ION TV Expanding

[CaliRadioFan]

The deal has just finalized on a huge five station purchase, which will give them a duopoly in three markets - LA, Cleveland, and Indianapolis! ION also gets an affiliate back in Columbus, OH, and added an all new for them market in Dayton, OH. ION Life, the lifestyle diginet, is making the transition to an OTA network. ION Life programming has been running on LA's KILM since the first of the month, and the EPG's are now reflection that station's new full time schedule. And you can look for ION Life on the very soon to be former Trinity Broadcasting stations, KDLI in Cleveland, and WCJL in Indianapolis.

I think this should close the book (at least for now) on ION "dying" as a network

 

[KML0224]

ION was finally made available over-the-air in the Portland/Poland Spring, ME TV market. The station is WIPL-TV channel 35 of Lewiston. It was WPME-TV (MY) before that. The MY programming and former WPME line-up is now a subchannel of WPXT-TV (CW) channel 51 of Portland.

 

[KeithE4]

And you can look for ION Life on the very soon to be former Trinity Broadcasting stations, KDLI in Cleveland, and WCJL in Indianapolis.

WCLJ had been LMA'ed by ION since November 2017 and channel-shared with WIIB since April 2018. But since they're both licensed to Bloomington, their transmitter must remain in Trafalgar.

I wonder how many other TBN stations might be sold to ION?

 

[FreddyE1977]

ION TV Expanding

You mean like going to nine subchannels of home shopping from the current four?

 

[zeebre12]

In this article Ion talk about their strategic expansion focus for the next few years, the say about building additional networks. What other kind of network could they create? They have kids/lifestyle covered. Would they just create an additional subchannel or how would it work?
https://ionmedia.com/press/imn/ion-media-marks-10th-anniversary-with-record-results

 

[Megatron]

I doubt any of ION subchannels are carried on pay TV providers I know they aren't shown where I live on Charter Spectrum.

 

[Mr Tony]

I doubt any of ION subchannels are carried on pay TV providers I know they aren't shown where I live on Charter Spectrum.

They're carried here in Minneapolis on Mediacom...in two spots
Qubo and IonLife are carried in the Kids & Variety Digital Pak but since here we have a local Ion station (KPXM) Qubo and IonLife are carried in lifeline/Local Plus TV

 

[Mr Tony]

Gray Broadcasting has been adding Ion as a subchannel in a few of their markets. Most recent additions are Omaha, Rockford Illinois, Lincoln/Grand Island Nebraska, Sherman Texas and soon to Meridian Mississippi

 

[Mr Tony]

I doubt any of ION subchannels are carried on pay TV providers I know they aren't shown where I live on Charter Spectrum.

The reason Ion is buying these stations is so they can put IonLife on them as a -1 and therefore must carry on cable/satellite

 

[tested]

I find it interesting that Ion bought stations from TBN. I am unfamiliar with their situations in those particular markets with regard to the cable carriage of the TBN networks, but it would seem like that religious broadcaster is losing reach under this deal.

 

[Mr Tony]

I find it interesting that Ion bought stations from TBN. I am unfamiliar with their situations in those particular markets with regard to the cable carriage of the TBN networks, but it would seem like that religious broadcaster is losing reach under this deal.

In these cases TBN was already channel sharing with Ion so the fact that Ion bought the stations (which if they bought them from TBN would give TBN a double sale...once to the FCC for spectrum, then to Ion) kinda makes sense.

 

[Mgomrjsurf]

Gray is in Springfield,MO but IONTV is a sub channel on KRBK. Most cable systems in KC area don't have Life,Qubo,Shop yet like CCI,Comcast.

 

[LKellerIII]

I love all this geeky attention people pay on this site to outdated and dying terrestrial broadcast TV, what the sub-channels are in some rust-belt market, etc. In many places in America, people aren't even subscribing to cable or satellite anymore, just streaming content.

With so much original programming available on Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. - the audience for endless Law & Order and Criminal Minds reruns has to be small, and shrinking.

 

[CTListener]

I love all this geeky attention people pay on this site to outdated and dying terrestrial broadcast TV, what the sub-channels are in some rust-belt market, etc. In many places in America, people aren't even subscribing to cable or satellite anymore, just streaming content.

With so much original programming available on Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. - the audience for endless Law & Order and Criminal Minds reruns has to be small, and shrinking.

Since most of these diginets are programming for the 65-to-the-grave crowd, the audience is also shrinking due to natural causes. The octogenarians and nonagenarians aren't switching to Netflix or Amazon Prime, they are passing on.

And in all parts of the country, the true cord cutters -- no satellite, no cable -- remain a definite minority, even if their numbers are creeping upward.

 

[LKellerIII]

Since most of these diginets are programming for the 65-to-the-grave crowd, the audience is also shrinking due to natural causes. The octogenarians and nonagenarians aren't switching to Netflix or Amazon Prime, they are passing on.

And in all parts of the country, the true cord cutters -- no satellite, no cable -- remain a definite minority, even if their numbers are creeping upward.

According to the article attached (see link), cord-cutting is climbing to 33 percent - faster than expected - and will likely increase to over 33 million Americans this year. The trend is clear.

BTW - I am in the "65 to grave" crowd, as you so delicately put it. I switched from cable to satellite about ten years ago to save a significant amount of money, and dumped satellite about a year ago. With a few subscriptions - Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu - I am able to get all the programming I need at a much lower cost.

Though I am a news and info junkie, I find that with the internet and streaming, i still get all the news I need, without either CNN or local news.

https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/25/u...ch-33-million-this-year-faster-than-expected/

 

[crainbebo]

I'm a recent cord-cutter. Sick and tired of paying $100 a month just for TV on top of the Internet and phone service that Spectrum offers. And that was just for expanded basic cable - 2-99 with a bunch of numbers missing because they were 'silver package' channels, and the subchannels in the 180s. I'm not sure if I will go back or not. I get everything I want on TV from over-the-air television. Sure, we miss watching Dr. Jeff: Rocky Mountain Vet on Animal Planet, History's American Pickers, and a few others, but WE DON'T NEED THEM, especially since half of cable is reality crap or theatrical movies cut up and full of commercials. I absolutely need internet service thus pay for it. I'm taking college classes online along with on-campus 4 nights a week.

 

[Scott2013]

I'm a recent cord-cutter. Sick and tired of paying $100 a month just for TV on top of the Internet and phone service that Spectrum offers. And that was just for expanded basic cable - 2-99 with a bunch of numbers missing because they were 'silver package' channels, and the subchannels in the 180s. I'm not sure if I will go back or not. I get everything I want on TV from over-the-air television. Sure, we miss watching Dr. Jeff: Rocky Mountain Vet on Animal Planet, History's American Pickers, and a few others, but WE DON'T NEED THEM, especially since half of cable is reality crap or theatrical movies cut up and full of commercials. I absolutely need internet service thus pay for it. I'm taking college classes online along with on-campus 4 nights a week.

Have you ever checked out a free streaming TV service called Pluto TV? Last month I got a Vizio Smartcast smart TV and found out it had this extra input called WatchFree built in. Once I checked it out, I found all these extra channels (little more than 100) through this input. Turns out this service has been around for a few years and somehow I had never heard about it until now. It's available through Pluto TV's website and also through an app you can access if you have a smart TV, Amazon Fire TV Stick, Roku box, tablet or even a smartphone. When you look at all the channels it has available, it has something for just about everybody. Big difference though is most of the channels on the service are exclusive to the service rather than big-name cable channels.
http://pluto.tv/guide/