ION Resurrects Ratings After Bankruptcy Scare

A year after ION Media Networks filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the broadcaster put together its strongest ratings period, nearly doubling its prime time deliveries.Per Nielsen ratings data, ION Television averaged 1.12 million viewers in the third quarter of 2010, an improvement of 94 percent versus the year-ago period. Based on ION’s sales prime (Sunday-Saturday, 7 p.m.-midnight), the family-friendly net enjoyed significant gains in the core demos, averaging 457,000 adults 25-54 (up 75 percent) and 403,000 viewers 18-49 (up 82 percent).Off-network acquisitions such as CBS Television Studio’s Criminal Minds and the Warner Bros. Domestic TV procedural Without a Trace have powered ION’s growth. After the network bought the broadcast rights to Criminal Minds a year ago, the series now draws ION’s biggest demos, averaging 605,000 adults 25-54 and 536,000 viewers 18-49 in its Tuesday 10 p.m. time slot. Network newcomer Without a Trace––the series began airing on ION in July 2010––is also drawing a crowd, averaging 373,000 adults 25-54 and 319,000 viewers 18-49 in its nightly 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. runs. ION snapped up the rights to all 160 episodes of Trace, which fit in nicely with all the other former CBS programs (Criminal Minds, Ghost Whisperer, NCIS) on its schedule. While Trace has met ION’s modest expectations, the show was a millstone around TNT’s neck; the Turner net forked over $224 million, or $1.4 million per episode, for the off-net rights back in 2003. (In February, Time Warner disclosed in its fourth-quarter earnings report that TNT had to write down $104 million on its purchase of the rights to the crime drama.)Since ION recapitalized its debt last year, it has worked to draw viewers from similarly-programmed cable outlets like Hallmark Channel. From October 2009 through September 2010, ION has grown its overall sales prime deliveries 72 percent to 1.01 million viewers, while improving 74 percent among adults 25-54 (450,000), and nearly doubling its delivery of viewers 18-49 (392,000 versus 205,000 in the year-ago period). In the third quarter of 2010, Hallmark Channel averaged 722,000 total viewers in prime (8 p.m.-11 p.m.), down 27 percent from Q3 ’09. Hallmark also dropped 27 percent in the key TV demos, drawing 188,000 25-54s and 127,000 18-49s.“We have been fortunate with our content choices and partners during the first phase of our network re-launch,” said Brandon Burgess, CEO, ION Media Networks, adding that he anticipates “more content and ratings expansion potential ahead.”Now that ION has righted its financial ship, the network is looking to bolster its presence in the advertising community, launching a new tune-in campaign that emphasizes its roster of dramas and acquired comedies (M*A*S*H, My Name Is Earl).Despite not having a foothold in major markets such as Baltimore, Pittsburgh, San Diego and Cincinnati, ION reaches some 98 million US households. The channel is distributed via cable and satellite TV operators as well as through its portfolio of affiliate stations. Paid programming makes up the bulk of the network’s schedule (13 hours per day).

Convergent TV

ION Resurrects Ratings After Bankruptcy Scare

Anthony Crupi

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Anthony Crupi