Ion Life

Last updated
Ion Life
Ionlifelogo.png
LaunchedFebruary 19, 2007;12 years ago (2007-02-19)
Owned by Ion Media
Picture format 480i (SDTV)
Country United States
Language English
Broadcast areaNationwide (via OTA digital TV)
(U.S.coverage: 63%) [1]
Headquarters West Palm Beach, Florida
Sister channel(s) Ion Television
Qubo
Website IonLife.com
Availability
Terrestrial
Affiliated with Ion Television owned-and-operated and affiliated stations in most marketsSee list of affiliates
(channel carriage varies depending on the station, although the network is usually carried as a third digital subchannel)
Satellite
Dish Network Channel 1000
Cable
National feed available on select U.S. cable systemsConsult your local cable provider or program listings source for channel availability
IPTV
AT&T U-verse Channel 468
Verizon FiOS Channel 492

Ion Life is an American digital broadcast television network that is owned by Ion Media.

United States Federal republic in North America

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.

Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals, including the sound channel, using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier television technology, analog television, in which the video and audio are carried by analog signals. It is an innovative advance that represents the first significant evolution in television technology since color television in the 1950s. Digital TV transmits in a new image format called HDTV, with greater resolution than analog TV, in a wide screen aspect ratio similar to recent movies in contrast to the narrower screen of analog TV. It makes more economical use of scarce radio spectrum space; it can transmit multiple channels, up to 7, in the same bandwidth occupied by a single channel of analog television, and provides many new features that analog television cannot. A transition from analog to digital broadcasting began around 2006 in some countries, and many industrial countries have now completed the changeover, while other countries are in various stages of adaptation. Different digital television broadcasting standards have been adopted in different parts of the world; below are the more widely used standards:

Terrestrial television television content transmitted via signals in the air

Terrestrial television is a type of television broadcasting in which the television signal is transmitted by radio waves from the terrestrial (Earth-based) transmitter of a television station to a TV receiver having an antenna. The term terrestrial is more common in Europe and Latin America, while in the United States it is called broadcast or over-the-air television (OTA). The term "terrestrial" is used to distinguish this type from the newer technologies of satellite television, in which the television signal is transmitted to the receiver from an overhead satellite, and cable television, in which the signal is carried to the receiver through a cable.

Contents

Originally from its February 2007 launch, Ion Life had primarily featured lifestyle programming, consisting of shows pertaining to subjects such as health and wellness, cooking, home decor and travel. In 2019 with expanded cable carriage, Ion Media switched the network's schedule to match the main format of Ion Television, featuring day-long marathons of one series per day, along with a late-night block of paid programming.

Ion Television American TV network

Ion Television is an American free-to-air television network that is owned by Ion Media. The network first began broadcasting on August 31, 1998 as Pax TV, focusing primarily on family-oriented entertainment programming; it rebranded as i: Independent Television on July 1, 2005, converting into a general entertainment network featuring mainly recent and older acquired programs; the network adopted its current identity as Ion Television on January 29, 2007.

A marathon is an event in which viewers or readers engage many hours-worth of media in a condensed time period. This phrase represents a two-fold shift from binge-watch in that it incorporates other media and it reduces the negative connotations associated with bingeing. In the 2014 book Media Marathoning: Immersions in Morality, Lisa Perks describes media marathoning as a “comprehensive and complimentary phrase” that “connotes a conjoined triumph of commitment and stamina. This phrase also captures viewers’ or readers’ engrossment, effort, and sense of accomplishment surrounding their media interaction.” Netflix Executive Todd Yellin is quoted as saying "I don't like the term 'binge,' because it sounds almost pathological. 'Marathon' sounds more celebratory."

An infomercial is a form of television commercial, which generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of direct response television (DRTV), long-form infomercials are typically 28:30 or 58:30 minutes in length. Infomercials are also known as paid programming. This phenomenon started in the United States, where infomercials were typically shown overnight, outside peak prime time hours for commercial broadcasters. Some television stations chose to air infomercials as an alternative to the former practice of signing off. Some channels air infomercials 24 hours. By 2009, most infomercial spending in the U.S. occurred during the early morning, daytime and evening hours, or in the afternoon. Stations in most countries around the world have instituted similar media structures. The infomercial industry is worth over $200 billion.

