One of the most woefully underutilized cultural assets of the past few years has been the ION Network. Originally called PaxTV, ION consists of sixty broadcast TV stations reaching ninety million households and all or nearly all the major markets.

It’s a pity, because the market area the network was trying to fill is a big one, and it remains largely untapped.

The venture was begun as an alternative to the sleaziness and irresponsibility of most network programming (and please note that I mean that as a factual description, not a judgment, although it certainly implies one). However, the owner was burdened by a heavy debt load and failed to put enough money into original programming. Hence the network’s offerings consisted largely of nightly reruns of what the owners considered to be the least offensive of then-recent network programs—Touched by an Angel, Dr. Quinn—Medicine Woman, Seventh Heaven, The Father Dowling Mysteries, Diagnosis: Murder, and the like. The few original programs the network came up with did all right but never posed any kind of a challenge to the major networks.

The network’s founder, Lowell "Bud" Paxson, arranged increasing investments from NBC, a competing network that could not legally own a majority share of Pax TV but saw great protential for cross-promotion of NBC products. This was rather ironic in that NBC was arguably the most urban-oriented, corrosively "hip" of all the major TV networks while the Pax Network was obviously aimed at religious suburbanites.

Over time, the NBC tail increasingly wagged the Pax, then ION, dog, and now NBC stands poised to buy out the network through a corporate catspaw, the Citadel Investment Group. This appears to be a blatant attempt to skirt the law, but it may just manage to pass legal muster. At least NBC hopes so.

Many ION investors are not so sure, and they are furious over the deal, arguing that other offers on the table would be better and that the network’s NBC-dominated board is selling out the stockholders on a deal that benefits NBC but not the ION investors for whom the board is supposed to be working.  As today’s New York Post reports,

Since January, NBC has been locked in a nasty battle with a large group of irate investors who argue that Ion’s board has spurned better offers, including one from EchoStar Communications, in favor of the NBC/Citadel offer.

The shareholders, including hedge fund Gradient Partners and insurance company AIG, submitted their own offers but were rejected by the board. Under the NBC/Citadel deal, Citadel will pay $100 million for a majority stake in Ion while NBC maintains a minority stake. . . .

"We are exploring our legal rights and we believe the board acted improperly," said David Friedman, an attorney who represents the disgruntled investors.

The pity of it all is that there is a vast market of people who are dissatisfied with the major TV networks. They are served well by various offerings on cable/satellite channels, but having a single home for their programming would certainly appeal to the large number of religious Americans and should have a strong, ready-made, relatively affluent audience. If successsful, it would hold the other network’s feet to the fire and give them cause to contemplate similar programming efforts.

At present, that dream seems to be over.