American broadcast television network
| This article needs to be
updated
.
Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.
(
December 2023
)
|
Television channel
Ion Television
Wordmark used since 2016
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Type
| Broadcast
television network
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Country
| United States
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Broadcast area
| Nationwide
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Affiliates
| |
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Headquarters
| West Palm Beach, Florida
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Language(s)
| English
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Picture format
| |
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Owner
| E. W. Scripps Company
|
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Parent
| Scripps Networks, LLC
|
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Sister channels
| |
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Founded
| January 1995
; 29 years ago
(
1995-01
)
(as inTV)
|
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Launched
| August 31, 1998
; 25 years ago
(
1998-08-31
)
|
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Founder
| Bud Paxson
|
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Former names
|
- inTV (1995?98)
- Pax TV (1998?2005)
- i: Independent Television (2005?2007)
|
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|
Website
| iontelevision
.com
|
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Ion Television
(currently known on-air as simply
Ion
) is an American
broadcast
television network
owned by the
Scripps Networks
subsidiary of the
E. W. Scripps Company
. The network first began broadcasting on August 31, 1998, as
Pax TV
, focusing primarily on family-oriented entertainment programming. It rebranded as
i: Independent Television
(commonly referred to as "i") on July 1, 2005, converting into a general entertainment network featuring recent and older acquired programs. The network adopted its identity as Ion Television on January 29, 2007, and airs programming in daily
binge
blocks of one program, usually acquired
procedural dramas
. The network also carries some holiday specials and films before
Christmas
.
Ion is available throughout most of the United States through its group of 44
owned-and-operated stations
and 20
network affiliates
, as well as through distribution on pay-TV providers and streaming services; since 2014, the network has also increased affiliate distribution in several markets through the
digital subchannels
of local television stations owned by companies such as
Gray Television
and
Nexstar Media Group
where the network is unable to maintain a main channel affiliation with or own a standalone station, for the same purpose as the distribution of Ion's main network feed via pay-TV providers and streaming services.
The network's stations cover all of the top 20 U.S. markets and 37 of the top 50 markets.
[1]
Ion's owned-and-operated stations cover 64.8% of the United States population, by far the most of any U.S. station ownership group; it is able to circumvent the legal limit of covering 39% of the population because all of its stations operate on the
UHF television
band, which is subject to a
discount
in regard to that limit. In the digital age, the restoration of the UHF discount has proven controversial with other broadcast groups and FCC rulings between presidential administrations, though as the network's parent company mainly acquired low-performing stations and stations on the fringes of markets which targeted lower-profile cities in the analog age, it has not been an issue with
Ion Media
itself.
[2]
History
[
edit
]
PAX (1998?2005)
[
edit
]
The network was launched by
Bud Paxson
, co-founder of the
Home Shopping Network
and chairman of parent company Paxson Communications (the forerunner to Ion Media).
[4]
It was originally to be called
Pax Net
, but was renamed
Pax TV
(often referred to as simply "Pax"; stylized as "PAX") ? a dual reference to its founder and corporate parent, and the
Latin
word for "
peace
" ? shortly before its launch. Paxson, who felt that television programs aired by other broadcast networks were too raunchy and not family-friendly enough, had decided to create a network that he perceived as an alternative. Since the new network would focus on programming tailored to family audiences, PAX maintained a considerably more conservative programming content policy than the major commercial television networks, restricting
profanity
,
violence
and sexual content; accordingly, many of the network's acquired programs were edited to remove sexual and overt violent content, while profane language was
muted
.
Most of the network's initial affiliates were Paxson Communications-owned affiliate stations of the
Infomall TV Network
(inTV), a network launched by Paxson in 1995 that relied mainly on
infomercials
and other
brokered programming
.
[5]
During the late spring and summer of 1998, a half-hour preview special hosted by former
Waltons
star
Richard Thomas
, featuring interviews with Lowell Paxson about PAX's development and initial programming, aired on inTV stations slated to become charter outlets of the new network.
PAX launched on August 31, 1998,
[6]
[7]
with the network's initial schedule being much larger in scope than it would be in later years. At launch, Pax aired general entertainment programming on weekdays from 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. and weekends from 3:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Central Time. Through an agreement with then-
Disney
owned animation studio
DIC Productions L.P.
, its schedule also included a children's program block called "Cloud Nine" on Saturdays from 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. and Sundays from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. Central.
[8]
[9]
In addition, the network aired religious programming through time-lease agreements with
The Worship Network
(which aired its overnight programming on PAX seven nights a week) and Praise TV (featuring
Contemporary Christian music
and other faith-based programs aimed at teenagers and young adults, which aired on Friday and Saturday late-nights from 11:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. Central until 2000). The remainder of the schedule was filled by paid programming.
Initial programming on PAX consisted of first-run shows (such as the true story profile series
It's a Miracle
,
game show
The Reel to Reel Picture Show
, and
talk shows
Woman's Day
and
Great Day America
), along with reruns of older programming (including
Highway to Heaven
,
Here's Lucy
,
The Hogan Family
,
Dave's World
,
Touched by an Angel
, and new episodes and older reruns of
Candid Camera
, the latter of which moved to the network following the revival series' cancellation by
CBS
earlier in 1998). The network also produced some original drama series such as
Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye
,
Doc
,
Mysterious Ways
(which originated on
NBC
),
Hope Island
and
Twice in a Lifetime
through its programming division, Paxson Entertainment. PAX also aired many game shows including first-run revivals of established games that originated on cable networks such as
Supermarket Sweep
and
Shop 'til You Drop
, along with some original game shows such as
On the Cover
,
Balderdash
, a 2002 revival of
Beat the Clock
,
Hollywood Showdown
(in conjunction with
Game Show Network
, which also aired the show) and reruns of
Born Lucky
. The network would later carry reruns of the syndicated revival of
Family Feud
(consisting of episodes from
Louie Anderson
,
Richard Karn
and
John O'Hurley
's tenures as host, airing on a one-year delay from their original syndication broadcast) and, due to its alliance with NBC,
The Weakest Link
(both from the
Anne Robinson
-hosted network run and the
George Gray
-hosted syndicated version) as well as the 2000 revival of
Twenty-One
.
In September 1999, NBC purchased a 32% share of Paxson Communications for $415 million in convertible stock, with an option to expand its interest to 49% by February 2002, pending changes in ownership regulations set by the
Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) that would allow it to acquire additional television stations.
[10]
NBC later sold its share in the network back to Paxson in November 2003.
