Company Town

* Television: Home Shopping Network Inc., one of the two largest televised shop-from-home retailers, said it will combine its two biggest shopping channels into a single service. Starting June 5, Home Shopping Network will combine its HSC1 and HSC2 networks into a single channel that will reach about 65 million of the 95 million homes with TVs nationwide. The network said the goal is to eliminate inefficiency and duplication and help it concentrate on improving sales. Home Shopping’s sales rose 7.6% to $1.13 billion in 1994, but that figure trailed QVC’s total of $1.39 billion.

* Cable: Tele-Communications International Inc., a subsidiary of cable giant Tele-Communications Inc., plans to raise about $380 million in an initial public offering. Tele-Communications International will offer 20 million Class A common shares, 14 million of them in the United States and Canada, and another 6 million abroad, according to the company’s S-1 registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company did not specify a sale price, but it listed a $19-a-share maximum price in calculating its SEC registration fee. At $19 a share, the company will raise $380 million. Separately, TCI said it formed a company to provide Internet access through cable TV wires. TCI was joined in the venture by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a prominent venture capital firm in San Francisco. The service will eventually allow owners of personal computers to attach them to the same cable that carries TV signals. Because the cables carry more signals at once than an ordinary phone wire, a computer will be able to interact with the Internet or other on-line systems much faster. TCI said it aims to begin the service in some cities by early next year. It said it will identify the first places for rollout this summer.