ION Network

[e-dawg]

Since ION recently sign on their new Owned and Operated station WNIP CH 16 in Pittsburgh PA. Has ION Network improved their program line up? Their financial situation? Also, have they improve their coverage area? Also, which Top 100 markets doesn't have a full power ION station?

 

[Nate Wesley]

Since ION recently sign on their new Owned and Operated station WNIP CH 16 in Pittsburgh PA. Has ION Network improved their program line up? Their financial situation? Also, have they improve their coverage area? Also, which Top 100 markets doesn't have a full power ION station?

I have no idea about the company's financials, other than I know they owed a lot of creditors money--went through some major reorganizing--and probably still owe creditors a lot of money.

As for programming--Ion has snagged the rights to familiar network shows (off net and in-production) and weekend movies, and its seen ratings rise to an almost-solid 1 million households a night in primetime. Things were markedly worse in getting anyone to watch years ago, so there's some demonstrable success right there.

 

[dave73]

Since ION recently sign on their new Owned and Operated station WNIP CH 16 in Pittsburgh PA. Has ION Network improved their program line up? Their financial situation? Also, have they improve their coverage area? Also, which Top 100 markets doesn't have a full power ION station?

I personally think their programming still sucks. With them insisting on owning all their stations, instead of just running a few stations, & let other companies affiliate with them. With just a few stations under their belt, & let other companies affiliate with them in smaller markets, they'd probably have money to get better programming, instead of paying big bucks to run all these stations (even if they have a skeleton crew at all of them).

As for markets that still don't have an Ion station, these are the following markets:

# 18 San Juan, Puerto Rico (mainly a Spanish speaking island, & maybe Ion isn't interested in Puerto Rico)
# 22 San Diego, California
# 23 St Louis, Missouri
# 26 Charlotte, North Carolina
# 29 Baltimore, Maryland
# 35 Greenville, South Carolina
# 36 Columbus, Ohio
# 38 Cincinnati, Ohio
# 39 Las Vegas, Nevada
# 42 Fresno, California
# 47 Harrisburgh, Pennsylvania
# 48 Austin, Texas
# 49 Louisville, Kentucky

For some of the top 50 markets they are in, they have some OTA signals that don't cover the entire market. WIPX-TV is in the Indianapolis market, & licensed to Bloomington. They only cover the southern part of the market. I don't know how many other markets they're in, where they only cover a portion of the market. In the analog days, WPXE-TV in the Milwaukee market (licensed to Kenosha) only covered the southern part of the market, because they were on channel 55, & they were forced to protect a channel 55 allocation in the Wausau, Wisconsin market that wasn't even used at the time they relocated their transmitter from Kenosha to Franksville, WI. With digital, they were able to locate at the tower farm in Milwaukee & cover the entire market

 

[Poledo]

Mobile, Alabama (Market #68?) has never had Ion/Pax. I believe the new Mobile-Pensacola Daystar affiliate, WDPM DT23, was the build out of a CP bought from Paxon.

If I'm not mistaken, the city of Mobile was the last top 100 market to get My Network TV... although the far eastern end of the market had a very small full power My affiliate not capable of reaching the Mobile cable/satellite head ends. They relocated the DT to the Mobile tower farm earlier this year. It now has one of the best signals in the market.

 

[blackgold]

You know what killed ION Telvision(and their predecessorPAX-TV)? It was the failure of the 1999 TV special "Millenium Live: Humanity's Broadcast" to go on air as scheduled on 12/31/99! The producers left the over 150 networks around the world who were to have broadcast it(including PAX/ION) up the creek. PAX had to scramble to put together a patchwork schedule of old movies on the air. That really left millions of viewers here and around the globe disappointed.
As a result, I believe that ION Television will have to either quit the business in 2012 or start making important changes.