[11]
In lieu of a national news program, in 2000, Paxson Communications signed an agreement with
Jackson, Mississippi
-based
WeatherVision
? which mainly produces weather forecast inserts for television stations in certain markets that do not operate an in-house news department or maintain a news share agreement with another local station ? to produce
Tomorrow's Weather Tonight
, a five-minute national forecast segment that aired Monday through Friday nights at the conclusion of PAX's entertainment schedule. Starting in 2000, many PAX stations also entered into news share agreements with a local major network affiliate (mostly involving NBC-affiliated stations, though some involved an affiliate of
ABC
, CBS, or
Fox
) to air
tape-delayed
broadcasts of evening, and in some markets, morning newscasts from the partner station; in a few cases, the agreement partner produced live newscasts for the PAX station (as examples of the latter, NBC affiliate
WTHR
in
Indianapolis
produced a prime time newscast for PAX O&O
WIPX-TV
from February to June 2005, after CBS affiliate
WISH-TV
(now a
CW
affiliate) took over production of the newscast that WTHR had been producing for
UPN
affiliate
WNDY-TV
(now a
MyNetworkTV
affiliate) since 1996;
Cleveland
NBC affiliate
WKYC-TV
produced evening newscasts for
WVPX-TV
that focused primarily on that O&O's city of license, nearby
Akron
). In some cities, a major network affiliate also provided some engineering and other back office services for the PAX station.
In an effort to increase revenue due to low viewership and other financial issues, PAX gradually increased the amount of paid programming content on its schedule throughout the early 2000s, at the expense of its general entertainment programming. Infomercials and other types of brokered programs ultimately became the dominant form of programming during the network's broadcast day; by January 2005, the time that PAX had allocated to entertainment programs had been reduced to six hours on weekdays (from 5:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.) and five hours on weekends (from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Central Time). Original programming was also affected by the network's programming changes; PAX was originally offering five or six new series each season. However, in 2003, the number of new series that aired on PAX dwindled to just two:
Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye
, which was cancelled in 2005, and
Doc
, which was cancelled in 2004 after PAX's international backer, Canadian broadcast network
CTV
, pulled out of producing the shows. The network seemingly recovered a year later when seven series made it to PAX's 2004?05 schedule.
i
(2005?2007)
[
edit
]
On June 28, 2005, Paxson Communications announced that it would rebrand PAX as
i: Independent Television
, in order to reflect a new strategy of "providing an independent broadcast platform for producers and syndicators who desire to reach a national audience." The network used a lowercase letter "i" for its branding and other items such as its
electronic program guide
listings.
The rebranding also resulted in several changes to its programming lineup: paid programming replaced overnight programming from The Worship Network, which began to carry its full 24-hour schedule on a fourth digital subchannel of local
i
owned-and-operated stations and affiliates until the network was dropped in January 2010; in addition,
Tomorrow's Weather Tonight
and rebroadcasts of network affiliate newscasts were discontinued the day prior to the rebrand on June 30, 2005 (though a few stations not owned by the network's parent company retained news share agreements with major network stations after that date, such as
WBNA
in
Louisville, Kentucky
, which continued to air newscasts from NBC affiliate
WAVE
). The network shifted its format almost entirely to reruns of television series from the 1960s to the 1990s (such as
Green Acres
,
Amen
, and Pax holdover
Diagnosis: Murder
) and feature films, reruns of former Pax TV series (such as
Doc
) and first-run episodes (and later reruns) of Pax holdover series
America's Most Talented Kids
were also included as part of the schedule. In turn, the network adapted its programming content standards to those similar to other broadcast networks. During the 2005?06 season, the network launched only one new series that met the network's new mission of being an 'independent broadcast platform', the teen drama
Palmetto Pointe
, which only lasted five episodes and was criticized as a poor imitation of
Dawson's Creek
and
One Tree Hill
; the network went entirely to a lineup of reruns with limited original programming for the 2006?07 season (except for
Health Report
and specials branded under the name iHealth).
At one point in this era, the network programmed eighteen hours of paid programming per day, ⅔ of the network's broadcast day, with the network only programming the
early fringe
and prime time periods with traditional programming.
In November 2005,
NBCUniversal
was granted a transferable option to purchase a controlling stake in Paxson Communications.
[12]
Had this option been exercised, NBC would have acquired approximately 63
i
owned-and-operated stations (though this could have resulted in a forced divestiture of either
i
or Spanish network
Telemundo
, which NBC had acquired in April 2002 (prior to its merger with
Vivendi Universal
), along with the divested network's O&Os due to FCC rules that prohibit broadcasters from
owning more than two television stations in the same market
unless there are either a minimum of 20 full-power stations in the market or one of the stations is a
satellite
). As part of the agreement, Lowell Paxson stepped down from his position as chairman of Paxson Communications. In April 2006, published reports surfaced that
i
owed more than US$250 million to creditors.
[13]
Standard & Poor's
reported a much higher debt in March 2008, owing $867 million to creditors and having a bond rating of CCC+/Outlook Negative.
[14]
According to a statement on its website,
[15]
DirecTV
(which ironically had, and still has, multiple networks made up of full-time paid programming) planned to terminate its carriage agreement with
i
on February 28, 2006. The satellite provider cited that "most of [
i
Network's] programming consists of infomercials and other promotional shows", despite an earlier promise by network executives that it "would consist of general, family-oriented entertainment". At its peak, infomercial time stretched across eighteen hours of the network's broadcast day, or 126 hours of a 168-hour broadcast week. To appease DirecTV management, the network launched a secondary feed of the network for providers adverse to its over-the-air programming direction, replacing paid programming time with older
public domain
programs and cancelled Pax TV original series. DirecTV and Paxson then reached a new carriage agreement in May 2006.
In September 2006, i launched Qubo, a children's programming block, as part of a partnership with NBCUniversal and Scholastic Entertainment.
Ion Television (2007?present)
[
edit
]
On January 29, 2007, the network changed its name again to
Ion Television
(as a result of its parent company's renaming to
Ion Media Networks
). Days after the rebrand, California-based entertainment group Positive Ions, Inc. filed a
trademark infringement
lawsuit against Ion Media Networks, claiming that the network stole the "Ion" branding.
[16]
Positive Ions had registered
trademarks
on the word "Ion" and had used the mark commercially since 1999. On May 14, 2007, Positive Ions filed for an injunction that, if granted, would have required Ion Media Networks to change its name once again.
[17]
On May 4, 2007, Ion,
Citadel Investment Group
, and NBC Universal announced a deal to transfer NBC Universal's rights to purchase a controlling stake in Ion to Citadel, in exchange for Citadel investing $100 million into Ion's growth and digital plans.
[12]
Ion Television's programming, for the most part, remained unchanged upon the rebrand; the network continued to feature programming from the content deals it signed while under the
i
brand (such as
Who's the Boss?
,
Mama's Family
,
Growing Pains
, and
The Wonder Years
). The network also aired a late afternoon sitcom block called "Laugh Attack", which featured reruns of comedy series targeted at
African American
audiences (originally consisting of
Hangin' with Mr. Cooper
and
The Wayans Bros.
, the latter of which was later replaced by
The Steve Harvey Show
).
[
citation needed
]
In January 2008, Ion Media and
Comcast
reached a carriage agreement to continue carrying Ion Television, while also adding
Qubo
and
Ion Life
to the cable provider's channel lineups.
