Ion Media Networks

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Quick Facts

Founded: Florida

Founder: Bud Paxson

Current CEO: Roy Brandon Burgess

Headquarters: West Palm Beach, Florida

Background

ION Media Networks is a privately owned American television broadcasting company. It owns and operates over 60 television stations in most major American markets.

ION Media Networks was founded in 1984 by by Bud Paxson and quickly grew to be the largest radio group in Florida. In 1998 ION Media Networks sold its radio stations and its major-network affiliated stations to create its own independent television network, “PAX TV”. It continued buy independent television networks for which it would aim to air PAX TV. Now the name PAX TV has been changed to “ION Television”. ION Television reaches 99 million U.S. homes. It is made up of 60 individual stations that reach 37 of the top 50 U.S. markets including the entire top 20.

ION Media Networks

ION Media Networks consists of three individual networks that each cater to a different demographic.

ION Television is the entertainment television network. The ION Television network is home to a plethora of hit content. Some of ION’s content such as “Psych” and “Monk” were developed in-house while other content such as “House” was acquired from other networks [1].

ION Life is dedicated to the celebration of a healthy, active, and empowered life. ION Life airs lifestyle programing during the day and movies during the evening. ION Life airs 24 hours a day on digital subchannels as well through ION Plus on some broadcast systems. It’s content is aired regularly throughout ION’s various networks [2].

Qubo is a television network dedicated to children.  It is operated as a joint venture between ION Media Networks, NBC Universal, Nelvana, Scholastic Cooperation, and Classic Media [3].

ION Television Shows

ION currently produces eight shows for television. They include “Cold Case”, “Criminal Minds”, “Flashpoint”, “George Lopez”, “Ghost Whisperer”, “Monk”, “Psych”, and “Without a Trace”. Click the thumbnails below for more information on a particular show.

Open Mobile Video Coalition

ION Media Networks is part of the Open Mobile Video Coalition, an alliance both commercial and public broadcasters in the United States that aims to accelerate the development and rollout of mobile television, products, and services. ION hopes that with the power of the OMVC they will be able to easily access their viewers through mobile devices. The OVMC pushes products that differ from competitors in that they allows for viewers to watch local television on a mobile device [4].

Finances

Despite it’s market reach, ION Television has not been extremely successful. After it’s initial launch, it’s airplay hours were reduced do to poor ratings. In 2005, Paxson left the company. By 2007, Citadel acquired the public common stock of the company as it began to take the company private. Citadel also invested $100 million dollars into ION Media Networks in hopes it could jump-start the struggling company.

In 2009, ION Media Networks announced that for the second time it was in financial trouble. In April of that year, the Wall Street Journal reported that the company was approximately $2.7 billion in debt. On May 19th, Ion Media Networks filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection [5]. It emerged from bankruptcy in December of that year and removed Citadel from ownership [6].

Since ION Media Networks is a privately held company its quarterly reports are not made public. However, in its last published quarterly report, which was released for the 3rd quarter of 2007, ION Media Networks reported $56,487,000 in revenue for the 3rd quarter [7]. These numbers are not to be correlated to this year however because ION Media Networks has gone through numerous significant changes including filing for bankruptcy in 2009.

Key Executives

Lowell W. “Bud” Paxson began his career in radio. He learned the ropes at a small upstate NY radio station and later was able to become the owner of WWQT, a small AM radio station in Clearwater, Florida. He soon moved into television and in 1982 was the cofounder of the Home Shopping Network. In 1984, he founded ION Media Networks. The company started out by purchasing a few radio and television stations and grew until it was the largest radio group in Florida. Paxson stayed with the company as it grew but eventually left for good in 2005.

Roy Brandon Burgess has been Chief Executive Officer of ION Media Networks, Inc. since November 10, 2005. He has been its President since October 2006. In 2008 Burgess became the Chairman of ION Media Networks. Prior to ION, Burgess served as the head of Business Development and Global Strategy of NBC Universal. He also served as an Executive Vice President of NBC Business Development of National Broadcasting Company, Inc. Before that Mr. Burgess held numerous other noteworthy positions in the television and broadcast industry [8].

Burgess has been behind numerous accomplishments by ION Media Networks including the launch of ION Television, Qubo, and ION Life. During his tenure ION Television has grown to over 99 million households [9].

Jeff Quinn is the Chief Financial Officer of ION Media Networks. His responsibilities range from the establishment and development of the financial planning and analysis group to strategic and new business development.

News

January 3rd, 2012 – ION Renews ‘Flashpoint’ for Season 5

  • ION has renewed its original police series ‘Flashpoint’ for a 5th season. The show, which stars Hugh Dillion, is signed up for another 13 episodes set to start filming in February [10].

January 16, 2012 – ION Television Announces Launch of Premium YouTube Channel

  • ION Television along with PMC announced a new distribution deal. This is a continuation of ION Television looking for new platform to distribute its content. The premium YouTube channel will be part of YouTube’s new original challenge initiative [11].

February 15, 2012 – Paget Brewster Leaves ‘Criminal Minds’.

  • One of ‘Criminal Minds’ stars, Paget Brewster, has announced she is leaving the show. She had previously made news for a controversy between her and another of the show’s stars. There is still no word whether an eight season of ‘Criminal Minds’ will be shot [12].

March 6th, 2012 – Qubo Channel Launches New Slate of Children’s Programming for Upcoming 2012-2013 Season

  • Qubo will be launching 16 new animated and live action series this quarter. The series were all acquired rather than produced by Qubo and together account for over 400 half-hours of programming [13].

March 12th, 2012 – Records Studio to Provide Enterprise Content Management Platform for ION Media Networks

  • ION announced that it will now have its in-house record keeping done by Records Studios. Records Studios will provide ION with a user-friendly platform which also allows the company access to the thousands of contracts needed in the industry [14].

April 16th, 2012 – ION Announces It Will Participate in Dyle Mobile TV Launch

  • ION announced it will take part in the upcoming Dyle Mobile TV Launch. This will allow viewers to view their television content from their mobile devices. It is a foreseeable next step for ION as they look to reach their audience through new mediums. The total number of broadcast networks on Dyle Mobile TV to seven and the total number of launch markets to 35 [15].