Ion Life is carried mainly as a digital multicast service on Ion Media Networks-owned stations as well as select Ion Television affiliates (and is primarily placed on the third subchannel); its base national feed is also available on select cable and satellite providers. In a few select markets, Ion Life has main channel placement, allowing it must-carry coverage on local cable and satellite services.

In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compression techniques to reduce the size of each individual program stream, and multiplexing to combine them into a single signal. The practice is sometimes called "multicasting".

In the broadcasting industry, a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or all of the lineup of television programs or radio programs of a television or radio network. This distinguishes such a television or radio station from an owned-and-operated station (O&O), which is owned by the parent network.

Cable television Television content transmitted via signals on coaxial cable

Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fiber-optic cables. This contrasts with broadcast television, in which the television signal is transmitted over the air by radio waves and received by a television antenna attached to the television; or satellite television, in which the television signal is transmitted by a communications satellite orbiting the Earth and received by a satellite dish on the roof. FM radio programming, high-speed Internet, telephone services, and similar non-television services may also be provided through these cables. Analog television was standard in the 20th century, but since the 2000s, cable systems have been upgraded to digital cable operation.

Background

The network launched on February 19, 2007, focusing on generalized health and lifestyle programming; the network replaced a three-hour timeshift channel which depending on geographical location, carried what was then called i: Independent Television's Eastern or Pacific time zone feeds. [2] Ion Media Networks originally planned to name the network "iHealth" to match i's name, until it was subsequently rebranded as Ion Television in September of that year. [3] [4]

A timeshift channel is a television channel carrying a time-delayed rebroadcast of its "parent" channel's programming. This channel runs alongside their parent: the term "timeshift" does not refer to a network broadcasting at a later time to reflect a local time zone, unless the parent is also available. Often the timeshift channel's branding and advertising will be the same as that of the parent, with the channel number and respective timing being the only distinction between the two, but some, such as Channel 4 +1 in the United Kingdom and TVNZ 1+1 in New Zealand, will overlay a different digital on-screen graphic to distinguish the two channels. A few channels, like Film4 +1 in the United Kingdom, do not carry a digital on-screen graphic on its regular channel or its timeshift channel.

On January 14, 2008, as part of a carriage agreement that allowed the provider to continue to carry Ion Television, Ion Media Networks reached an agreement with Comcast to carry both Ion Life and its children's-targeted network Qubo on its systems. [5] [6] Subsequently, in May 2010, Ion Media signed carriage agreements with Advanced Cable Communications and Comcast's system in Colorado Springs, Colorado to add Ion Life to digital tiers in several markets. [7]

Comcast American mass media company

Comcast Corporation is an American telecommunications conglomerate headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is the second-largest broadcasting and cable television company in the world by revenue and the largest pay-TV company, the largest cable TV company and largest home Internet service provider in the United States, and the nation's third-largest home telephone service provider. Comcast services U.S. residential and commercial customers in 40 states and in the District of Columbia. As the owner of the international media company NBCUniversal since 2011, Comcast is a producer of feature films and television programs intended for theatrical exhibition and over-the-air and cable television broadcast, respectively.

Qubo childrens broadcast television network

Qubo is an American free-to-air children's entertainment programming service. Qubo consists of a 24-hour television network, alternately known as Qubo Channel, a video on demand service, and the branding of a weekly programming block on Ion Television under the name "Qubo Kids Corner".

Colorado Springs, Colorado Home rule municipality in Colorado, United States

Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality that is the largest city by area in Colorado as well as the county seat and the most populous municipality of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Colorado Springs is located in the east central portion of the state. It is situated on Fountain Creek and is located 60 miles (97 km) south of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver.

Even though Ion Life's parent network Ion Television overhauled its logo as part of an extensive rebranding on September 8, 2008, Ion Life retained its existing logo – a green variant of the logo Ion Television used from 2007 to 2008 – and graphics package, the latter of which remained in use until 2011. In February 2010, the network added theatrically released feature films to its schedule, usually airing from 7:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time (the airtimes vary, sometimes starting earlier or ending later depending on the length and number of the films) on Monday through Friday evenings. By 2012, the number of films featured on the network had decreased, with more lifestyle-oriented programming being added to its prime time schedule; films returned to the lineup full-time the following year.