[18]
2008 relaunch
[
edit
]
On May 1, 2008, Ion Television held an upfront presentation announcing its programming for the 2008?09 season at the
New York Public Library
in
Manhattan
. In addition to the announcement of its programming acquisitions, the network unveiled a new logo (a
wordmark
that incorporated a positive ion symbol as a pseudo-period next to the "ion" typeface) and slogan for the network, "Positively Entertaining" (a form of wordplay, as
ions
are atoms or molecules that have a positive or negative electrical charge).
[19]
With the September 8, 2008 rebrand, the network also retooled its focus, emphasizing the key demographic of adults between ages of 18 and 49, and airing more recent acquired programming aimed at young adults (such as
Boston Legal
,
NCIS
, and
Criminal Minds
).
[
citation needed
]
By this point, the network shifted its programming to feature extended blocks of its acquired series (which consist mostly of drama series, with sitcoms becoming an increasingly less integral part of the schedule); it also began a gradual expansion of the number of hours devoted to entertainment shows, starting with the addition of a two-hour block of programming in the late afternoon (from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Central) in January 2008, and expanding further into the
daytime and late fringe/early graveyard
periods over a five-year span (however, this resulted in the network increasing its reliance on regularly scheduled
marathon
-style blocks of a relatively small inventory of programs in lieu of acquiring a much larger lineup of series to fill out the schedule). More recent theatrically released feature films were also added to the lineup, alongside older movie releases from the 1980s and 1990s.
[
citation needed
]
In April 2009, it was announced that Ion Media Networks was once again facing
balance sheet
problems. The company disclosed that it was in discussions with lenders on "a comprehensive recapitalization" of its
balance sheet
, translating to an effort to restructure its considerable debt, which, according to
The Wall Street Journal
, stood at $2.7 billion as of April 2009.
[
citation needed
]
The network launched
high definition
operations in the
720p
format, announcing they would do so on January 28, 2009,
[20]
with an original launch date of February 16, 2009, but delayed to March 16, 2009, after the passage of the
DTV Delay Act
,
[21]
which pushed the national
digital television transition
to June 12, 2009. Most Ion stations began to switch their main signals from
480i
standard definition
to 720p HD in late February; an early decision to
pillarbox
4:3 programming with blue rather than black pillarboxing was eventually abandoned as black coloring became the industry norm. Some Ion-owned and affiliate stations which carry the network as a multicast offering continue to carry the network in 480i widescreen over-the-air.
On May 19, 2009, Ion Media Networks filed for
Chapter 11
bankruptcy protection
, putting the Ion network under bankruptcy for the second time in its history; it had reached an agreement with holders of 60% of its first lien secured debt that would extinguish the entirety of its $2.7 billion legacy debt and preferred stock, and recapitalize the company with a $150 million new funding commitment.
[22]
On July 15, 2009,
RHI Entertainment
entered into a settlement agreement to resolve a dispute with Ion Media Networks, which resulted in the termination of a programming distribution agreement between RHI and Ion.
[23]
In November 2010, Ion Television began airing its first
made-for-TV movies
, in the form of
Christmas
-themed films that air between the weekend after
Thanksgiving
(airing the weekend before that holiday in 2013) and Christmas Day, with up to five films premiering each year on the network, although they are advertised as "original movies" in on-air promotions (the 2012 film
Anything But Christmas
is the only movie aired to date in which Ion Television had actually held a production interest), most of the films are produced by independent film and television studios such as Reel One Entertainment, Hybrid, LLC, The Cartel, and
Vancouver
-based Marvista Entertainment without the network's financial involvement (Ion does not maintain exclusivity to most of the films, which are also distributed via syndicated film packages or carried by other networks); the network extended these themed made-for-TV movies to other holidays in 2015, with the premieres of the romance films
Meet My Valentine
(which aired as part of the network's
Valentine's Day
programming slate) and
You Cast a Spell on Me
(which aired as part of its "Wicked Week"
Halloween
block).
[
citation needed
]
Purchase by Scripps
[
edit
]
On September 24, 2020,
E. W. Scripps Company
agreed to buy
Ion Media
for $2.65 billion.
[24]
The transaction, which closed on January 7, 2021,
[25]
saw Ion Television and its sister networks absorbed into Scripps'
Katz Broadcasting
subsidiary, which already operates five
specialty networks
, most notably
Bounce TV
and
Court TV
. In regards to Ion Television's programming, Scripps indicated it would maintain the status quo, with no plans at the time to invest in original content or deviate from the channel's off-network programming approach.
[26]
In order to get FCC approval for the transaction, 23 Ion Television stations were sold by Scripps to
Inyo Broadcast Holdings
.
[27]
Programming
[
edit
]
As of April 2024, Ion provides general entertainment programming to owned-and-operated and affiliated stations every day from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. Eastern Time (except Fridays outside of the Holiday season which start at 7:00 a.m. ET) (the entertainment programming schedule starts at 8:00 a.m. and ends at 1:00 a.m. from Christmas to
New Year's Day
), with paid programming filling the remaining vacated hours. A children's programming block of
Science Max
(one past Qubo series), and
Xploration Station
from
Steve Rotfeld
Productions
? which features programs compliant with FCC
educational programming
requirements ? airs for three hours each Friday at 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Four hours overnight are programmed with
compensated religious or commercial paid programming
, a comparably small fraction of the paid programming schedule it aired in the past.
Ion owned-and-operated stations and affiliates formerly also provide limited
local programming
on weekday mornings to fulfill
public affairs
guidelines, which ranged from entirely local productions to Ion Life-sourced programs within which commercial slots are instead devoted to local physicians or experts giving locality-specific health advice or advertising their services. This programming has ended as the Main Studio Rule repeal by the FCC in 2019 freed Ion stations from this requirement. Ion also served as the over-the-air broadcast distribution point for
TiVo
's
Teleworld Paid Program
, a weekly 30-minute compilation program ? usually carried during the overnight on Wednesdays or Thursdays within the network's designated paid programming time ? it was specifically coded to distribute
program previews
and device tutorials for TiVo's
digital video recorders
; in 2011, the time was used in early September to preview the pilot of
Fox
's new sitcom
New Girl
, before its actual Fox premiere on September 20.
[28]
TiVo discontinued the program in 2016 as broadband had become commonplace enough to end it.
Most programs broadcast by Ion Television are distributed by either
NBCUniversal Syndication Studios
,
Disney?ABC Domestic Television
,
CBS Media Ventures
, or
Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution
. Ion Television also maintains film distribution deals with
Universal Pictures
,
Paramount Pictures
,
20th Century Studios
and
Warner Bros. Pictures
.
[29]
Series broadcast by Ion Television (as of October 2015
[update]
) are mostly dramas such as
Criminal Minds
,
Law & Order
,
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
,
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
,
Numb3rs
,
Bones
,
Blue Bloods
, and
The Listener
. As of 2014, the network's format is predominantly devoted to marathon blocks of hour-long drama series, with consecutive episodes of a given series airing between two and 16 hours a day (depending on the day's schedule, with fewer hours in the morning and late fringe).
