Ion Plus is an American broadcast television network owned by Ion Media. Originally from its 2007 launch as Ion Life, the network 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 various drama series. Ion Plus is carried mainly as a digital multicast service on Ion Media Networks-owned stations as well as select Ion Television affiliates ; its base national feed is also available on select cable and satellite providers. In select markets, Ion Plus has main channel placement, allowing it must-carry coverage on local cable and satellite services.
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. 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. 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. 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. 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 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. 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. 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, DIY programming and car shows. In 2019, Ion Life switched to a format of airing day-long marathons of various hour-long drama programs as a complement to sister network Ion Television. On July 1, 2019, the network was rebranded to Ion Plus to reflect its current schedule and expansion in several markets to a must-carry primary channel slot available through most providers.
Name history
Ion Plus was the former name of a secondary national feed of Ion Television provided to cable providers starting in 2005 filled with Ion Life programming in periods featuring paid programming. To address fears by providers, the network was used to fill timeslots taken up by paid programming during the "i:Independent Television" era of the network with previous PAX era series and other programming, mainly either from the public domain or with low purchase rights or barter arrangements. At its peak, "i" programed 3/4 of its 24-hour broadcast day with paid programming, and eventually a management shift slowly reduced the network's dependence on informercials and their revenue.
Affiliates
, Ion Plus has current and pending affiliation agreements with 65 television stations encompassing 34 states and the District of Columbia. The network has an estimated national reach of 58.29% of all households in the United States. 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 Plus 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, with very few stations that contractually carry the network's programming. As a result, Ion Media Networks owns the vast majority of the stations within Ion Plus's affiliate body.