 

[mnradiofan]

You know what killed ION Telvision(and their predecessorPAX-TV)? It was the failure of the 1999 TV special "Millenium Live: Humanity's Broadcast" to go on air as scheduled on 12/31/99! The producers left the over 150 networks around the world who were to have broadcast it(including PAX/ION) up the creek. PAX had to scramble to put together a patchwork schedule of old movies on the air. That really left millions of viewers here and around the globe disappointed.
As a result, I believe that ION Television will have to either quit the business in 2012 or start making important changes.

Wait, so the fact that ONE SHOW didn't air led to the collapse of a network 12 years later? I don't think so.

What led Ion to be in the position that it's in right now is Bud Paxson's failed business plan. He bet the farm on family friendly programming, despite (time and time again) people not wanting this programming (in some cases, at least not 24/7). Because expenses were so high in not only running a network, but owning all the stations, programming gradually went downhill, and Paid Programming was brought in to cover costs.

They have been trying to pull themselves up from that tailspin ever since.

 

[Markxxx]

Ion is all UHF, which is in demand. They might try to work out some deal to sell to a company that could use the frequencies for something else. It's a long shot but it might be worth hanging on to them in the long run

 

[mnradiofan]

Ion is all UHF, which is in demand. They might try to work out some deal to sell to a company that could use the frequencies for something else. It's a long shot but it might be worth hanging on to them in the long run

They already did this to a holding company/investment broker. I'm sure they are now just filling time until the price goes up for spectrum, and then they'll start selling. Either that, or they really aren't smart, because they basically program the same 5 programs all week.

 

[tripinva]

I don't think ION's looking to sell out. They're investors in Mobile DTV and have launched it on 12 or so of their stations.

- Trip

 

[blackgold]

They've got to start investing in New and Original programming. They can start by doing American adaptations of Hispanic telenovelas or original telenovelas. We can also do some music and variety programs.

 

[dave73]

You know what killed ION Telvision(and their predecessorPAX-TV)? It was the failure of the 1999 TV special "Millenium Live: Humanity's Broadcast" to go on air as scheduled on 12/31/99! The producers left the over 150 networks around the world who were to have broadcast it(including PAX/ION) up the creek. PAX had to scramble to put together a patchwork schedule of old movies on the air. That really left millions of viewers here and around the globe disappointed.
As a result, I believe that ION Television will have to either quit the business in 2012 or start making important changes.

Wait, so the fact that ONE SHOW didn't air led to the collapse of a network 12 years later? I don't think so.

What led Ion to be in the position that it's in right now is Bud Paxson's failed business plan. He bet the farm on family friendly programming, despite (time and time again) people not wanting this programming (in some cases, at least not 24/7). Because expenses were so high in not only running a network, but owning all the stations, programming gradually went downhill, and Paid Programming was brought in to cover costs.

They have been trying to pull themselves up from that tailspin ever since.

I never thought about family friendly programming being an issue here, but I do agree with it 100%. All these stations (even if run on a skeleton crew) are adding to their expenses too, because of the cost to run the transmitters in each market (their biggest expense). They should have focused on just a few stations, & let other companies affiliate with them in other markets. They could have at least got better programming. This would also help them get additional programming for the Ion Life Network too. Some of those Canadian shows they have are still on the air in Canada, but Ion Media has only bought the US rights to 1 or 2 seasons of those shows. Some of them are good, but they air the same episodes over & over again (along with the shows cancelled years ago that no one else wants).

Ion is all UHF, which is in demand. They might try to work out some deal to sell to a company that could use the frequencies for something else. It's a long shot but it might be worth hanging on to them in the long run

Sorry to tell you this, but in the digital era, Ion Media has 1 VHF station (when counting only full power stations), & that station is WWPX-TV in Martinsburg, West Virginia, part of the Hagerstown, Maryland market. That station is petitioning to move to channel 51, but there's currently a freeze on channel reallocations, though they might have gotten their in before the freeze, & "might" be granted.

