A partial save for Shop at Home staff

Deal with Knoxville's Jewelry TV means some local operations will continue

Email | Print By E. Thomas Wood

Some employees of Nashville-based Shop at Home Network are going to keep their jobs after all. NashvillePost.com has learned that plans for the shutdown and liquidation of the television operation, announced in May after owner E.W. Scripps Co. failed to find a buyer for it, have now changed.

Jewelry Television, a Knoxville-based competitor founded in the 1990s by former Shop at Home executives, has agreed to purchase some of Shop at Home's assets and will continue some operations in Nashville. "A significant number of SAH employees will have continued employment," according to Jewelry TV spokesperson Kelly Fletcher, but Fletcher denied reports from some sources that the number will exceed 200.

Fletcher said Cincinnati-based Scripps planned to announce the news later today or tomorrow. A report in direct-marketing industry publication DM News this morning said the assets to be purchased include satellite uplink facilities, backup information technology systems, internet platforms and broadcast studios.

Former Shop At Home President F. Robert Hall co-founded Jewelry TV and serves as its chairman and CEO. The Knoxville company last year hired away Shop at Home's chief information officer, Wayne Lambert.

At one time, Shop at Home employed some 650 people locally, though job cuts and attrition both before and after the announcement of the shutdown have reduced the number considerably.

Sources tell NashvillePost.com that Scripps priced Shop at Home and related assets at about $400 million when it tried to sell the network earlier this year. Finding no takers, the media conglomerate threw in the towel. But some within Shop at Home believed Scripps had given up too easily on the prospect of saving at least some of the local jobs, and negotiations with several potential asset buyers soon commenced.

How much Jewelry TV will pay is not known, but one source says the purchase price is in the $20 to $50 million range.