Paxson instructed talk-show host Bob Circosta, who had a talk show from noon until 3:00 p.m.,[5] to sell the can openers live over the airwaves, and both men were stunned at the audience response.
[6] Sensing the sales potential of live, on-air product selling, Paxson and financier Roy Speer co-founded a local cable TV channel (channel 52 on Vision Cable) in 1982 that sold products directly to Florida viewers, and then launched nationwide in 1985.
HSN soon became a billion dollar juggernaut and began the home shopping / electronic retailing industry.
During the time between the sale of HSN and the founding of PAX TV, Paxson moved his headquarters from Tampa to West Palm Beach.
In addition, PAX TV lost a few affiliates, such as when Paxson sold its Dayton, Ohio, and Green Bay, Wisconsin, stations to ACME Communications so that group could affiliate them with The WB (though PAX TV programming continued to air overnight on those stations for a few years), and the network was unable to offer their programming in some markets, like St, Louis, Charlotte and Pittsburgh.
In November of that year, NBCUniversal, which owned 22 percent of i, began a nine-month period during which it could buy the rest of the network.