The network broadcasts
feature films
released between the 1980s and the 2000s under the banner "Ion Television at the Movies", which fill the majority of the network's Sunday afternoon and evening schedule (
holiday
-themed made-for-TV films are also broadcast under the banner throughout the entertainment programming day on weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas, as well as on
Christmas Eve
and Christmas Day regardless of where either holiday falls during the calendar week). Ion Television occasionally airs short hosted segments during its
prime time
lineup ? particularly during film presentations ? known as the "Ion Lounge", a lifestyle segment used mainly to advertise a company's product within the featured program's commercial breaks.
In the recent past, Ion Television has aired a limited number of comedy or comedy-drama series that were cycled on-and-off the schedule such as
Monk
,
Psych
and
Married... with Children
, with half-hour sitcoms used on certain occasions to
fill scheduling gaps
prior to the telecast of its late-morning film presentations (usually in the 10:00 a.m. Central Time half-hour, if the succeeding film ran for at least 2
1
⁄
2
hours) because of their erratic scheduling; the network shifted to a more exclusive focus on dramas as part of its series content in January 2015, although the network continued to carry comedic programming in the form of select feature films aired within the "Ion Television at the Movies" block.
Ion's method of running predominantly
syndicated
programming is very similar to the international model of broadcasting used in Europe, Canada, Latin America, Asia and Australia, which mixes imported and syndicated shows with original programming ? a model used only in
United States broadcast television
by digital multicast services (particularly those that specialize in acquired programs such as
MeTV
and
Antenna TV
), smaller English language entertainment-based networks (such as
America One
),
PBS
member stations, and networks broadcasting in languages other than English (such as
Univision
,
UniMas
, and
Telemundo
). The major commercial broadcast networks in the U.S. ? ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox ? carry first-run programs produced for the network, while leaving the responsibility of acquiring shows from the syndication market to their owned-and-operated stations and affiliates to fill time not allotted to network and, where applicable, locally produced programs (
The CW
and
MyNetworkTV
, which are somewhat similar to Ion Television in their formats, mixes elements of both models as acquired programs are supplied both during prime time by the services and by their stations at all other times). A limited number of non-Ion-owned stations that are merely affiliated with the network (such as former Louisville outlet
WBNA
) do carry additional local or syndicated programming that, in some instances, pre-empts certain programs within the Ion master schedule.
Recent programming deals
[
edit
]
In 2006, Ion Media Networks reached several programming deals, two with major programming suppliers that were announced within a week of each other, and another that among other things would bring original programming to Ion Television's lineup. On June 27, 2006, Ion Media announced a comprehensive programming deal with
Warner Bros. Television Distribution
, which gave it the broadcast rights to movies and television series owned by the company.
[30]
One week later on July 5, 2006, Ion announced a similar deal that resulted in the acquisition of broadcast rights to films and series distributed by
Sony Pictures Television
(now
Sony Pictures Television Studios
).
[31]
Starting in September of that year, series and feature films from both libraries were incorporated onto the network's prime time schedule (including
Who's the Boss?
,
Designing Women
,
Mama's Family
,
Growing Pains
,
Green Acres
, and
The Wonder Years
). However, these older series were later dropped when the network shifted towards more recent series. Ion also struck a library content deal with
NBCUniversal
, which gave it access to shows such as
Law & Order
.
[32]
In September 2008, Ion Television reached a multi-year film rights agreement with Warner Bros. Television Distribution to broadcast more recent movies from Warner Bros. and its related studios. Meanwhile, three series from CBS Television Distribution (now
CBS Media Ventures
) were added to the schedule:
NCIS
joined the lineup in September 2008, while
Criminal Minds
and
Ghost Whisperer
were added to the Ion Television lineup in 2009. In January 2009, the network announced that it had acquired the broadcast rights to the
Canadian television
drama series
Durham County
;
[33]
that show aired on the network for less than a year.
On January 21, 2011, Ion Television acquired the U.S. television rights to the Canadian drama series
Flashpoint
, which gave it first-run rights to the fourth season's final 11 episodes, after CBS aired that season's first eight episodes, as well as rights to air reruns of all episodes produced to date and thereafter;
[34]
Ion (along with the show's originating Canadian broadcaster, CTV) also renewed the series for a fifth and final season that aired during the fall of 2012.
In July 2011, Ion Television acquired the broadcast television rights to six films produced by
Starz Media
(now
Lionsgate
) as part of its weekend film block (then branded as the "Big Movie Weekend"); the films started airing on the network in November of that year.
[35]
Ion also acquired the syndication rights to the
USA Network
series
Psych
and
Monk
from NBCUniversal; the two series respectively began airing in late 2011 and early 2012.
House
, also from NBCUniversal, joined the network in September 2012. In September 2011, Ion Television acquired the syndication rights to
George Lopez
[36]
and
Leverage
.
[37]
George Lopez
began airing on September 29, while
Leverage
debuted in July 2012, the former has since been dropped from the network, while the latter has been cycled on-and-off the schedule.
On October 4, 2011, Ion Television acquired the rights to the first two seasons of the Canadian drama
The Listener
for broadcast in 2012, with an option for future seasons through an agreement with
Shaw Media
(parent of the show's originating broadcaster,
Global
); the series would not join Ion's schedule until March 2014, by which time Ion Television had entered into a co-production arrangement for the program.
[38]
[39]
A similar deal reached in September 2014 with
Entertainment One
gave Ion the U.S. rights to the medical drama
Saving Hope
(which made its U.S. debut on NBC in the summer of 2012); Ion began airing first-run episodes and repeats of the series in October 2015.
[40]
In December 2011, Ion Television acquired the syndication rights to
Cold Case
, which debuted in 2012. On June 25, 2012, Ion Television entered into a deal with
WWE
to air a new hour-long series titled
WWE Main Event
on Wednesday nights; the series debuted on October 3, 2012
[41]
and ran until April 2, 2014.
Other programming
[
edit
]
Children's programming
[
edit
]
Prior to Ion Television's original launch as Pax TV in 1998, the network had reached an agreement with
DIC Entertainment
to produce a five-hour children's programming block called
Freddy's Firehouse
, to air on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
[9]
[42]
The block of animated series was instead launched on September 5, 1998, as "Cloud Nine", featuring a trio of winged teenage angels that hosted the wraparound segments that bridged breaks during the block's shows, which were mostly sourced from the DIC library.
[8]
"Cloud Nine" was discontinued in the spring of 1999, and was replaced by a new block under the title "Pax Kids."
[43]
Pax TV discontinued the "Pax Kids" block in September 2001, as a result, it became the first major commercial broadcast network in the U.S. that did not supply children's programming, and later one of only two until it restored a children's block in 2006 (
UPN
eventually joined it in this distinction after it dropped its
Disney's One Too
block in August 2003, following the termination of a programming agreement with
Buena Vista Television
).
