An ION Christmas

[azumanga]

While the other networks have at least some Christmas programming scheduled for Christmas Eve, ION will celebrate the holiday tonight with a marathon...

...of Time-Life infomercials. All evening long.

And if I was kidding, I wouldn't have posted this -- check your schedules.

 

[Braves2005]

You would really think that they could have dusted off Christmas episodes of Amen, Alice, Mama's Family, etc. but they have already aired their Christmas episodes a few weeks ago.

What really do you expect out of ION anyways? Hasn't been too much since they started in that they drop their shows after a few months or a few weeks. Guess they have to make Time-Life some money by showing their infomercials and ION's new infomercial show Firebrand.

 

[MarcB]

Shop-At-Home Network which normally shows COIN VAULT like 15 hours a day minimum is running a 72 hour marathon of it over the Christmas Break. ION did the non-stop TIME LIFE Infomericals last year too. But what do you expect? FIREBRAND bought the 11PM-12Midnite timeslot. 11PM was TIME LIFE's permanent timeslot.

 

[MarkL]

Too bad...

People keep saying ION will expand it's schedule to the afternoon/daytime, but I have a hard time seeing it happen. There's too much guaranteed money in informercials.

 

[tothedj]

How long do you think it will be before "ION" is television history?

 

[Braves2005]

I miss the days when PAX/ION used to show shows in the afternoons like Eight Is Enough, The Big Valley, Remington Steele, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, The Love Boat, Highway To Heaven, and Promised Land. I'm getting kind of tired of ION's tactics of showing good shows and then taking them off in a big hurry before they showed the entire run of the show and their promises of shows in the afternoons which they have been promising for going on 3 years now and still haven't delivered on their promise.

Just makes me wish that RTN (Retro Television Network) would come to San Antonio.

 

[Markxxx]

I used to love in the late 80s / early 90s when the shopping channels would show the old public domain Christmas movies. There was a silent film of "A Christmas Carol" that was so errie.

It's a shame but I guess with DVDs being what they are...

Still I wonder what is on ION subchannels.

 

[Mainedude2007]

How long do you think it will be before "ION" is television history?

here in the 21st century, a while...years ago it would have been gone by now (the same question and answer could be said about Air America as well)

 

[MarkL]

Still I wonder what is on ION subchannels.

They used to show classic public domain shows on their subchannels, but now they show "Ion Life" and "Qubo 24/7."

 

[notalkallstatic]

How long do you think it will be before "ION" is television history?

here in the 21st century, a while...years ago it would have been gone by now (the same question and answer could be said about Air America as well)

How about America One? What are they doing to stay afloat? Why aren't they having problems like ION? *knock on wood*

 

[azumanga]

How about America One? What are they doing to stay afloat? Why aren't they having problems like ION? *knock on wood*

Mainly due to the fact that they own only one station (KTBU in Houston), and received much of their programming cheap from independent producers. It is also run by a company not specifically created for its existence (the USFR Media Group, which in turn is owned by a farm supply company).

 

[JeeperOne]

Hi everyone:

How long do you think it will be before "ION" is television history?

Better question. How long do you think it will be before ION becomes RHI-TV given the library of made-for-TV movies and other stuff they have?

They could really run with those movies and the comedy reruns they already have if ION was smart and RHI had the guts to take over the network.

But what do I know? I'm just your average, ordinary chair potato TV viewer.....Apparently nobody important to them.

Cheers

 

[Nate Wesley]

I don't understand why ION does so badly in the first place. It's not like they don't have access to content...what happened to all of those deals with MGM and Warner Bros. to show movies? And why mess their 'Free TVLand' formula?

They should be creaming the likes of MyNetworkTelevision, and they're making MNTV look great.

 

[Tim-In-Houston]

Well, it could be worse.

Here in Mississippi, when state-operated Mississippi Public Broadcasting/Television decides its pledge-time, they basically run the same Time-Life-esque (as I don't remember if it is a Time-Life offering) "Best Of the Grand Ole Opry" featuring Vince Gill (the, I guess, DVD is a pledge premium).

I am not joking when I say this one program airs at least eight days in a two-week pledge period, usually during primetime but also on the weekends (outside PBS kids programming) pre-empting anything else that might be airing.

I've lived in Mississippi going on three years and it has run every single pledge period.

Thank god they don't do this on their radio side, I think there would be a wholesale revolt.