https://www.nexttv.com/news/scripps-begins-to-move-katz-networks-to-ion-tv-stations

The E.W. Scripps Co. said it will start moving its Katz digital multicast networks on March 1 to the TV stations it acquired when it bought Ion Media.

Scripps also announced that it is cutting 120 jobs across its corporate and national networks units. The company said it expects to realize $500 million in cost savings over the next six years by combining Ion’s operations with its own.

The Ion Television Network will continue to be broadcast on the primary channel of Scripps’ 48 Ion station, but the company said it will shut down Ion Plus, Qubo and Shop Ion, which had been airing on multicast channels, effective Feb. 28.

One of the reasons Scripps bought Ion Media for $2.65 billion in September was so it could stop paying stations to broadcast the Katz Network, which are Bounce, Court TV, Court TV Mystery, Grit and Laff.

“The distribution expansion of the Scripps multicast networks through ION’s broadcast spectrum is the first major step in our realizing the tremendous synergies of the ION transaction,” said Scripps CEO Adam Symson. “National Networks president Lisa Knutson and her team are working quickly and effectively to uphold Scripps’ commitment to executing our plan. Once again, Scripps is doing what we said we would do.”

Scripps closed its purchase of Ion earlier this month.

Does this mean we will see Grit, Bounce or Court Tv on these channels or just disappear? I rather have channels I don't have like This Tv, or like Decades that I have troubles getting sometimes cuz its on a lower frequency channel. I have Grit and the other channels on other stations.

Sounds like their is going to be some major channel shuffling in the near future.

This could be great news. It would free up space so hopefully Decades could move to a full power station so I could have it back.

Sounds like their is going to be some major channel shuffling in the near future.

That's what I'm hoping for and good channels at that. I miss Light Tv already. Had decent shows on there.

I hope for some decent replacement channels, but probably not.

I hope for some decent replacement channels, but probably not.

Actually, there are several good channels that have had issues getting decent clearances in several markets because there's not enough channel space. There's also decent channels stuck on low-powered stations because there's no room on the full-powers.

Boston is a good example - Antenna TV, RetroTV and Hartland all returned to the market recently on a piss-poor low-powered station transmitting from a low-powered station that's about 20 miles South of the City (And they just moved their transmitter to get better clearance into the city)

DECADES was dropped several years ago since CBS opted to pull it from their owned stations (WBZ-4) (I still don't understand why they stay partnered in the channel outside of it being an outlet to show stuff from the CBS Television Syndication Library - Viacom,CBS Studios, Paramount, Desilu, Spelling-Woldvision-Republic) MOVIES! was dropped when FOX sold WFXT-25.

What we're going to see is the Scripts channels migrate over to ION stations (owned and the 25 affiliated stations they had to sell to meet FCC guidelines) and the stations in the market losing channels will be scrambling to fill sub-channel space with good available channels.

RetroTV Might FINALLY make a comeback!

I would love to get Retro Tv, never ever had that channel.

I would love to get Retro Tv, never ever had that channel.

Wonder will any brand new subchannels launch?

In New York and Philly, Laff airs on the ABC owned station, WABC and WPVI. So Laff moves to the ION station. According to wikipedia entry Laff is already airing on the ION station, so maybe by then, it'd free up space on the ABC affiliate.

Retro TV is already cleared in Philly on WDPN.

Not sure though what WABC would put there though. I kind of doubt it'd be Retro TV. It's really old stuff.

Maybe it should pursue for getTV. I think getTV is still missing from Comcast systems in NY and Philly and other markets and if on the ABC owned affiliate, ABC can pressure Comcast to carry it. It's streaming platform Hulu with Live TV could also begin to air it.

And speaking of streaming, the Scripps/Katz company should try to get Court TV, Laff, Bounce and Grit carried on more streaming platforms. For example, You Tube TV carries Court TV, but doesn't carry Laff, Bounce or Grit. Sling has Grit but not the others. I've seen these channels scattered around but rare to see all four of the big ones carried. And ION isn't carried anywhere on streaming, not that I miss it.