On September 15, 2006, Ion Television debuted a weekly children's program block called "
Qubo
on Ion Television", through a partnership between
Ion Media Networks
,
NBC Universal
, the
Nelvana
unit of
Corus Entertainment
,
Scholastic Media
,
Classic Media
, and its subsidiary
Big Idea Productions
. The Qubo block originally debuted on
NBC
and
Telemundo
on September 9, 2006, with NBC's Qubo block initially being rebroadcast on Ion Television on Friday afternoons (making it the last weekday afternoon children's block to be carried by a major commercial broadcast network until 2010).
[44]
On January 4, 2015, the Qubo block on Ion was relaunched as the "Qubo Kids Corner", concurrent with the block's move to Sunday mornings. As mentioned above, Scripps now purchases syndicated programming to meet Ion Television's E/I requirements with its wind-down of Qubo.
Sports
[
edit
]
The network has previously broadcast certain sporting events, including
Conference USA
college football
games (produced by
College Sports Television
),
soccer
matches from the
Women's United Soccer Association
,
Real Pro Wrestling
(which more resembles the amateur form than the theatrically-based ring sport), the
Champions Tour
of golf, the
Paralympic Games
and a weekly
mixed martial arts
program from
BodogFight
. In its home state of Florida, the network's stations had served as a statewide chain to carry play-by-play coverage of a number of games for
Major League Baseball
's
Tampa Bay Rays
and
Florida Marlins
(demarcated by each team's territories) until the late 2000s, when cable's Fox Sports Florida and Sun (now
Bally Sports Florida
and
Sun
) acquired the exclusive rights to both teams.
Ion Television aired
NFL Films
' weekly highlight program, the
NFL Films Game of the Week
on Saturday evenings from September 16, 2007, to January 5, 2008, with its initial broadcast focusing on the
September 9, 2007
game between the
New York Giants
and the
Dallas Cowboys
. The series was not renewed for the fall 2008 season. Ion also obtained rights to televise games from the
American Indoor Football Association
, which were slated to begin airing in March 2008.
[45]
However, the game's producers did not provide a live broadcast and the agreement was terminated.
On December 28, 2010, Ion Television signed a deal with the
Ultimate Fighting Championship
to air the preliminary fights to the January 1
pay-per-view
event
UFC 125
.
[46]
Ion also aired the preliminary fights for
UFC 127
and
UFC 140
later in 2011, before the organization signed an exclusive
programming agreement with Fox
.
On April 20, 2023, Ion Television, through
Scripps Sports
, signed a multi-year deal with the
Women's National Basketball Association
(WNBA) to air a 15-week slate of
doubleheader
games on Friday nights (branded as
WNBA Friday Night Spotlight on ION
), beginning with that year’s
regular season
. It will be the first national sports broadcast carried by Ion since 2011, and marks the first ever television contract for Scripps Sports, which was founded by the E. W. Scripps Company in December 2022 to acquire sports events for Ion and the group’s local television stations. The agreement also grants local rights to selected Ion
O&Os
for games involving regional WNBA teams, which stations may carry in early- or late-evening broadcast windows depending on tip-off time.
[47]
[48]
[49]
On November 9, 2023, the
National Women's Soccer League
announced Scripps Sports as a rightsholder beginning in the 2024 season, with Ion to air Saturday night doubleheaders. Ion will also air the
2024 NWSL Draft
.
[50]
[51]
Affiliates
[
edit
]
As of October 2020
[update]
, Ion has 64 owned-and-operated stations, and current and pending affiliation agreements with nine additional television stations encompassing 36 states and the
District of Columbia
.
[52]
The network has an estimated national reach of 60.63% of all households in the United States (or 189,453,097 Americans with at least one television set). Ion Television has the most owned-and-operated stations of any commercial broadcast network in the United States, reaching 65.1%
[53]
of the United States (well above the Federal Communications Commission's coverage-based national ownership limit of 39%
[54]
); it is also the only American commercial broadcast network whose stations almost exclusively consist of network-owned stations, similar to the ownership model of many commercial broadcast networks in Europe, Canada, Latin America, Asia and Australia, and to a somewhat more expansive extent, many U.S.-based
religious broadcast
networks.
Ion's programming is available by default via a national feed that is distributed directly to pay television providers in markets without a local Ion station (this contrasts with the major networks, which under FCC regulations, allow providers to import an owned-and-operated or affiliate station from a nearby market if no local over-the-air affiliate exists). In some markets,
DirecTV
carries a "placeholder" simulcast of the national modified feed of the network (for example,
Los Angeles
area viewers can watch Ion on both channels 30, via local O&O
KPXN-TV
, and 306;
New York City
on channel 31
WPXN
besides 305).
In most markets with a Scripps or Inyo-owned Ion station outside early mornings, the only sign of the network being carried on a broadcast television station is a small automatically generated
station identification
on the bottom of the screen at the top of each hour containing the call letters,
city of license
and state abbreviation, which is repeated across its subchannels.
Major market absences and station oddities
[
edit
]
Ion does not have any over-the-air stations in several major
markets
.
Two major factors that have limited the network's national broadcast coverage are that unlike the major commercial broadcast networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox), Ion did not actively seek over-the-air distribution on the
digital subchannels
of other network-affiliated stations in the five years following the digital television transition (with limited exceptions in
Las Vegas, Nevada
,
Tucson, Arizona
and
Fresno, California
through agreements with
Telemundo
owned-and-
operated
stations
in those markets), until it reached a multi-station agreement with
Media General
in November 2015;
[55]
prior to that deal, it long had very few stations that
contractually carry
the network's programming (with limited exceptions in markets such as Louisville, Kentucky and
Anchorage, Alaska
). As a result, Ion Media Networks owns the vast majority of the stations within Ion Television's affiliate body, as well as those of co-owned multicast services Qubo Channel and Ion Life.
In
Pittsburgh
, a deal by Paxson to buy
WPCB-TV
and trade it for secondary
PBS
member station WQEX was approved by the Federal Communications Commission, but rejected by WPCB-TV owner
Cornerstone Television
in a 2000
controversy
; it would not be until November 2010 that Paxson's successor, Ion Media Networks, would successfully buy WQEX, which has since been converted into a commercially licensed outlet as Ion O&O
WINP-TV
.
[56]
[57]
In
Charlotte
,
independent station
WAXN-TV
carried some programming aired by the network during its original iteration as Pax TV from 1998 to 2000, but never maintained a formal affiliation. Under an agreement with
Fox Television Stations
, Ion was added to the fourth digital subcarrier of then owned-and-operated station
WJZY
on September 29, 2016. Ion in Charlotte later moved to the DT6 feed of WJZY-TV.
St. Louis
, at one time, received the network by way of a
low-power
repeater of O&O
WPXS
in nearby
Mount Vernon, Illinois
; in December 2013, the
United States bankruptcy court
approved a plan by creditors of
Roberts Broadcasting
to transfer
East St. Louis
-based MyNetworkTV affiliate
WRBU
and its sister stations, CW affiliate
WZRB
in
Columbia, South Carolina
and former CW affiliate
WAZE-LP
in
Evansville, Indiana
, to a trust with Ion Media Networks ? a creditor in Roberts'
Chapter 11 bankruptcy
proceedings, for which it filed in 2011 ? that would serve as its beneficiary. Roberts' attorney subsequently stated that Ion would purchase the three stations.