A feature film or theatrical film is a film with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole film to fill a program. The term feature film originally referred to the main, full-length film in a cinema program that also included a short film and often a newsreel. The notion of how long a feature film should be has varied according to time and place. According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the American Film Institute and the British Film Institute, a feature film runs for at least 45 minutes, while the Screen Actors Guild asserts that a feature's running time is 75 minutes or longer.

Eastern Time Zone time zone observing UTC−05:00 during standard time and UTC−04:00 during daylight saving time

The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 22 states in the eastern part of the contiguous United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama in Central America, and the Caribbean Islands.

The prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television programming. It is used by the major television networks to broadcast their season's nightly programming.

On March 27, 2017, Ion Life's logo was made over to match Ion Television's logo.

Throughout 2017 and 2018, Ion Media has begun to purchase several stations which have become channel sharing partners with their stations after the 2016 FCC spectrum auction, specifically to exploit those stations' existing must-carry pay TV coverage to allow the addition of Ion Life to cable and satellite systems, which has been refused in the past as a digital subchannel (Ion's main channel is traditionally the only channel seen on those systems). Many of these stations were formerly owned-and-operated stations associated with the Trinity Broadcasting Network, which has begun a slow withdrawal from over-the-air broadcasting in non-critical markets.

Programming

From 2007 to 2019 Ion Life primarily aired cooking, home decor, and DIY programming (with an occasional movie mixed in).

In 2019, Ion Life switched to a format of airing day-long marathons of hour-long drama programs as a compliment to sister network Ion Television. Programs airing under this new format include The Listener , Saving Hope , Rookie Blue , and White Collar . [8]

Affiliates

As of November 2015, Ion Life has current and pending affiliation agreements with 65 television stations encompassing 34 states and the District of Columbia. [9] The network has an estimated national reach of 58.29% of all households in the United States (or 182,130,362 Americans with at least one television set). Like parent network Ion Television, the network's stations almost exclusively consist of network-owned stations. Ion Life's programming is available by default via a national feed that is distributed directly to select cable and satellite providers in markets without a local Ion Television station that carries the network.

Ion Life does not have any over-the-air stations in several major markets, most notably Baltimore, Maryland; Toledo, Ohio; San Diego, California; Charlotte, North Carolina; Richmond, Virginia; Green Bay, Wisconsin; and Cincinnati, Ohio. A key factor in the network's limited national broadcast coverage is the fact that Ion Media Networks does not actively seek over-the-air distribution for the network on the digital subchannels of other network-affiliated stations (in contrast, its parent network Ion Television – which had similarly limited national coverage following the digital television transition – has begun subchannel-only affiliation arrangements through agreements with NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations' Telemundo Station Group subsidiary and Media General during 2014 and 2015 [10] ), with very few stations that contractually carry the network's programming (with limited exceptions in markets and Anchorage, Alaska). As a result, Ion Media Networks owns the vast majority of the stations within Ion Life's affiliate body.

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References

  1. ↑ Buckman, Adam (July 26, 2016). "Diginets Keep Growing, Despite Auction Cloud". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheck Media. Retrieved November 7, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Ion Launches 24-Hour Diginet Ion Life". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheck Media. February 19, 2007. Retrieved November 13, 2012.
  3. ↑ "ION MEDIA NETWORKS TO LAUNCH NEW DIGITAL HEALTH NETWORK". Ion Media Networks (Press release). May 31, 2006.
  4. ↑ "ION UNVEILS SECOND DIGINET: I-HEALTH". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheck Media. May 31, 2006. Retrieved November 23, 2015.
  5. ↑ "Ion Media Networks and Comcast Announce Affiliation Agreement for Channel Suite". Yahoo! (Press release). January 14, 2008.
  6. ↑ Mike Reynolds (January 14, 2008). "ION Media Plugs In New Comcast Accord". Multichannel News . Reed Business Information.
  7. ↑ "ION Media Networks Inks Multi-Affiliate Deals for Diginets". Telecommunications Weekly. May 26, 2010. Archived from the original on June 11, 2014. Retrieved February 22, 2014– via HighBeam Research.
  8. ↑ Shows - Ion Life.com
  9. ↑ "Stations for Network - Ion Life". RabbitEars . Retrieved November 21, 2015.
  10. ↑ Gary Dinges (November 14, 2015). "New broadcast TV network hits Austin's airwaves". Austin American-Statesman . Cox Enterprises . Retrieved November 18, 2015.
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