So at some point Scripps bought ION but they sold HGTV et al to Discovery? HGTV is a highly rated cable channel--ION probably doesn't do badly but certainly not as well as HGTV.
I'll never understand big business I guess.

Like others I'd like to see Decades subbed for any one of those other sub-channels, as long as it's one that's already carried by Comcast here.

Wonder will any brand new subchannels launch?

I would be down for new channels, as long as their decent ones.

So at some point Scripps bought ION but they sold HGTV et al to Discovery? HGTV is a highly rated cable channel--ION probably doesn't do badly but certainly not as well as HGTV.
I'll never understand big business I guess.

Like others I'd like to see Decades subbed for any one of those other sub-channels, as long as it's one that's already carried by Comcast here.

Apparently, back in 2008, EW Scripps spun off its cable properties into Scripps Network Interactive. So the companies were then independent but the spun off company still had Scripps in its name.

Discovery acquired the cable division Scripps Network Interactive in 2018.

Another spinoff was the AMC Networks (AMC, IFC, We TV, Sundance TV), originally tied to a cable company. At one time there was a channel called Romance Classics, but its roots were from Rainbow Media which was a subsidiary of Cablevision, a cable system in the greater NYC area. Now Cablevision was bought and is known as Altice USA.

Apparently, back in 2008, EW Scripps spun off its cable properties into Scripps Network Interactive. So the companies were then independent but the spun off company still had Scripps in its name.

Discovery acquired the cable division Scripps Network Interactive in 2018.

Another spinoff was the AMC Networks (AMC, IFC, We TV, Sundance TV), originally tied to a cable company. At one time there was a channel called Romance Classics, but its roots were from Rainbow Media which was a subsidiary of Cablevision, a cable system in the greater NYC area. Now Cablevision was bought and is known as Altice USA.

Sundace TV used to be a Pay TV channel part of Showtime network until AMC network Purchase it and turn it into a Basic channel like rest of AMC Networks and started showing classic tv shows such as Andy Griffith show , Gomer Pyle and Hogan Heroes

Sundance is not a "basic" channel like the other AMC networks. My cable package has AMC, BBC America, and WE, but it does not have Sundance. I wish it did.

Laff and Grit are available in a $7.99 package from this service called Select TV:
https://www.selecttv.com/

Sundance is not a "basic" channel like the other AMC networks. My cable package has AMC, BBC America, and WE, but it does not have Sundance. I wish it did.

on my Sundace tv is in the Basic cable TV package

who is your cable tv provider

also you can stream sundace on a Roku

on my Sundace tv is in the Basic cable TV package

who is your cable tv provider

also you can stream sundace on a RokuXfinity

They already removed CourtTV and LaffTV from WYHB.

I have the cable feed of Ion Network as well as the cable feeds (????) of Qubo and Ion Life. I know that both will shut down on Feb. 28 but I checked my Xfinity guide and it says that both will still be on the air on March 1st.

I wonder what they will be replaced with?

In my area, Detroit, we already have two Scripps stations, WXYZ and WMYD. So Scripps had to divest the local Ion station, WPXD, to another company called Inyo.

Over here, all the Katz networks are on the Scripps stations, except for Grit, which is on WADL. I think that Grit is probably gonna be on WPXD 31.2.

As for WADL, they have a sister AM radio station whose audio used to be simulcast on 38.7 until that channel started carrying HSN a few months ago. I'm pretty sure the radio station is gonna return to 38.2.

This will leave WPXD with a lot of available space. Maybe the Antenna TV 80s network will be carried on 31.3 once it launches

Laff and Grit are available in a $7.99 package from this service called Select TV:
https://www.selecttv.com/

I tried the service and found it disappointing.
Few issues
-Limited to no closed captioning. Their customer support acts like the content provider isnt passing it through, but on other providers, closed captioning for those channels work.
-Poor customer service in general
-Not available on Roku
-Limited availability on Firestick. Must be the 4K Firestick.

I do like the channel selection with FETV, AXS and HDNet Movies, and others. I kind of wonder why Bounce is not included. I anyways get these Katz channels over the air.