[58]
[59]
WZRB and WRBU switched to Ion in February 2014 (although WZRB retained a secondary affiliation with The CW until
MyNetworkTV
affiliate
WKTC
joined the
programming service
in March);
[60]
WRBU dropped MyNetworkTV upon becoming an Ion O&O (MyNetworkTV would not return to St. Louis until November 2014, when CBS affiliate
KMOV
launched a third digital subchannel to serve as an affiliate). WAZE-LP was
silent
at the time of acquisition, having gone dark the previous year after failing to construct its digital transmitter facilities, and Ion eventually decided on an affiliation deal with
Nexstar Media Group
's cluster in the area instead, using a subchannel of CW affiliate
WTVW
.
Buffalo
and
Rochester, New York
, normally treated as separate markets, share Ion affiliate
WPXJ-TV
, which is centrally located between the two cities and is licensed to
Batavia
. An equivalent case exists involving
Battle Creek, Michigan
-licensed
WZPX-TV
, which serves both the
Grand Rapids
and
Lansing
markets (it also unusually served as a secondary
WB
affiliate due to a lack of stations in both markets until the digital age); additionally,
Ann Arbor
-licensed
WPXD-TV
also once provided an equivalent over-the-air signal for Lansing before moving their signal to a new transmitter in the Detroit suburb of
Southfield
in 2012.
In addition, in several other markets, Ion's predecessor was sold to another television station group to affiliate with a different English or Spanish language network, and through either a lack of channel space or interest in the network, Ion would not reappear in most of those markets until reaching deals to air on digital subchannels of other stations. These include:
- Albuquerque, New Mexico
: KAPX (now
UniMas
owned-and-operated station
KTFQ
, Ion now on
KWBQ
19.4)
- Baraboo, Wisconsin
:
W43BR
(now a
Family Channel
affiliate, Ion now in Madison on
WIFS
57.9)
- Baton Rouge, Louisiana
:
WLFT-CD
(now a
religious independent station
, Ion now on
WVLA
33.3)
- Champaign
?
Springfield, Illinois
: WPXU (now CW affiliate
WBUI
, Ion now on
WAND
17.3)
- Charlottesville, Virginia
: WADA-LP (now
WVIR-CD
(translator of NBC affiliate
WVIR-TV
), Ion now on
WCAV
19.4)
- Fresno
?
Visalia, California
: KPXF (now UniMas owned-and-operated station
KTFF
, and was formerly on
KNSO
51.3)
- Little Rock, Arkansas
: KYPX (now
MeTV
affiliate
KMYA
; Ion now on
KARZ
42.3)
- Montgomery, Alabama
:
WBMM
(first switched to
Daystar
, now a CW affiliate, Ion now on
WAKA
8.3)
- Reno, Nevada
:
KREN
(now an Univision affiliate, Ion now on
KTVN
2.3)
- Shreveport, Louisiana
:
KPXJ
(now a CW affiliate, Ion now on
KSHV
45.3)
- Sioux Falls, South Dakota
:
KAUN-LP
(now a Retro TV affiliate, Ion now on
KELO
11.3)
- Tucson, Arizona
:
KUVE-DT
(now an Univision owned-and-operated station, then on
KOLD
13.4. Now on
KGUN-TV
9.5)
- Las Vegas
/
Pahrump, Nevada
:
KPVM-LD
(Now independent; formerly on
KLAS-TV
subchannel, now on
KMCC
)
- San Juan, Puerto Rico
/
Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
:
WJPX
(now an
America TeVe
affiliate, Ion now on
WSVI
8)
In November 2015,
Media General
and Ion came to terms on an affiliation deal to add Ion's main feed as a standard definition digital subchannel in non-Ion O&O markets with Media General stations to replace the programming of the long-defunct
Live Well Network
, the first of its kind for Ion. Ion subchannels were added in markets such as
Austin, Texas
;
Colorado Springs, Colorado
;
Green Bay, Wisconsin
;
Lafayette, Indiana
;
Davenport, Iowa
;
Lafayette, Louisiana
;
Lansing, Michigan
;
Richmond, Virginia
;
Springfield, Massachusetts
; and
Wichita, Kansas
.
[55]
[61]
These deals would carry over after the Media General stations were integrated into the
Nexstar Media Group
in January 2017, with WBAY-TV continuing to carry Ion under
Gray Television
ownership.
Morgan Murphy Media
's two Wisconsin stations (
WISC-TV
in
Madison
and
WKBT-DT
in
La Crosse
?
Eau Claire
) began to carry the network as a third subchannel at the beginning of February 2017. The network further expanded its affiliate reach into small and lower-ranked mid-sized markets during late 2016 and 2017, with Ion Media striking additional deals with companies such as Gray Television,
Hubbard Broadcasting
,
Block Communications
,
Forum Communications
,
Heartland Media
and the
Meredith Corporation
to carry Ion Television on digital subchannels of stations owned and/or operated by those groups.
In the fall of 2021, with the purchase of Ion Media by Scripps, it began to end outside contracts in markets with a Scripps station where Ion Television was on a subchannel rather than an Ion station, with the network being activated on Scripps-owned stations as a subchannel on
WGBA-TV
in
Green Bay, Wisconsin
(ending the subchannel deal with WBAY),
KGUN-TV
in
Tucson, Arizona
(from
KOLD-TV
),
Richmond, Virginia
's
WTVR-TV
(taking over from
WRIC-TV
),
KRIS-TV
in
Corpus Christi, Texas
(from
KIII
), and
WFTX-TV
in the
Fort Myers, Florida
market (rectifying the network's longest absence, as the market previously had no Ion station at all).
In several markets, the station's
city of license
is considered outside the main portion of a market's metropolitan area. Such cases include
Minneapolis?Saint Paul
, where that area's Ion O&O,
KPXM-TV
, is licensed to
St. Cloud
(60 miles (97 km) northwest of the Twin Cities);
Detroit
, where affiliate
WPXD-TV
is licensed to
Ann Arbor, Michigan
(40 miles (64 km) west of Detroit), though its digital transmitter is located in Southfield, where the bulk of Detroit's television stations base their studios and transmitter facilities;
Hartford
, where affiliate
WHPX-TV
is licensed to
New London, Connecticut
(located 40 miles (64 km) to the southeast), which moved its transmitter to the
Farmington
Rattlesnake Mountain
site in the digital age; and
Milwaukee
, where O&O
WPXE-TV
is licensed to
Kenosha
, with its digital transmitter located at a tower farm on Milwaukee's north side (its former analog transmitter was located south of the city in
Racine County
). In the Cleveland market, Ion airs on Akron-based WVPX-TV, which had formerly targeted Akron,
Canton
and nearby areas as an ABC affiliate (then competing with the market's existing ABC station
WEWS
) prior to 1998.
