Ion Television
Ion Television is an American broadcast television network and FAST television channel owned by the Ion Media division of 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 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.
For many years, Ion has focused primarily on off-network reruns of existing series, with most of its current schedule devoted to marathon blocks of procedural dramas, along with occasional broadcasts of films. In the past, Ion had acquired first-run airings of Canadian series not picked up by other American networks and had also been infamous for devoting much of its schedule to infomercials. Under Scripps ownership, Ion has increasingly added national sports programming from the newly established Scripps Sports division, beginning with packages of Women's National Basketball Association basketball and National Women's Soccer League soccer.
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 AVOD 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. Ion's owned-and-operated stations cover 64.8% of the United States population, by far the most of any American 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.
History
PAX (1998–2005)
The network was launched by Bud Paxson, co-founder of the Home Shopping Network and chairman of parent company Paxson Communications. It was originally to be called Pax Net, but was renamed Pax TV – 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, a network launched by Paxson in 1995 that relied mainly on infomercials and other brokered programming. 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, 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 pm. 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 am. Central. In addition, the network aired religious programming through time-lease agreements with The Worship Network and Praise TV. The remainder of the schedule was filled by paid programming.
Initial programming on PAX consisted of first-run shows, along with reruns of older programming. The network also produced some original drama series such as Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye, Doc, Mysterious Ways, 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, Dirty Rotten Cheater, a 2002 revival of Beat the Clock, Hollywood Showdown and reruns of Born Lucky. The network would later carry reruns of the syndicated revival of Family Feud and, due to its alliance with NBC, The Weakest Link as well as the 2000 revival of Twenty-One.
In September 1999, National Broadcasting Company, Inc. 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 that would allow it to acquire additional television stations. NBC later sold its share in the network back to Paxson in November 2003.
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 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 took over production of the newscast that WTHR had been producing for UPN affiliate WNDY-TV. 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 and five hours on weekends. 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)
On June 28, 2005, Paxson Communications announced that it would rebrand PAX as i: Independent Television, 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. The network shifted its format almost entirely to reruns of television series from the 1960s to the 1990s and feature films, reruns of former Pax TV series and first-run episodes 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.
At one point in this era, the network programmed eighteen hours of paid programming per day, ¾ 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. Had this option been exercised, NBC would have acquired approximately 63 i owned-and-operated stations. 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. 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.
According to a statement on its website, DirecTV planned to terminate its carriage agreement with i on February 28, 2006. The satellite provider cited that "most of 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.
On September 15, 2006, i launched Qubo, a children's programming block formed through a partnership with NBCUniversal, Corus Entertainment, Scholastic Entertainment, and Classic Media. The Qubo endeavor also included additional blocks on both NBC and Telemundo that both launched a week earlier on September 9, before expanding into a full 24-hour digital multicast network on i