Ion Television has been removed from our Xfinity lineup and it has been replaced with Court TV.

In Pittsburgh, Bounce, CourtTV and CourtTV Mysteries are now on WINP (Ion) 16. For now they can still be seen on WPCB-DT (Bounce, CourtTv) and WOSC-CD (CourtTV Mystery).

I still have ION, which is a good thing as I like the 2nd day of Blue Bloods they recently added.

In Memphis, the ion station WPXX 50 now has Court TV Mystery on 50.2, Court TV on 50.3, and Grit on 50.4 but those are also still on their old stations as well.

In Kansas City, MO, the Scripps\INYO TV station channel lineups now look like this (As of March 1, 2021.)
KMCI-TV, Ch. 38 in Kansas City, MO
38.1 Independent
38.2 Bounce TV
38.3 Mystery
38.4 HSN (Was Court TV.)
KSHB-TV, Ch. 41 in Kansas City, MO
41.1 NBC
41.2 Grit
41.3 Laff
41.4 GetTV (New channel.)
KPXE-TV, Ch. 50 in Kansas City, MO
50.1 Ion
50.2 Court TV (Was Qubo.)
50.3 Grit (Was Ion Plus.)
50.4 Laff (Was Ion Shop.)
50.5 QVC
50.6 HSN

Are these replacing Ion Plus and qubo? https://www.google.com/amp/s/variety.com/2021/tv/news/doozy-defy-tv-scripps-multicast-1234919677/amp/

Are these replacing Ion Plus and qubo? https://www.google.com/amp/s/variety.com/2021/tv/news/doozy-defy-tv-scripps-multicast-1234919677/amp/

I think both new channels mentioned in the article are a really bad idea.

I was able to find an over the air stream of ION on Locast.

I noticed yesterday that Ion Television is already back on our Xfinity lineup and Court TV is gone.

In Philly, Grit is now on the ION station (WPPX) as well as WDPN 2. That expands Grit's reach as WDPN is a low VHF station, which isn't easy to receive with an indoor antenna and a lot of UHF only antennas. WPPX is likely easier to pick up.

And Laff is also now on WPPX. Laff airs on WPVI, another VHF station, albeit not a low VHF.

With exception of Home Improvement on Laff, I think Laff doesn't have a whole lot of appeal, but that's another point.

Laff airs on WPVI, another VHF station, albeit not a low VHF.
Actually, WPVI broadcasts on physical channel 6, which is a low VHF channel.
They are one of a handful of digital TV stations whose physical & virtual channels are the same.

Actually, WPVI broadcasts on physical channel 6, which is a low VHF channel.
They are one of a handful of digital TV stations whose physical & virtual channels are the same.

You're correct. WPVI is on 6 RF which is still in the low VHF range.

Just my experience is WDPN is even harder to receive than WPVI. Had UHF antennas that somehow got 6 but not 2 but finally got an antenna that supported low VHF and get both 2 and 6. I'm not sure if being on 6 is closer to the higher VHF that makes it easier to pick up with some high VHF/UHF antennas.

This is my new lineup in my area
Out of Chicago:
38-2 Court TV Mystery
38-3 Court TV
38-4 Laff
Out of Milwaukee:
55-2 Bounce on a higher reception, would prefer Decades though
55-3 Court TV
55-4 Grit

That makes it 4 Court TV channels now.
Anyone know if the other channels will be changing too? It was bad enough to have duplicate channels but now 3 or 4 of the same channels is ridiculous to say the least.

This is my new lineup in my area
Out of Chicago:
38-2 Court TV Mystery
38-3 Court TV
38-4 Laff
Out of Milwaukee:
55-2 Bounce on a higher reception, would prefer Decades though
55-3 Court TV
55-4 Grit

That makes it 4 Court TV channels now.
Anyone know if the other channels will be changing too? It was bad enough to have duplicate channels but now 3 or 4 of the same channels is ridiculous to say the least.

Chicago and Milwaukee are different markets. But the duplication within a given market is probably wasteful.

ION with Katz is new, but the Comet channel has been on two competing unrelated stations (WPHL and WPSG) in my market for awhile.