Related services
[
edit
]
Multiplexing
[
edit
]
Ion Television's stations have made notable use of "
multiplexing
" or splitting a digital broadcast television signal into separate
subchannels
. The network's stations usually carry up to six of these digital subchannels (in contrast with most other full-power stations, which usually carry a maximum of four channels over the same signal), each of which broadcast separate networks. Due to the bandwidth limitations caused by its carriage of multiple subchannels over a single broadcast signal, only the primary Ion network feed is transmitted in high definition, a mode of operation that remains under Scripps ownership. A small number of Ion stations have channel sharing agreements with other broadcasters after the FCC's 2016 spectrum re-allocation auction, while others such as Atlanta-area station
WPXA-TV
contract with other lower-power stations in a market to provide a full-power signal, such as
Telemundo
affiliate
WKTB-CD
.
Subchannels
[
edit
]
Qubo
[
edit
]
Qubo
was a children's television network that launched on January 8, 2007, and is carried on the second digital subchannel of Ion Television's stations. Its launch was announced on May 8, 2006, when Ion Media Networks, NBCUniversal, Nelvana, Scholastic Media, Classic Media (now
DreamWorks Classics
which would later be owned by NBCUniversal) and its
Big Idea Productions
unit announced plans to create Qubo as a multi-platform children's entertainment endeavor that would extend to a weekly programming block on Ion Television as well as NBC and Telemundo, and a
video-on-demand
service for
digital cable
providers.
[62]
Qubo features content from the programming libraries of each of the partners, though there was an early promise of each company producing a new series for the network each year; most of its programs are targeted at children ages 2 to 11, though its late night programming block "Qubo Night Owl" (which originally featured animated series from Qubo's partners and the
Filmation
library, but after August 2013 features a mix of animated and live-action series sourced solely from the distribution partners) is aimed at older teenagers and adults.
The network debuted on January 8, 2007.
[63]
Its initial format was composed of a four-hour block of shows that repeated six times a day, all featuring programming exclusive to the new channel; by 2010, the channel adopted a more traditional schedule featuring a larger array of programs. As a consequence to the pending launch of Qubo, the
i
secondary feed was replaced on
i
O&Os with a repeating promo loop in late September 2006. NBCUniversal dropped out of the venture in 2012, with NBC and sister network Telemundo replacing their Qubo blocks with their own E/I-compliant
children's lineups
programmed by
PBS Kids Sprout
(now
Universal Kids
, which is part-owned by NBCUniversal's corporate parent
Comcast
) that July, relegating Qubo's companion programming block exclusively to Ion Television and Ion Plus; Ion Media Networks acquired the stakes of the remaining partners in the channel, which all retained distribution partnerships with Qubo, in 2013.
Programming on Qubo Channel and its companion block on Ion Television and Ion Plus accounted for all educational programming content on Ion's owned-and-operated stations, thus relieving the network from the responsibility of carrying programs compliant with
Children's Television Act
guidelines on its other subchannel services.
Qubo ceased broadcasting after Ion Media's acquisition by the
E. W. Scripps Company
and merger with
Katz Broadcasting
.
[64]
Ion Plus
[
edit
]
Ion Plus
(originally named "iHealth" prior to its launch and "Ion Life" until July 1, 2019) launched on February 19, 2007, and was carried on the third digital subchannel of Ion Television's stations. Under its former format, the network mainly featured health and lifestyle programs, as well as feature films on Sunday mornings and select weeknights (which consist mainly of those its parent network is scheduled to air during the given month as part of the "Ion Television at the Movies" block); some
extreme sports
programming previously aired on weekend evenings until July 2014. Much of Ion Life's programming consists of Canadian-imported programs, with some limited U.S.-produced programming. The network originally maintained a 24-hour entertainment schedule until 2013, when Ion Life added a limited number of infomercials in mid-morning and midday timeslots. As of July 1, 2019, it was rebranded to Ion Plus, acting as a
de facto
extension of the main Ion service, featuring all-day marathon scheduling of one series, along with the same scheduling of paid programming.
Ion Plus ceased broadcasting over-the-air after Ion Media's acquisition by the
E. W. Scripps Company
and merger with
Katz Broadcasting
on February 28, 2021,
[64]
but continues to air as an
advertising-supported video-on-demand
network through several AVOD streaming services, including Samsung TV Plus, and Vizio WatchFree.
[65]
Ion Shop
[
edit
]
In April 2012, Ion Media Networks launched a new service known as
Ion Shop
(originally "iShop" prior to November 2012, and "ShopTV" thereafter, both are names used only by the
PSIP
identifiers on digital television tuners and converter boxes; there was never explicit on-air branding used by the channel itself); some Ion owned-and-operated stations, however, did not begin carrying the network until as late as that November. Carried as a fourth digital subchannel on Ion Television's owned-and-operated stations, it primarily carried informercials; until June 2013, Ion Shop also aired blocks of programming from Ion Life in some morning and late night timeslots.
Ion Shop ceased operations on February 28, 2021.
Ion Mystery
[
edit
]
On February 24, 2022, the Court TV Mystery network was rebranded as
Ion Mystery
, with the "Ion" brand now more established regarding
procedural dramas
in general, including Ion Mystery's overall programming, whereas
Court TV
is more associated with its news division.
[66]
QVC Over the Air
[
edit
]
On August 5, 2013, as part of a partnership between
QVC
and Ion Media Networks to expand the channel's broadcast television coverage, Ion Television began carrying the cable and satellite
home shopping
network via a fifth digital subchannel on most of its owned-and-operated stations. Although the network maintains a high-definition simulcast feed, QVC is transmitted in standard definition in order to preserve channel bandwidth to allow the primary Ion network feed to transmit in HD, with the normally
letterboxed
SD feed squeezed to full-screen in order to fit
4:3
television sets (preventing
windowboxing
of the subchannel on 16:9 sets). QVC is also broadcast on digital subchannels of
low-powered television stations
(mainly those not owned by Ion Media Networks) in selected areas, including in some areas where an Ion station also carries it. The channel's broadcast service is branded as "QVC Over the Air", with an accompanying
on-screen bug
appearing on the lower right corner of the screen during the network's programming. Some Ion-affiliated stations decline to carry QVC's programming, and some Ion Media-owned stations are unable to carry that network due to affiliation agreements between QVC and other broadcasters that existed prior to the Ion deal. The partnership remains in effect in many markets under Scripps ownership and Inyo affiliations, though some stations ended distribution of the network after February 2021 in favor of the Katz networks.
