• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Breaking: Ion files for bankruptcy

...and they just recently had both east and west feeds added to DISH Network...near the infomercial channels no less!

:D :D :D
 
You mean to tell me with 16 hours a day of infomercials and they still didn't make money? ???
 
Who didn't see this coming.

Farewell, channel that I had already blocked (to save myself the trouble of flipping past it).
 
Now Byron Allen can pick up the entire outfit real cheap. Great news for fans of Comics Unleashed and Entertainment Studios.com!
 
I could be wrong but sometime ago I think it was on sitcomsonline, somebody had mentioned that the highest rated show..ever..to had appeared on ION was actually reruns of Mama's Family. Yet ION dropped it and as far as I know Mama isn't seen on any network now and AOL ( last I checked ) had taken off Mama's Family from their in2TV thing. ION made a mistake there.
 
When Ion made the announcement about the qubo channel, they already knew that they were already in financial dire straits, considering that (1) the bankruptcy announcement was made the following day, and (2) they wanted to offer qubo free to cable operators, but there were still no takers.
 
I can't say that I'm surprised by this. Who watches this channel anyway? Maybe Ion would've had a better chance of surviving if they didn't fill more than half of their broadcast day with infomercials. Or had they not dropped Mama's Family. Wonder if the recession played a role in this bankruptcy filing?
 
I don't know the specifics about ION but a lot of companies simply use bankruptcy as a tool to reduce debt. It's not the sign of desperation it once was.

For instance, take the airlines, the big Three AA, Delta and United were all roughly equal. Then once United filed bankruptcy, they got rid of a huge part of their debt. Suddenly UAL was at an advantage. So Delta filed for bankruptcy. This allowed Delta to use the money they'd normally spent to reduce their debt to buy new things to compete with United, which also freed money by not paying their debt.

Mama's Family was the biggest program on ION, (or was it "I" at the time). I recall Mama's Family was even regularly beating MyNetworkTV in the ratings and the CW every so often.
 
Mark said:
I don't know the specifics about ION but a lot of companies simply use bankruptcy as a tool to reduce debt. It's not the sign of desperation it once was.

For instance, take the airlines, the big Three AA, Delta and United were all roughly equal. Then once United filed bankruptcy, they got rid of a huge part of their debt. Suddenly UAL was at an advantage. So Delta filed for bankruptcy. This allowed Delta to use the money they'd normally spent to reduce their debt to buy new things to compete with United, which also freed money by not paying their debt.

Mama's Family was the biggest program on ION, (or was it "I" at the time). I recall Mama's Family was even regularly beating MyNetworkTV in the ratings and the CW every so often.
Click to expand...

It's very unusual reruns of a 25 year old TV show would get ANY ratings - I remember they had a syndicated version of Mama's Family that ran until the early '90s....was that show REALLY that BIG?
 
Mark said:
Mama's Family was the biggest program on ION, (or was it "I" at the time). I recall Mama's Family was even regularly beating MyNetworkTV in the ratings and the CW every so often.
Click to expand...

If Mama's Family was the biggest program on ION, then Heaven help that network.

The way things have gone, these smaller networks are like what's left of F.W. Woolworth's and J.J. Newberry's trying to compete against the Big 4, PBS, and the major cable networks. One possible idea, and it's just an idea, and admittedly, not a great one:

Take the concept of "narrowcasting" one step further. Take these smaller networks, and perhaps some subchannels, and turn them into "One Show" Networks. Thus, you would have:
The MASH Channel
The Mama's Family Channel
The Cheers Channel
The Twilight Zone Channel
The Perry Mason Channel
The Saved By The Bell Channel

And so on, and so on, etc. Different idea. Also kinda scary if you think about it. But, the way some operations have faltered, what have they got to lose? The idea is so stupid, that it might work.
 
If ION wants to program on the cheap, why not just buy America One programming?

They call call it America One on ION.
 
RicoGregg said:
Mark said:
Mama's Family was the biggest program on ION, (or was it "I" at the time). I recall Mama's Family was even regularly beating MyNetworkTV in the ratings and the CW every so often.
Click to expand...

If Mama's Family was the biggest program on ION, then Heaven help that network.

The way things have gone, these smaller networks are like what's left of F.W. Woolworth's and J.J. Newberry's trying to compete against the Big 4, PBS, and the major cable networks. One possible idea, and it's just an idea, and admittedly, not a great one:

Take the concept of "narrowcasting" one step further. Take these smaller networks, and perhaps some subchannels, and turn them into "One Show" Networks. Thus, you would have:
The MASH Channel
The Mama's Family Channel
The Cheers Channel
The Twilight Zone Channel
The Perry Mason Channel
The Saved By The Bell Channel

And so on, and so on, etc. Different idea. Also kinda scary if you think about it. But, the way some operations have faltered, what have they got to lose? The idea is so stupid, that it might work.
Click to expand...

Or my favorite: The Scooby Doo Channel
 
I'm not surprised... this being the old Pax-TV - and as Paxson Communications didn't they file for BK too at some point?

As it goes, Ion isn't that bad... but then it isn't that good either. With the digital transition they are making sense by avoiding HD and having 4x SD channels on their signal. For areas that can get the Ion and PBS digital signals it's likely to give OTA households two childrens' channels to watch - an excellent move since kids TVs are more than likely not to be hooked up to cable/satellite and left with rabbit ears and connected to the VCR/DVD for watching (whatever the kids onto) for the nth time.
 
Bongwater said:
Mark said:
Mama's Family was the biggest program on ION, (or was it "I" at the time). I recall Mama's Family was even regularly beating MyNetworkTV in the ratings and the CW every so often.
Click to expand...

It's very unusual reruns of a 25 year old TV show would get ANY ratings - I remember they had a syndicated version of Mama's Family that ran until the early '90s....was that show REALLY that BIG?
Click to expand...

In that bio she had out years ago ( shortly after she had did her talk show Vicki ), Vicki Lawrence made some claim that in some markets Mama's Family reruns were actually beating Johnny Carson. Now was that really true, I dont know but I do know that as far as the local Baltimore-Washington local stations went, Mama never really found a stable home. The show really was all over the place ( example 3:30am on WNUV but only for three days a week ).

By the time Mama's Family had made its way to ION, a lot of shows have gone the DVD route. Of course that was the case with Mama, but only the first season was released. The syndicated ones were not and as of last year..if one is to believe Carol Burnett & Joe Hamilton's daughter Jody Hamilton...the day the syndicated Mama goes DVD...well there is a higher chance of a blizzard hitting Palm Springs in July. The Hamilton family and Carol Burnett had been feuding with each other off and on for years over a variety of issues ( I am sure its mostly money ) ever since Joe Hamilton died of cancer in 1991 ( his illness had put a stop to production of the show in 1990 ). I assume the family is still fighting today since I have yet to hear about the syndicated episodes appearing on DVD.

Unlike most shows from the 80s and 90s when one knows at least a few seasons of their favorite TV show will sooner or later go DVD, but with Mama's Family...the odds aren't in their favor ( at least with the syndicated episodes ) so maybe some viewers felt this is their "last chance" to catch the show.
 
RicoGregg said:
Take the concept of "narrowcasting" one step further. Take these smaller networks, and perhaps some subchannels, and turn them into "One Show" Networks. Thus, you would have:
The MASH Channel
The Mama's Family Channel
The Cheers Channel
The Twilight Zone Channel
The Perry Mason Channel
The Saved By The Bell Channel
Click to expand...

They ALREADY have, in effect, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Channel ? ? ? ?

I would like to see The Hogan's Hero's Channel :D
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom