The E.W. Scripps Company says it will discontinue three ION subchannels at the end of February following its purchase of the main ION network and its owned-and-operated affiliates.
ION Plus, Qubo, and Shop ION will end broadcasting by Feb. 28. Thursday’s announcement is not a surprise because Scripps had said when it purchased ION that it intended to move its Bounce, Court TV, Court TV Mystery, Grit, and Laff networks to the ION stations.
The networks will move to ION subchannels as contracts with existing affiliates expire.
The ION owned-and-operated stations include KPXM (St. Cloud-Minneapolis), WPXE (Kenosha-Milwaukee), WTPX (Antigo-Wausau), KPXR (Cedar Rapids), and KFPX (Newton-Des Moines).
The affected networks are currently carried on the DT2, DT3, and DT4 signals of ION’s O&O’s. The Scripps announcement did not mention the fate of QVC on DT5 and HSN on DT6, but TV listings indicate Laff has already replaced QVC in some markets.
ION Plus is mostly carried on the O&O’s but also has a few independently-owned affiliates, including Byrne Acquisition Group’s WIFS/57.1 (Janesville-Madison) and Magnum Communications’ KQEG-CD/23.3 (La Crescent-La Crosse).
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