Home Shopping Network
[
edit
]
On November 18, 2013, Ion Television began carrying the Home Shopping Network via a sixth digital subchannel on most of its owned-and-operated stations, as part of a partnership with Ion Media Networks (both once controlled by Lowell "Bud" Paxson) to expand the channel's broadcast coverage. Although it has a high definition simulcast feed, HSN is transmitted by Ion stations in standard definition, due to the same digital multiplexing limitations that prevent QVC from being carried in 16:9 SD or HD. HSN has been widely available over-the-air throughout the United States since its inception ? through stations that the network had owned prior to the 1998 reorganization of its Silver King Broadcasting group into
USA Broadcasting
(some of which were converted into general entertainment independent outlets, and were later sold to
Univision Communications
to form the charter stations of the present-day UniMas network), and had been mainly available on
low-power
television stations immediately prior to its subchannel-leasing agreement with Ion; HSN is carried on low-power stations in some markets where an Ion station also carries the network, though HSN's programming is exclusive to an existing affiliate in a few areas where both networks are present (such as Atlanta, where
WPXA-TV
simulcasts
Telemundo
affiliate
WKTB-CD
on its DT6 subchannel under a time-leasing arrangement, and
W13DQ-D
carries HSN). Some Ion-affiliated stations decline to carry HSN's programming, and some Ion Media-owned stations are unable to carry that network due to affiliation agreements between HSN and other broadcasters that existed prior to the Ion deal. The partnership remains in effect in many markets under Scripps ownership and Inyo affiliations, though some stations ended distribution of the network after February 2021 in favor of the Katz networks.
National feeds
[
edit
]
Separate national feeds (formerly known as "i Plus" or "Ion Plus") have been made available to pay television providers, including
Dish Network
, DirecTV,
Comcast
and
Charter Communications
. A separate
advertising-supported video-on-demand
feed is also available through several AVOD streaming services, including Samsung TV Plus, Vizio WatchFree,
Xumo
,
Tubi
,
Freevee
,
The Roku Channel
, and
TCL Channel
, which features programming sourced from Ion Life in place of paid programming that airs on the main network. Prior to the launch of Ion Life, the Ion Plus feeds carried reruns of cancelled Pax original programs (such as
Miracle Pets
and
Beat the Clock
), as well as
public domain
movies and
sitcom
episodes (such as
I Married Joan
and
The Beverly Hillbillies
). The feeds used the Pax name and
bug
after the network's rebrand as
i
, until about September 2005. As Ion has refocused towards its current schedule however, along with a de-emphasis on local advertising, the national pay-TV feed effectively repeats Ion's main feed outside a lack of
station identification
.
Differences between Ion and other broadcast networks
[
edit
]
Ion follows a programming strategy similar to major cable networks, with majority of its schedule being filled by acquired broadcast and cable drama series, few original programs, holiday films and other original movies, and theatrically released movies sourced mainly from major film studios, with its entertainment programming schedule occupying 18 hours of its daily broadcast schedule. Ion Television, unlike other broadcast networks, does not necessarily allow its owned-and-operated stations and affiliates to air syndicated programming during the daytime and late night hours.
In the United States, syndicated programming accounts for a majority of the revenue of local network-affiliated and independent stations. Network programming (on stations that have a network affiliation), newscasts or other locally produced programs (if a station carries any), and infomercials make up the rest. Since paid programming once made up a relatively sizable portion of Ion's schedule (prior to 2008), the benefit is that it provides the main source of revenue. However, this is also a drawback as, in the past, Ion had relied more on infomercials rather than sitcoms and dramas; sponsors of
television series
often have qualms about their message being lost on stations whose primary content is infomercials and other paid programming. Ion Television's reliance on mostly paid programming has decreased since the late 2000s, as a result of the network's expansion of entertainment programming to additional daytime and late night timeslots, and in particular, the later creation of the infomercial-dedicated subchannel service Ion Shop. Ion Television stations also lack locally produced programming; most of its stations had aired newscasts from other local network-affiliated stations until the rebrand as
i
, and have even produced their own
community affairs
shows; however, local programming has since become virtually non-existent on most of Ion's O&Os and affiliates, and was entirely discontinued with the 2019 repeal of the Main Studio rule by the FCC.
In effect, the repeal also freed Ion Media from the responsibility of maintaining 'studios' in any manner, which for most stations were merely a low-cost office suite containing the station's
public file
, a telephone manned by a
general manager
with only the responsibility of responding to viewers and local pay-TV providers as a local representative of the network, along with a broadcast engineer who often is responsible for multiple Ion stations (the rule required two employees, an engineer and general manager, at minimum to staff a television station). Currently in a market with another Scripps station, that station's engineer also performs the same duties for the Ion station.
In the past, as a result before digital multicasting, there were a small number of stations (such as former affiliate
WKFK-LD
in
Pascagoula, Mississippi
) that maintained dual affiliations with both Ion and another smaller network, such as
America One
. In early 2006, it was announced that the
i
stations in
Memphis, Tennessee
(
WPXX-TV
),
Rapid City, South Dakota
(
KKRA-LP
) and
Greenville, North Carolina
(
WEPX-TV
, as well as its satellite
WPXU-TV
in
Jacksonville, North Carolina
) would add programming from MyNetworkTV in September 2006, causing preemptions of
i
programming during prime time due to the stations' programming commitments to carrying the MyNetworkTV schedule. This blow came after
i
lost some affiliates in
New Mexico
,
New York
and
Illinois
entirely (although the New York station,
WWBI-LP
in
Plattsburgh
, subsequently rejoined the network after a sale that resulted in the affiliation change fell through).
In late September 2009, a year after Ion Media Networks purchased WPXX and WEPX/WPXU from Flinn Broadcasting, those stations resumed carrying Ion Television full-time, having disaffiliated from MyNetworkTV as a result of the network terminating its existing affiliation agreements due to its conversion into a programming service. NBC affiliate
WITN-TV
took over the MyNetworkTV affiliation for the Greenville, North Carolina market, placing it on a
digital subchannel
; Memphis CW affiliate
WLMT
, meanwhile, picked up only
WWE SmackDown
in place of WPXX (that station would also add MyNetworkTV on a digital subchannel in a dual affiliation with
MeTV
from 2011, but eventually dropped the affiliation in 2016, leaving it on
KPMF-LD
until 2021, which is licensed to the nearby
Jonesboro, Arkansas
market but transmits from the same tower as WLMT does north of Memphis).
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
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.
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.
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.
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.
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[
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]
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.
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from
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, September 25, 2020
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.
Broadcasting Cable
. Retrieved
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.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link
)
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. adweek.com
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2013
.
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.
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.
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.
- ^
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Durham County
"
.
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(Press release). January 6, 2009. Archived from
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on February 28, 2009.
- ^
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.
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.
Penske Media Corporation
. Retrieved
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2012
.
- ^
"Ion Television Inks Starz Media Deal for Six Theatricals"
.
Multichannel News
.
NewBay Media
. July 2011
. Retrieved
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2013
.
- ^
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"Ion Acquires Comedy 'George Lopez'
"
.
Deadline Hollywood
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.
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.
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. Dexter Canfield Media, Inc. September 2011. Archived from
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. Retrieved
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.
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"
.
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.
- ^
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"
'The Listener' To Become ION Original Series As Network Joins As Co-Producer"
.
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.
- ^
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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