 Wordmark used since April 2021 | |
| Type | |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Broadcast area | Nationwide |
| Affiliates | |
| Headquarters | West Palm Beach, Florida |
| Programming | |
| Language(s) | English |
| Picture format | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | E. W. Scripps Company |
| Parent | Scripps Networks, LLC |
| Sister channels | |
| History | |
| Founded | January 1995 (as inTV) |
| Launched | August 31, 1998 |
| Founder | Bud Paxson |
| Former names |
|
| Links | |
| Website | iontelevision |
| Availability | |
| Streaming media | |
| FuboTV | Internet Protocol television |
| The Roku Channel | Channel 523 |
Ion Television (referred to on-air as simply Ion) is an American broadcast television network and FAST television channel owned by 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 (commonly referred to as "i") 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 (including television films during the Christmas season). In the past, Ion had acquired first-run airings of Canadian series not picked up by other U.S. 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 WNBA basketball and NWSL 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 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.[1] Ion's owned-and-operated stations cover 64.8% of the United States population, by far the most of any U.S. 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.[2]
- ^ "Ion Media Networks | Home". Ion Media Networks. Archived from the original on November 14, 2012. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
- ^ "FCC Takes Lid Off National Station Ownership". tvnewscheck.com. April 20, 2017. Retrieved August 21, 2017.