Shop at Home
| Shop at Home Network | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Launched | 1987 |
| Closed | March 8, 2008 |
| Owned by | Multimedia Commerce Group |
The Shop at Home Network (more commonly known as just Shop at Home, Shop At Home TV, SATH ) was a television network in the United States. Before its acquisition by Jewelry Television in 2006,The E. W. Scripps Company owned and operated the network from 2002 until 2006, when the network temporarily ceased operations on June 21. In 2006, competitor Jewelry Television bought Shop at Home from owner The E. W. Scripps Company along with all of Shop at Home's assets. The network primarily focused on home shopping programming, as indicated by the name. During Scripps' ownership, some of its programming was done in conjunction with other Scripps channels (such as Food Network).
Shop At Home (SATH (Shop At The Home) stock symbol) the concept was started by Joe Overholt in the middle 1980s. Located in a strip mall just off of Interstate 40 in Newport Tn the original programs were taped in segments and mailed to head-end origination studios to be played when time was available. The low budget production was aired over unused satellite transponders to an audience that of individual satellite dish owners. It soon became apparent that these inconsistent excursions would not a shopping channel make. After pulling together some very limited funding from a few local East Tennessee small business men and individuals around Knoxville SAH began the search for affordable satellite distribution time. Plans were being made to take the company public and without securing a means of distribution it would fail. An "available for the right price" transponder was located and an affiliate (and friend) of Overholts entered into negotiations and after much legal and financial wrangling this most important asset was acquired.
The technical difficulties caused by the hills and valleys of East Tennessee and prohibitive cost-per-mile across the vast expanses of the rural flatlands west of the Mississippi had created a pent up demand for television programing. Homeowners many of whom had no access to cable and a minimal number of off-air television channels were looking for a way to receive some of the same programs their urban cousins had access to. Since Overholt and a few others in the Knoxville area were in the process of pioneering the satellite to home backyard dish concept it was logical to search for the programming to go along with it. The first shopping channel (Home Shopping Network) had just appeared out of Florida, so the network was launched as a rival. The ability to reach this entertainment starved market was important to the fledgling experiment and this markets appreciation and monetary encouragement was key to SAH's progress. The beginnings of today's satellite television as an industry began by providing the dish and electronics to receive the signals from satellites in space that coincidentally was the same way that HBO and other entertainment was distributed to cable systems across the country. The Knoxville group that Overholt approached had formed the "Satellite TV Awareness Association" (STAA) a local trade organization that's purpose was to inform citizens and elected representatives to Congress of the issues surrounding the "business" of the new industry. The cable lobby had portrayed back yard dish owners as pirates and accused them of stealing their programming. The STAA (Overholt was a member) and others made it public that offers had been made to the programmers to pay for the product being received but most programmers had refused the "offer to pay". The STAA sought assistance from their elected representatives, of which Al Gore was one, for a fair solution to the problem. Gore was conducting local town hall meetings and had a sympathetic ear for this ground roots movement from his constituents. A few months later when the STAA decided to bring the issues to dish owners they used the same satellite signal to do so. From a rented studio in Nashville they hired a local MC to host a panel of "experts" in the field to answer questions and propose solutions to the dish industries problems. Gore was unable to attend in person but had pledged his support and participated in the event via telephone.
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