 

[Wright County Guy]

I recall Paxson making some nice money when the 52-69 spectrum opened up. Certainly no other O and O's in that neighborhood.

It would be nice if Ion had, say, more than three programs:

Ghost Whisperer
Without A Trace
Criminal Minds

Rinse.

Repeat.

 

[MarcB]

As I posted in another thread coming this fall "MONK" "Psych", and in 2012 "House".

 

[KeithE4]

I recall Paxson making some nice money when the 52-69 spectrum opened up. Certainly no other O and O's in that neighborhood.

It would be nice if Ion had, say, more than three programs:

Ghost Whisperer
Without A Trace
Criminal Minds
Infomercials
Paid Religion
More Infomercials
More Paid Religion

Rinse.

Repeat.

Fixed. ;D

 

[tothedj]

Maybe ION should merge with "My Network TV", it would put them in the other markets where this network is not shown if they kept the "ION" name.

 

[tripinva]

Dave,

WWPX dismissed their channel 51 petition and will be staying on 12.

- Trip

 

[Mario500]

I recall Paxson making some nice money when the 52-69 spectrum opened up.  Certainly no other O and O's in that neighborhood.

It would be nice if Ion had, say, more than three programs: 

Ghost Whisperer
Without A Trace
Criminal Minds
Infomercials
Paid Religion
More Infomercials
More Paid Religion

Rinse.

Repeat.

Fixed. ;D

ION Television has programs from Qubo every Wednesday through Friday between 7:00 AM and 8:00 AM Central time.

Mobile, Alabama (Market #68?) has never had Ion/Pax.  I believe the new Mobile-Pensacola Daystar affiliate, WDPM DT23, was the build out of a CP bought from Paxon.

Comcast Cablevision of Mobile recently began providing ION Television programs to their cable TV customers.

 

[Nate Wesley]

I recall Paxson making some nice money when the 52-69 spectrum opened up. Certainly no other O and O's in that neighborhood.

It would be nice if Ion had, say, more than three programs:

Ghost Whisperer
Without A Trace
Criminal Minds

Rinse.

Repeat.

Earlier this year, Ion secured a deal for Flashpoint this fall, an odd arrangement that will give them 11 new, never-seen-in-the-U.S. episodes, plus syndication of every previous episode that has aired domestically on CBS.

http://www.deadline.com/2011/01/can...syndi-deal-will-air-originals-on-cbs-and-ion/


I actually understand what the channel is doing with the familiar shows. It should, at least, flesh out show variety to five dramas for each weeknight--heck, that might be what their schedulers plan to do (A night of House, a night of Psych, 'Monk Mondays', 'Flashpoint Fridays'...).

 

[FightingIrish]

Ion has definitely exceeded overkill with some of their shows (like the rather ghastly and unappealing "Criminal Minds"). And let's face it, it's not all that different than what MyNetworkTV currently does, though MNTV has better programming.

They have, however, stepped up in the movie department. Granted, they do sometimes overkill their limited (but quite good) library of "The Godfather" and "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" (I think a lot of these air on Ion Life). But it was kinda cool to see "Unforgiven" the other night.

And I know infomercials and religion have helped pay the bills there for years, but that's essentially what they've become known for.

They definitely need to add to their show library. Glad to see they're adding more second-run shows ("House" is a very good coup!), and while Canadian shows do tend to be kinda lame, at least they're original here. Why not tap programs from other countries like Great Britain and Australia? Yeah, I know, the whole accent/driving on the left thing might not appeal to all us gringos, but at least it's unique. I, for one, like seeing fare like "MI-5" on my local PBS station.

I like what they do with their subchannel setup. Qubo, while not showing the highest quality of children's' programming, does fill a niche. And Ion Life has some potential, though it could use some more varied programming.

 

[dhett]

They can start by doing American adaptations of Hispanic telenovelas or original telenovelas.

Because that worked so well for My Network TV, right?