J-schools in the country, Medill.  We helped launch Crain’s New York Business. We won one of the most prestigious awards for business journalism, the Gerald Loeb Award, for a story on the impact of AIDS on the fashion industry.

We covered the cable industry for 16 years at Multichannel News, writing stories about the business and programming such as HBO’s “The Sopranos.”

And we are still reporting on the cable business, the multi-billion dollar home shopping segment, with this blog. QVC and ShopNBC are totally owned or partially owned by two key media giants, John Malone’s Liberty Media and NBC.

In between job hunting, we are also writing for the growing Web site NewJerseyNewsroom.com, with a recent profile on Jersey’s Kurt Sutter, creator of the FX hit “Sons of Anarchy.”

We believe this all qualifies us as a media professional. 

We have e-mailed Rey twice, no response. But then we learned today that he has a PR firm that handles the media, and we shot an e-mail to them. Maybe they will answer our question. 

And we even e-mailed ShopNBC this morning, asking them if they know if Rey will remain on HSN.

Once again, we’ll let you know what we hear.

QVC ‘Savors’ A Chance To Do A Jewelry Line Like HSN’s Technibond

With the price of gold at an all-time high, and jewelry sales tanking, it looks like QVC is taking a page out of HSN’s book with Savor, a new line that debuts Wednesday night.

Savor is jewelry made of 14 carat gold bonded over sterling silver, very similar to HSN’s Technibond line. So you get the look of gold, which is out of the range of many people’s wallets, for a fraction of the price.

At least that’s the theory, but the Savor goods didn’t look so inexpensive to us. A lot of the Savor pieces on QVC’s Web site didn’t have photos yet, but many of the earrings were priced at more than $100, and a station-link necklace was close to $300.

The price points on HSN’s Technibond are much cheaper.

ShopNBC ‘Extends’ Its Product Line With Clip-Ins From Hair Stylist Ted Gibson

Third-ranked home shopping network ShopNBC has been struggling, and its strategy now is to diversify and not depend so much on jewelry sales. As a result, it is becoming more and more like QVC and HSN every day. It’s no big surprise, since ShopNBC is now run by former QVC executives.

Tuesday’s ShopNBC Top Value of the Day are clip-in hair extensions from hair stylist Ted Gibson, at $100 a pop.

Does any of that sound familiar? Well, QVC just rolled out a line of hair extensions, Hairdo by Jessica Simpson & Ken Paves, from the blonde singer’s hair stylist Paves.

That Paves/Simpson line used to be on HSN, but switched over to QVC. We could swear that TV chef Rachael Ray was wearing hair extensions of some sort — maybe from Paves — when she appeared on QVC last week, despite her claim she was growing out her hair. Last time we saw her, her hair was chin-length, and it was down her shoulders when she appeared on QVC.

Despite the exit of Paves and Simpson. HSN still sells hair extensions from Toni Bratton.

The Gibson hair extensions are all part of ShopNBC’s first beauty and style week.

We’re Still Waiting To Hear From HSN and Dr. Robert Rey, About HSN And Dr. Robert Rey And ShopNBC

We just sent — for a second time — HSN and Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Robert Rey the big question that home shopping fans want to know: Will the sassy doctor remain on both HSN and ShopNBC?

We first e-mailed Rey, the star of E! Entertainment Television’s “Dr. 90210,” and HSN on Sunday. That’s the day that Rey premiered his skincare products, Sensual Solutions, on ShopNBC. But Rey also sells an undie and bra line, Shapewear, on HSN.

The query is simple: Will Rey still be selling Shapewear on HSN, even though he is also on competing network ShopNBC?

Monday we sent the same e-mail again to Rey and HSN.

We’re not holding our breath that we’ll get an answer, but we may give you periodic updates.

On a totally different subject, with tonight’s “PM Style” on QVC we might initiate one of our plans: To keep track of every time host Lisa Robertson says she is going to buy an item she is selling, and publish that list here.

If Robertson bought something every single time she said that, she’d need a house the size of Giants Stadium to hold all that QVC merchandise.

And we also wish QVC hosts like Robertson would stop calling the products they are hawking “ideas.” We are not looking to buy “ideas” on home shopping networks, we’re looking for jewelry, mascara, etc.

