From September 2007

The National Football League will open its 88th season September 6 when the Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts host the New Orleans Saints. QVC and QVC.com will mark the kickoff of the NFL season with a multi-channel sales and marketing blitz consisting of live TV broadcasts and 24/7 access to NFL-themed items on QVC.com.

QVC has been designated the NFL’s “official television retailer,” and the playbook calls for QVC to debut its NFL Shop with a one-hour show on opening night. Weekly NFL shows will run throughout the 2007 football season, including the playoffs and the Super Bowl.

Leveraging the successful e-commerce partnership it has established with the NFL by operating NFLShop.com is GSI Commerce. The King of Prussia, Pa.-based company is the exclusive provider of NFL-licensed merchandise to QVC, and GSI’s distribution network fulfills orders generated by the on-air broadcasts and QVC.com.

“We come to the table as the pre-eminent player in electronic retailing,” says Rich Yoegel, QVC’s director of home merchandising. “It all makes for a pretty powerful partnership.

QVC is no stranger to the world of licensed sporting goods. For years, it has interrupted its more traditional programming to sell product from Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, NASCAR and the NFL. Yoegel refers to these as “hot market opportunities.”

The deal is also unique in that QVC is able to sell product from multiple suppliers via one point of contact, GSI.

Will the NFL Shop lure more male shoppers to QVC? “It’s not as if we’ve outlined that as an objective,” Yoegel says. “What I can tell you is that there are certain categories – the NFL included – that generate more new customers for QVC than others. Since we’re always looking for ways to garner new customers, we’re certainly hoping to see a lift.”

Bob Myers, senior vice president of QVC.com, plans to keep the tailgate party going online through video- and community-driven promotions. “We’ll look to engage NFL fans in the real-time communities we have online, and we can also use the online channel to tease upcoming studio and remote broadcasts and build the audience for a show,” he says.

In addition, QVC.com will utilize blogs to get fans involved in the broadcast and will also rely on targeted e-mails to help customers get their favorite team products.