Editing Ion Television (section)

===Major market absences and station oddities===
Ion does not have any over-the-air stations in several major [[media market|markets]].

Two major factors that have limited the network's national broadcast coverage are that unlike the major commercial broadcast networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox), Ion did not actively seek over-the-air distribution on the [[digital subchannel]]s of other network-affiliated stations in the five years following the digital television transition (with limited exceptions in [[Las Vegas, Nevada]], [[Tucson, Arizona]] and [[Fresno, California]] through agreements with [[Telemundo]] [[KBLR (TV)|owned-and-]] [[KNSO|operated]] [[KHRR|stations]] in those markets), until it reached a multi-station agreement with [[Media General]] in November 2015;<ref name="aas-ionkxan">{{cite news|title=New broadcast TV network hits Austin's airwaves|url=http://www.mystatesman.com/news/entertainment/dinges-new-broadcast-tv-network-hits-austins-airwa/npMDg/|first=Gary|last=Dinges|newspaper=[[Austin American-Statesman]]|date=November 14, 2015|access-date=November 18, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151116025611/http://www.mystatesman.com/news/entertainment/dinges-new-broadcast-tv-network-hits-austins-airwa/npMDg/|archive-date=November 16, 2015}}</ref> prior to that deal, it long had very few stations that [[network affiliate|contractually carry]] the network's programming (with limited exceptions in markets such as Louisville, Kentucky and [[Anchorage, Alaska]]). As a result, Ion Media Networks owns the vast majority of the stations within Ion Television's affiliate body, as well as those of co-owned multicast services Qubo Channel and Ion Life.

In [[Pittsburgh]], a deal by Paxson to buy [[WPCB-TV]] and trade it for secondary [[PBS]] member station WQEX was approved by the Federal Communications Commission, but rejected by WPCB-TV owner [[Cornerstone Television]] in a 2000 [[WINP-TV#Controversy|controversy]]; it would not be until November 2010 that Paxson's successor, Ion Media Networks, would successfully buy WQEX, which has since been converted into a commercially licensed outlet as Ion O&O [[WINP-TV]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Ion to Buy WQEX: "Positively entertaining" network grabs Pittsburgh outlet|url=http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/local-tv/ion-buy-wqex/42607|first=Michael|last=Malone|periodical=Broadcasting & Cable|date=November 8, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Ion Buying WQEX Pittsburgh For $3 Million|url=http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/46835/ion-buying-wqex-pittsburgh-for-3-million|first=Harry A.|last=Jessell|website=TVNewsCheck|publisher=NewsCheck Media|date=November 8, 2010|access-date=November 18, 2015}}</ref> In [[Charlotte, North Carolina|Charlotte]], [[independent station]] [[WAXN-TV]] carried some programming aired by the network during its original iteration as Pax TV from 1998 to 2000, but never maintained a formal affiliation. Under an agreement with [[Fox Television Stations]], Ion was added to the fourth digital subcarrier of then owned-and-operated station [[WJZY]] on September 29, 2016. Ion in Charlotte later moved to the DT6 feed of WJZY-TV.

[[St. Louis]], at one time, received the network by way of a [[low-power broadcasting|low-power]] repeater of O&O [[WPXS]] in nearby [[Mount Vernon, Illinois]]; in December 2013, the [[United States bankruptcy court]] approved a plan by creditors of [[Roberts Broadcasting]] to transfer [[East St. Louis]]-based MyNetworkTV affiliate [[WRBU]] and its sister stations, CW affiliate [[WZRB]] in [[Columbia, South Carolina]] and former CW affiliate [[WAZE-LP]] in [[Evansville, Indiana]], to a trust with Ion Media Networks – a creditor in Roberts' [[Chapter 11 bankruptcy]] proceedings, for which it filed in 2011 – that would serve as its beneficiary. Roberts' attorney subsequently stated that Ion would purchase the three stations.<ref name=slbj-robertsion>{{cite news|title=Judge approves creditors' proposal in Roberts Broadcasting bankruptcy|url=http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/blog/2013/12/judge-approves-creditors-proposal-in.html?page=all|first=Angela|last=Mueller|newspaper=St. Louis Business Journal|date=December 11, 2013|access-date=December 11, 2013}}</ref><ref name=slpd-robertsion>{{cite news|title=Roberts' TV stations to be sold|url=https://www.stltoday.com/business/local/roberts-tv-stations-to-be-sold/article_6dbc41fa-08af-5618-97d4-33b7acf750d0.html|first=Lisa|last=Brown|newspaper=[[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]]|date=December 11, 2013|access-date=December 11, 2013}}</ref> WZRB and WRBU switched to Ion in February 2014 (although WZRB retained a secondary affiliation with The CW until [[MyNetworkTV]] affiliate [[WKTC]] joined the [[programming service]] in March);<ref name=b&c-wktccw63>{{cite news|title=WKTC Columbia (S.C.) Picks Up CW Affiliation|url=http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/local-tv/wktc-columbia-sc-picks-cw-affiliation/129882|first=Michael|last=Malone|periodical=Broadcasting & Cable|date=March 19, 2014|access-date=March 20, 2014}}</ref> WRBU dropped MyNetworkTV upon becoming an Ion O&O (MyNetworkTV would not return to St. Louis until November 2014, when CBS affiliate [[KMOV]] launched a third digital subchannel to serve as an affiliate). WAZE-LP was [[dark (broadcasting)|silent]] at the time of acquisition, having gone dark the previous year after failing to construct its digital transmitter facilities, and Ion eventually decided on an affiliation deal with [[Nexstar Media Group]]'s cluster in the area instead, using a subchannel of CW affiliate [[WTVW]].