And while we’re at it regarding Robertson, we hope she will stop telling us that with Easy Pay, an “idea” is only “a dollar a day.”

Man, we got up on the wrong side of the bed today, didn’t we?

On Eve Of His Return To HSN, New York Post Claims Chef Todd English’s Financial Woes Prompted Him To Jilt Bride

HSN celebrity chef Todd English, who will be back on the home shopping channel Tuesday, is once again making headlines in the tabloids.

On Monday English’s financial woes were the lead item in the New York Post’s Page Six, with the headline “Eateries Took a Toll on Todd”.

The item blames English’s money problems for his decision to cancel his wedding to Erica Wang. According to the Post, English has closed three of his eateries, namely Olives in Aspen, Colo., and Washington, and the Fish Club in Seattle. Sources told the Post that English was under a lot of stress.

But is that the real reason that earlier this month English jilted his fiancee Wang and left her at the altar on their wedding day? There’s been lots of mud-slinging since then.

The Post broke the story about the cancelled wedding, and followed up with an exclusive interview with Wang, who painted English as a real cad. Just days afte that story ran, English filed assault charges against Wang, alleging that she hit him in the head with his own watch in September.

The latest is the Post story today. In the Page Six item, English’s camp claims that his financial issues had nothing to do with him calling off the wedding. It was Wang’s nasty behavior that gave him second thoughts.

Either way, English will be back on HSN tomorrow selling his GreenPan line of pots and pans.

Plastic Surgeon Dr. Robert Rey Tells ShopNBC Viewers To Drop Their Pants, But Will He Remain On Both His Old Home Shopping Venue HSN And ShopNBC?

If you’re a plastic surgeon, why would you be selling two products — anti-aging skin cream and shapewear — that can eliminate the need for plastic surgery? That’s just one of the questions we would like to ask Dr. Robert Rey, of E! Entertainment Television’s “Dr. 90210” fame.

The other question is will he continue to be a vendor for HSN, since he just debuted a line of products on ShopNBC Sunday. Home shopping fans are clamoring for an answer to this question, too.

Brazilian-born Rey has been selling his Shapewear line, state-of-the art undies and bras that make you look skinnier and bustier, on HSN for some time. But today he premiered his “Sensual Solutions” skincare line on ShopNBC. He did two shows, and apparently sold out all the products he had on his first show, so ShopNBC was taking advance orders.

We caught him on his second appearance, and he was his usual bawdy self. We like the guy, but others feel differently.

The Beverly Hills surgeon said that despite what the public might think, many good-looking women in that wealthy enclave “are not getting plastic surgery” and that “aging is a choice.”

Rey said that these women are buying top-of-the-line skincare products, like his creams, to look good.

“If you want to get that $7 crap in the drugstore, go get it,” Rey told viewers, but he said it’s not going to work.

Darn, that’s not good news for us, because we won’t be able to afford his $99 “Instant Wrinkle Erase” skin cream until we get a full-time job.

The good doc, who said he has had 30,000 patients, admitted that he used to inject his own forehead (he did not say Botox) to get rid of its wrinkles, but stopped when he learned about the negative effect the shots have on the body.

Rey, who is a year and a half away from 50, then said that muscles are what cause wrinkles. Offering a somewhat creepy anecdote, Rey said that when he worked as a trauma doctor, he could immediately tell when a patient was dead because their faces would be smooth (tying back to that muscle thing).

Doc, how about determining if someone is dead the old-fashioned way, by taking a pulse?

Describing how damaging the sun is to skin, Rey told ShopNBC viewers, “Drop your pants, and you will see your tushy looks younger than your face.” We guess that would not hold for nudists who like to sunbath.

Rey vouched for his skincare products, which include an Anti-Aging Body Lift Cream, by saying that vast clinical trials were done on his creams. The doctor added that he was originally a chemistry major, No. 1 in his class, so he knows his stuff.

We e-mailed Rey and HSN and asked whether the handsome, dark plastic surgeon will continue to have his HSN line, despite the fact he is a vendor now for rival ShopNBC. We’ll let you know the answer.