PAX TV now i

[Amanuensis]

"i" can't stand the excitement!
www.ionline.tv/news/

Thus far, the only new original entertainment programming that appears to be scheduled is a second season of World Cup Comedy. Apparently, the second season of that program was already in the can and paid for before PAX died. Most of the programming, at least initially, will be infomercials. Most of prime time will be reruns of PAX programming.

I wonder if KUPX might be for sale if the right offer came along.

[SamSpade]

So what brought about this change? Has Paxon Communications (sp?) gone broke? I seem to remember flipping through and seeing the "Worship TV" announcing they'd no longer be on the network (overnights) and asking supporters to give money and call their local cable operator...

[Amanuensis]

home.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/?epi_menuItemID=1cd823fd3a51cf8869a8cccae6908a0c&epi_menuID=c791260db682611740b28e347a808a0c&epi_baseMenuID=384979e8cc48c441ef0130f5c6908a0c&vnsId=740

As the above announcment from Paxson Communications describes, the company believes that it can make more money running infomercials and reruns than by running original programming.

According to the company's website, by this fall, it will acquire new programming from independent producers and directors who desire a broadcast platform for their work. I interpret this to mean that "i" will run any old schlock given to it, as long as someone else is willing to pay all the production costs and as long as the network can sell advertising during it and keep the revenue.

[x]

Bud Paxson has deep pockets, but they aren't infinitely deep. Given the impact that Pax-TV had on the broadcast television scene (practically zero), it isn't much of a surprise. The rumors of the "all infomercial" network were circling a month ago, but PAX was denying it. Technically, the new "i" really isn't, though it's more of a distinction without a real difference from what I can see. "Pay for play" still plays out pretty much the same way.

An interesting wildcard in this plan is NBC. Going back to the launch of PAX back in the late 90's, NBC has been a significant partner. All that started falling apart a couple of years ago and has been getting worse since. Reports indicate that NBC is Not Happy with the way things are moving, even though both companies are trying to unravel their deal ASAP.

The up side for PAX is that regardless of how the network does, they have an ace in the hole. The value of the station group (the actual TV stations that they own) was valued in the neighborhood of 3 billion dollars. Yes, billion with a "B". Even if they ended up liquidating the whole shebang, they'll be in good shape. I don't see that happening for quite a while though. Remember, this is the guy who co-founded Home Shopping Network. Whether you like it or not, there's no question it's done very well financially. That could be the reason he's moving in the direction he is. "i" is a similar idea.