[[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo]] and [[Rochester, New York]], normally treated as separate markets, share Ion affiliate [[WPXJ-TV]], which is centrally located between the two cities and is licensed to [[Batavia, New York|Batavia]]. An equivalent case exists involving [[Battle Creek, Michigan]]-licensed [[WZPX-TV]], which serves both the [[Grand Rapids]] and [[Lansing]] markets (it also unusually served as a secondary [[The WB|WB]] affiliate due to a lack of stations in both markets until the digital age); additionally, [[Ann Arbor]]-licensed [[WPXD-TV]] also once provided an equivalent over-the-air signal for Lansing before moving their signal to a new transmitter in the Detroit suburb of [[Southfield, Michigan|Southfield]] in 2012.

In addition, in several other markets, Ion's predecessor was sold to another television station group to affiliate with a different English or Spanish language network, and through either a lack of channel space or interest in the network, Ion would not reappear in most of those markets until reaching deals to air on digital subchannels of other stations. These include:
* [[Albuquerque, New Mexico]]: KAPX (now [[UniMás]] owned-and-operated station [[KTFQ]], Ion now on [[KWBQ]] 19.4)
* [[Baraboo, Wisconsin]]: [[W43BR]] (now a [[The Family Channel (American TV network, founded 2008)|Family Channel]] affiliate, Ion now in Madison on [[WIFS (TV)|WIFS]] 57.9)
* [[Baton Rouge, Louisiana]]: [[WLFT-CD]] (now a [[Independent station (North America)|religious independent station]], Ion now on [[WVLA]] 33.3)
* [[Champaign]]–[[Springfield, Illinois]]: WPXU (now CW affiliate [[WBUI]], Ion now on [[WAND (TV)|WAND]] 17.3)
* [[Charlottesville, Virginia]]: WADA-LP (now [[WVIR-CD]] (translator of NBC affiliate [[WVIR-TV]]), Ion now on [[WCAV]] 19.4)
* [[Fresno]]–[[Visalia, California]]: KPXF (now UniMás owned-and-operated station [[KTFF]], and was formerly on [[KNSO]] 51.3)
* [[Little Rock, Arkansas]]: KYPX (now [[MeTV]] affiliate [[KMYA]]; Ion now on [[KARZ-TV|KARZ]] 42.3)
* [[Montgomery, Alabama]]: [[WBMM]] (first switched to [[Daystar (TV network)|Daystar]], now a CW affiliate, Ion now on [[WAKA]] 8.3)
* [[Reno, Nevada]]: [[KREN]] (now an Univision affiliate, Ion now on [[KTVN]] 2.3)
* [[Shreveport, Louisiana]]: [[KPXJ]] (now a CW affiliate, Ion now on [[KSHV-TV|KSHV]] 45.3)
* [[Sioux Falls, South Dakota]]: [[KAUN-LP]] (now a Retro TV affiliate, Ion now on [[KELO-TV|KELO]] 11.3)
* [[Tucson, Arizona]]: [[KUVE-DT]] (now an Univision owned-and-operated station, then on [[KOLD-TV|KOLD]] 13.4. Now on [[KGUN-TV]] 9.5)
* [[Las Vegas]]/[[Pahrump, Nevada]]: [[KPVM-LD]] (Now independent; formerly on [[KLAS-TV]] subchannel, now on [[KMCC]])
* [[San Juan, Puerto Rico]]/[[Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands]]: [[WJPX]] (now an [[América TeVé]] affiliate, Ion now on [[WSVI]] 8)

