Scripps which own ION is to carry WNBA games starting in late May...

[N5XZS]

Found an interesting news that Scripps is getting into sports business thanks to RSN Baily failing apart.

Is Scripps thinking about creating a free to air RSN for OTA in the future?

Here's the link...

Scripps Jumps Into Sports, With WNBA Games Appearing on Ion

‘WNBA Friday Night Spotlight on Ion’ to launch May 26

www.nexttv.com

Let me know what you think of this?

 

[Mr Tony]

Scripps launched a "sports division" at the end of 2022 with the rumours (at the time) of the Bally's bankruptcy. Obviously that rumour came true.

Scripps launches Scripps Sports division to further its sports programming initiatives

/PRNewswire/ -- The E.W. Scripps Company (Nasdaq: SSP) is launching a new Scripps Sports division to further leverage its local market depth and national...

www.prnewswire.com

Sounds like they might use Ion right now. Its easier to put shows on Ion as there are oodles of affiliates who carry it versus its own network and trying to get areas that do not have either a O&O Ion or a Scripps station to carry it.

https://www.fiercevideo.com/video/scripps-believes-sports-division-can-bolster-reach-leagues-rsn-teams

 

[Mr Tony]

One additional note in the article
On Ion, some WNBA games will air nationally. Other weeks, viewers will get games on a regional basis.

That will be interesting how they would handle that

 

[N5XZS]

It's a good thing we have ION in Albuquerque's TV broadcast market on KWBQ-DT a Nextstar owned station, even though it's just a subchannel with 480i WS on RM ch. 19.4.

Now if they could dump MyNetwork TV which is on KASY-DT also owned by Nextstar, RF ch. 36 ATSC 3.0 and go HD for ION TV Network on RM ch 50.1 RF ch 29.1 ATSC 1.0 lighthouse.

But who's know what might happen next it's up to Nextstar decision to upgrade ION to 720p HD in the Albuquerque's TV market!

 

[Mr Tony]

I'm in the same boat in Mankato with Ion as a 480i 16:9 sub. KMNF-DT3 owned by Gray. Highly unlikely they would move it to HD for 2 reasons
-they just added it in January so if they wanted to do it as HD they probably would have.
-when they added Circle to co-owned KEYC the only reason they made it HD was because they carry the Minnesota State-Mankato mens hockey games on it. Otherwise I'm sure they would have added it in SD

 

[SamCdbs]

ION is the #6 thing in a 6 way thing. Its ratings are miniscule. Many people are unaware of its existence, if they are, do not look to it for programming, as it consists of infomercials and 10000th time over reruns of a handful of police procedurals from 20 years ago. The station in my area carries no local programming other reruns of a local news show from another station, which is to cover an FCC rule.

As to an OTA RSN, remember that ION only has 70 affiliates. Many of them doing "rimshots" (a TV station located in a smaller city that was supposed to serve that rural area, but which just pretends its a station in the major metro and demands to get on cable, etc.) That is about 150 stations short of covering the country. But, leaving that aside, (and ION has carried some odd-ball sports in the past including CUSA football, UFC and women's football) I'm pretty such ION stations are "must carry" and not "retransmission consent". What provider would pay for this, and who would change providers to get it? Blunt fact is that the $$ to support a major sport on an OTA basis on a daily basis is just not there. The "every game every day" system was a creation of the bundle, and just the first of many things to be destroyed now that the consumer is unprotected by the bundle.

 

[Mr Tony]

As to an OTA RSN, remember that ION only has 70 affiliates.

hmmm so I guess Rabbitears and its listings are wrong then
While there are maybe 70 O&O stations most markets have a Ion station on a subchannel

List of Ion Television affiliates - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

looking at the rabbitears list there is a handful of markets (less than 20) that do not have a Ion affiliate in the market

 

[moodychick]

Ion is doing well with the ratings. Most-Watched Television Networks: Ranking 2021’s Winners and Losers. Most-Watched Television Networks: Ranking 2022’s Winners and Losers

 

[SamCdbs]

That isn't "well". Especially for a free OTA network.