Desmond launches shopping channel
Daily Express proprietor Richard Desmond tomorrow launches The Express Shopping Channel in a joint venture between his company Northern and Shell and mail order shopping enterprise N Brown Group.
Broadcasting on Sky and NTL (channel 637), it aims to offer "fashion for real women", cooking, DIY and gardening-related products, according to an article in today's Financial Times Creative Business section.
In this article Desmond, who also owns the adults-only Fantasy Channel, enthuses over the new venture: "I get on with Lord Alliance (N Brown non-executive chairman) he was telling me about his mail order business and I've wanted to go into shopping for a few years now."
Desmond goes on to criticise market leader QVC. "I don't think QVC do it very well...When you see our channel, the products we've got are more relevant and the presentation is better".
Desmond is hoping that his new shopping channel will have one key advantage over high street retailers. It will be able to give a wider choice of available stock, including clothes for women sized 12 to 32 and men with 66-inch chests. Outsize customers may also feel more comfortable ordering their clothes from their living room rather than visiting "outsize" shops.
Desmond does not, however, intend to use the channel as a vehicle for personal publicity and is reported as saying he will be making no personal appearances on it.
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