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Television channel
Ion Television
Wordmark used since 2016
Type
Broadcast television network
FAST streaming television channel
Country
United States
Broadcast area
Nationwide
Affiliates
List of Ion affiliates
List of Ion O&Os
Headquarters
West Palm Beach, Florida
Programming
Language(s)
English
Picture format
720p (HDTV)
480i (SDTV) 16:9 widescreen or 4:3
Ownership
Owner
E. W. Scripps Company
Parent
Scripps Networks, LLC
Sister channels
Ion Mystery
Ion Plus
Bounce TV
Court TV
Laff
Grit
Scripps News
Defy TV
History
Founded
January 1995; 29 years ago (1995-01) (as inTV)
Launched
August 31, 1998; 25 years ago (1998-08-31)
Founder
Bud Paxson
Former names
inTV (1995–98)
Pax TV (1998–2005)
i: Independent Television (2005–2007)
Links
Website
iontelevision.com
Ion Television (currently known on-air as simply Ion) is an American broadcast television network and FAST streaming 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, and airs programming in daily binge blocks of one program, usually acquired procedural dramas. The network also carries some holiday specials and films before Christmas.
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.
IonTelevision (currently known on-air as simply Ion) is an American broadcast television network and FAST streaming television channel owned by the Scripps...
IonTelevision is a television network based in the United States made up of 44 owned-and-operated stations and 194 network affiliates, 164 of which broadcast...
American television network for children between the ages of 5 and 14. Owned by Ion Media, it consisted of a 24-hour free-to-air television network often...
broadcast networks IonTelevision and Ion Plus. Prior to its acquisition by Scripps, the company owned and operated over 71 television stations in most...
Ion Plus is an American free linear television network owned by the Scripps Networks subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company that formerly operated as...
September 6, 2017. Retrieved September 19, 2017. "WDIO/WIRT Brings IONTelevision to the Northland". WDIO-DT/WIRT-DT. Hubbard Broadcasting. September...
This is a list of programs broadcast by IonTelevision, both past and present. Source: Note: Titles are listed in alphabetical order followed by the year...
on Scripps-owned IonTelevision stations, along with some traditional Scripps stations without an Ion sister station and the former Ion-owned stations transferred...
events across its broadcast television portfolio, including local stations and co-owned networks (such as IonTelevision). Prior to the formation of Scripps...
Ion Mystery (formerly Escape and Court TV Mystery, stylized as ESCAPE and MYSTERY; formerly branded on-air as Mystery) is an American free-to-air television...
it was initially carried by IonTelevision as well until April 2014. It is also carried by WWE's international television partners. The series first aired...
which were carried by IonTelevision and its subnetwork Ion Life/Ion Plus, NBC, and Telemundo. The Qubo blocks ended on the Ion networks on February 26...
marathon. In 2013, IonTelevision announced the acquisition option pick-up of season seven of Psych. It no longer airs on IonTelevision. The deal with NBC...
"Scripps' Court TV Mystery Rebranded as Ion Mystery". NextTV. Retrieved February 24, 2022. Law portal Television portal United States portal Official website...
The following are lists of changes to American television networks, including changes of station affiliations, that occurred in 2019. This section outlines...
their Ion carriage, with Scripps also carrying the network in markets where no Ion station is available but they do own a traditional television station...
its original run on February 19, 2020. It is also shown on A&E and IonTelevision in the United States. A sixteenth season of the show began airing on...
and TrueReal—in the wake of its acquisition of Ion Media and television transmitters shutting Qubo and Ion Plus down across the United States. The channels...
Global Information
