Fox Might Take It!

[Dished Off]

Do you live in a market that does not have a FOX O&O. Rumor has it that in 2017 FOX was considering a Dr. Evil style plan to buy up all of the ION Media O&Os. Next, according to an unknown source, they were going to start stripping away the FOX affiliations from multiple stations in markets where FOX does not have an O&O. So if you are in one of these markets where an ION Media station exists, you may be at risk of FOX "TAKING" it from your beloved MOM and POP station just to serve their own corporate greed. Its said that FOX only held back from doing this because ION Media opted to have their stations as "must carry" stations rather than as "retransmission consent" stations. Does FOX have an evil plan to extend its blackout abilities beyond the edges of the major metros? Perhaps right into your own backyard? Only time will tell.

 

[Claude Greiner]

They should be able to change from retransmission consent, from must carry.

The problem is that nobody is willing to pay to carry an ion station.

 

[The Fat Man]

That doesn't fit what was actually happening in Boston. They traded away their O&O in Boston to Cox Media for stations in other markets. If they were going to strip the affiliation, I think Cox would have told them to bug off.

Now, Sunbeam owns an independent station here (WHDH 7). It was a NBC affiliate. NBC ended the affiliation and started their own new O&O. Sunbeam owns WSVN (Channel 7 in Miami) which has the same news style, graphics, and logo as WHDH Boston, and WSVN is a FOX affiliate. I do question as to when FOX might strike a deal to move the network affiliate to WHDH from FOX's former O&O (now Cox's WFXT).

To add to the story, I woke up yesterday to find out that Sunbeam and Dish are in a dispute. As WHDH is an independent station that is mostly known for news and syndicated episodes of Family Feud, and Sunbeam's other property in Boston is the CW affielate (WLVI), it isn't a huge loss in Boston. But for FOX, it adds Miami to the list of FOX affiliates that are blacked out on Dish.

Quite funny, the channel that discussed network outages from Dish doesn't even play on WHDH's. It's a static message simply saying that the station's owner pulled the channel off Dish. That's how unimportant the channel is as an independent. If this was three years ago, we'd be without NBC.

 

[sam_gordon]

Do you live in a market that does not have a FOX O&O. Rumor has it that in 2017 FOX was considering a Dr. Evil style plan to buy up all of the ION Media O&Os. Next, according to an unknown source, they were going to start stripping away the FOX affiliations from multiple stations in markets where FOX does not have an O&O. So if you are in one of these markets where an ION Media station exists, you may be at risk of FOX "TAKING" it from your beloved MOM and POP station just to serve their own corporate greed. Its said that FOX only held back from doing this because ION Media opted to have their stations as "must carry" stations rather than as "retransmission consent" stations. Does FOX have an evil plan to extend its blackout abilities beyond the edges of the major metros? Perhaps right into your own backyard? Only time will tell.

First, do you have any facts to back this up, or is this just something you've read on the internet?
Second, since Fox and Dish signed an agreement, it will probably be three years before any negotiations happen again.
Third, regarding "corporate greed", MANY broadcast owners are trying to purchase other properties. Yes, they want to make more money. Don't you?
Fourth, your claim of the reason Fox didn't purchase ION makes no sense. They can change from "must carry" to retrans if they owned the stations.
Fifth, how many ION stations are Fox affiliates currently?
Sixth, according to their website, ION owns 70 stations nationwide. That's FAR from a "Mom and Pop" ownership.

 

[Dished Off]

First, do you have any facts to back this up, or is this just something you've read on the internet?

I should have been more clear in my post that this was just a rumor as it came from an unnamed source and was only carried on a limited number of outlets back in '17. But yes it was published to the internet by several of these outlets.

 

[EarDemon]

Do you live in a market that does not have a FOX O&O. Rumor has it that in 2017 FOX was considering a Dr. Evil style plan to buy up all of the ION Media O&Os. Next, according to an unknown source, they were going to start stripping away the FOX affiliations from multiple stations in markets where FOX does not have an O&O. So if you are in one of these markets where an ION Media station exists, you may be at risk of FOX "TAKING" it from your beloved MOM and POP station just to serve their own corporate greed. Its said that FOX only held back from doing this because ION Media opted to have their stations as "must carry" stations rather than as "retransmission consent" stations. Does FOX have an evil plan to extend its blackout abilities beyond the edges of the major metros? Perhaps right into your own backyard? Only time will tell.

A beloved mom and pop station, seriously? Is that supposed to be sarcasm? I can't say I've ever heard of one person say they watch PAX/i/ION. I just navigated the entire two weeks worth of guide data, to see what airs on that channel, since I never tuned to it. For my local ION affiliate and programming consists of hours of Chicago PD, hours of some Law & Order iteration, hours of some NCIS iteration, hours of Criminal Minds, hours of Blue Bloods and a few hours of infomercial in the middle of the night. While I consider all OTA network TV utterly useless, I always thought MyNetwork TV was the most useless of the bunch, but know I have to give that title to ION.

I should have been more clear in my post that this was just a rumor as it came from an unnamed source and was only carried on a limited number of outlets back in '17. But yes it was published to the internet by several of these outlets.

It's not often I bother with memes, but in this case:

 

[sam_gordon]

I should have been more clear in my post that this was just a rumor as it came from an unnamed source and was only carried on a limited number of outlets back in '17. But yes it was published to the internet by several of these outlets.

So RUMORS were published on the internet two years ago and you think it's worthy of raising the "story" again?

 

[Howard Simmons]

A beloved mom and pop station, seriously? Is that supposed to be sarcasm? I can't say I've ever heard of one person say they watch PAX/i/ION. I just navigated the entire two weeks worth of guide data, to see what airs on that channel, since I never tuned to it. For my local ION affiliate and programming consists of hours of Chicago PD, hours of some Law & Order iteration, hours of some NCIS iteration, hours of Criminal Minds, hours of Blue Bloods and a few hours of infomercial in the middle of the night. While I consider all OTA network TV utterly useless, I always thought MyNetwork TV was the most useless of the bunch, but know I have to give that title to ION.



It's not often I bother with memes, but in this case:

I guess the Gettysburg address never happened.

 

[comfortably_numb]

 

[Jon J]

To me the ION reruns are often better entertainment than ABC or NBC first runs.