Jury still out on Shopping Channel

Candy Lane and Lucy Gallaugher on set at the Shopping Channel. Photo / Kellie Blizard

Six weeks since its much-hyped launch, The Shopping Channel says it is unable to release viewer ratings yet but claims to be going "from strength to strength".

New Zealand's first 24-hour shopping channel went live on October 1 with Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria flying in to boost publicity.

Its bosses have claimed the channel will attract more than 600,000 female viewers every week but that is yet to be backed up by figures.

"We would love to give you our audience figures to date as we are happy with them so far but unfortunately Nielsen will not release them until we have been broadcasting for eight weeks," said spokeswoman Megan Stuart, from Bullet PR.

Broadcasting on Sky channel 18 and Freeview 18, fulltime presenters include Mike Puru, Candy Lane, Lucy Gallaugher and Monty Betham.

A run of bad taste jokes drew attention to the show in its early days, with viewers complaining on Facebook about a "creepy" banana joke, "disgusting" food, and a lack of contact details showing up on screen.

The channel announced this week it will be cutting its number of live filming days from six to two. Stuart said this was not an indication that business was slow.

"The Shopping Channel is going from strength to strength with next week's schedule being completely sold out.

"Six weeks into a start-up business, this is really positive."

She said the channel will be launching its Android, iPhone and iPad apps next week.

A breakdown of national sales activity so far shows 36 per cent of purchases have come from the Auckland region and 26 per cent from the South Island.

The biggest sellers include the ubiquitous George Foreman Grill & Griddle, and the "playful, feminine and sexy" Eva Longoria Coffret (gift box).

Stuart said the total volume and value of purchases was increasing week on week, and the average sale price was about $140.

Across its e-commerce platform, The Shopping Channel claims to be getting about 1000 hits from new visitors every day, with people staying on the site an average five minutes each.

About 13,000 people have signed to the receive emails from the channel.

In terms of social media, 22,156 people have 'liked' the channel's Facebook page and there have been 2,184 tweets about it since launching.