After being operated as a private company since it entered and emerged from bankruptcy in 2009, it was acquired by the E. W. Scripps Company and merged with its Katz Broadcasting subsidiary on January 7, 2021, creating the new Scripps Networks division to manage those assets separately from its traditional broadcast network-affiliated television stations.
[citation needed] In 1994, Paxson acquired its first television station, ABC affiliate WPBF in West Palm Beach, Florida.
These stations included WCFC in Chicago (religious), WTGI in Wilmington, Delaware (brokered), WAKC in Akron, Ohio (Cleveland's secondary ABC affiliate), and channel 35 in Miami (Shopping), among others.
In January 1997, Dow Jones launched a business format called S+ during the day and a sports channel after 7 pm and on weekends.
Dow Jones/ITT lost money on the operation, sold the station for about $225 million in May 1997, and shut down S+ that June in favor of Bloomberg Business News, Fox Sports Net and a block previewing new networks, IntroTV.
The two agreed on a purchase price, but the Federal Communications Commission had too many questions about the deal, most relating to the type of broadcast license to be operated on each channel, and it fell through.
[citation needed] The PAX network was launched in 1998 with family dramas such as Life Goes On, Our House, Touched by an Angel, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Highway to Heaven, and Bonanza, a game show titled The Reel to Reel Picture Show, sitcoms Dave's World, Here's Lucy and The Hogan Family, and some movies.
Concurrent with this deal, Mr. Paxson left the company, and was succeeded by R. Brandon Burgess in the role of President and CEO.
[15][16] A few months later, Ion launched a children's brand along with NBC Universal (along its now-defunct subsidiary Classic Media), Scholastic and Canada's Corus to plan an afternoon block and a 24/7 channel in January.
In addition, Citadel invested $100 million of new capital into the company to further support management's plan to revitalize the TV network.
[21] By January 2009, Ion had another subchannel network, Urban TV, in the works with BET founder Robert L. Johnson targeted to African-Americans.
That translates to an effort to restructure its considerable debt, which stands at $2.7 billion as of April 2009, according to The Wall Street Journal.
On May 19, 2009, Ion Media Networks filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, putting the Ion network under bankruptcy for the second time, saying it had reached an agreement with holders of 60% of its first lien secured debt that would extinguish all of its $2.7 billion in legacy debt and preferred stock and recapitalize the company with a $150 million new funding commitment.
The proposal also included the possibility for as many as 26 stations owned by Sinclair or Tribune to be switched from Fox after existing affiliation contracts expire.
It has been argued that this deal was intended to place pressure on Sinclair to abandon its acquisition, lest it potentially lose Fox affiliations to the venture.
The analyst added that Ion stations alone did not have enough leverage to negotiate with television providers, because of their limited local or first-run programming.