In November 2015, [[Media General]] and Ion came to terms on an affiliation deal to add Ion's main feed as a standard definition digital subchannel in non-Ion O&O markets with Media General stations to replace the programming of the long-defunct [[Live Well Network]], the first of its kind for Ion. Ion subchannels were added in markets such as [[Austin, Texas]]; [[Colorado Springs, Colorado]]; [[Green Bay, Wisconsin]]; [[Lafayette, Indiana]]; [[Davenport, Iowa]]; [[Lafayette, Louisiana]]; [[Lansing, Michigan]]; [[Richmond, Virginia]]; [[Springfield, Massachusetts]]; and [[Wichita, Kansas]].<ref name="aas-ionkxan"/><ref>{{cite web|title=KWQC Davenport Adds Ion TV On Subchannel|url=http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/89578/kwqc-davenport-adds-ion-tv-on-subchannel|first=Mark K.|last=Miller|website=TVNewsCheck|publisher=NewsCheck Media|date=October 28, 2015|access-date=October 31, 2015}}</ref> These deals would carry over after the Media General stations were integrated into the [[Nexstar Media Group]] in January 2017, with WBAY-TV continuing to carry Ion under [[Gray Television]] ownership. [[Morgan Murphy Media]]'s two Wisconsin stations ([[WISC-TV]] in [[Madison, Wisconsin|Madison]] and [[WKBT-DT]] in [[La Crosse]]–[[Eau Claire, Wisconsin|Eau Claire]]) began to carry the network as a third subchannel at the beginning of February 2017. The network further expanded its affiliate reach into small and lower-ranked mid-sized markets during late 2016 and 2017, with Ion Media striking additional deals with companies such as Gray Television, [[Hubbard Broadcasting]], [[Block Communications]], [[Forum Communications]], [[Heartland Media]] and the [[Meredith Corporation]] to carry Ion Television on digital subchannels of stations owned and/or operated by those groups.

In the fall of 2021, with the purchase of Ion Media by Scripps, it began to end outside contracts in markets with a Scripps station where Ion Television was on a subchannel rather than an Ion station, with the network being activated on Scripps-owned stations as a subchannel on [[WGBA-TV]] in [[Green Bay, Wisconsin]] (ending the subchannel deal with WBAY), [[KGUN-TV]] in [[Tucson, Arizona]] (from [[KOLD-TV]]), [[Richmond, Virginia]]'s [[WTVR-TV]] (taking over from [[WRIC-TV]]), [[KRIS-TV]] in [[Corpus Christi, Texas]] (from [[KIII]]), and [[WFTX-TV]] in the [[Fort Myers, Florida]] market (rectifying the network's longest absence, as the market previously had no Ion station at all).

In several markets, the station's [[city of license]] is considered outside the main portion of a market's metropolitan area. Such cases include [[Minneapolis–Saint Paul]], where that area's Ion O&O, [[KPXM-TV]], is licensed to [[St. Cloud, Minnesota|St. Cloud]] ({{convert|60|mi|km}} northwest of the Twin Cities); Detroit, where affiliate [[WPXD-TV]] is licensed to [[Ann Arbor, Michigan]] ({{convert|40|mi|km}} west of Detroit), though its digital transmitter is located in Southfield, where the bulk of Detroit's television stations base their studios and transmitter facilities; [[Hartford]], where affiliate [[WHPX-TV]] is licensed to [[New London, Connecticut]] (located {{convert|40|mi|km}} to the southeast), which moved its transmitter to the [[Farmington, Connecticut|Farmington]] [[Rattlesnake Mountain]] site in the digital age; and [[Milwaukee]], where O&O [[WPXE-TV]] is licensed to [[Kenosha]], with its digital transmitter located at a tower farm on Milwaukee's north side (its former analog transmitter was located south of the city in [[Racine County]]). In the Cleveland market, Ion airs on Akron-based WVPX-TV, which had formerly targeted Akron, [[Canton, Ohio|Canton]] and nearby areas as an ABC affiliate (then competing with the market's existing ABC station [[WEWS]]) prior to 1998.