Sotheby’s May Take Home Shopping Upscale on TV

The London auction house Sotheby’s is considering live televising to the United States of its sales, giving armchair connoisseurs a chance to bid on a yacht, an old master or a thoroughbred horse without leaving home.

Sotheby’s said today if the response from its top clients is strong it will begin televising its London sales to subscribers in the United States via cable and satellite next year.

Sotheby’s will invite 2,000 top clients to subscribe to the service at a cost of about $195 a month. If the idea takes off, transmission of live sales in New York and Hong Kong will follow.

Subscribers would receive three pieces of equipment--a windowsill dish to receive Sotheby’s signal, a receiver to unscramble it and a touchpad to make bids.