Anthem Sports and Entertainment has announced that Impact Wrestling is leaving Pop TV and will be moving to the Pursuit Channel as their new U.S. home.
Impact Wrestling had been in talks with several networks about moving and made the announcement Friday that they will move to Friday nights at 10 pm Eastern on the Pursuit Channel. The move to Friday nights would appear to be a strategy to grab viewers that finish watching SmackDown when that series moves to Fridays on Fox next October. This was the same strategy Impact utilized when they were on Destination America and SmackDown was airing on Fridays.
In January 2013, Anthem Media bought an interest in the Pursuit Channel, which was described as a “significant equity investment”. At the time, the other significant shareholder of the Pursuit Network was a group named Performance One Media.
The Pursuit Channel was launched in 2007 and created by Rusty Faulk, who serves as the network’s C.E.O. The channel became a Nielsen rated station in January 2018 and is available in the U.S. on DirecTV/AT&T, DISH Network, Cox Communications, Verizon Fios, Centurylink, and NCTC.
In the release Friday, it stated that the network had a 15% increase in broadcast distribution this year. As of September 2018, the Pursuit Channel was available in approximately 30 million homes, so it’s a sizable drop from Pop TV. Dave Meltzer reported the latest cable numbers in September and listed that Pop TV is available in 67,528,000 homes.
In Canada, Impact will be airing Friday nights at 10 pm Eastern on Fight Network and will replay on Saturdays on Game TV from 7-9 pm, which are networks connected to Anthem Sports.
Whoa, I’ve never heard of the Pursuit Channel before. Friday night does make sense to follow Smackdown, but Friday nights especially later on in the evening are a bad time for a younger adult audience as this is a common night for people to go out. I suppose there is always DVR.
Another thought: If there’s one company that’s been hurt most by the accessibility of streaming wrestling, it’s probably Impact. There are so many other non-WWE options to check out online that are much better in terms of content than Impact is. On the bright side, at least they found another home and are surviving.
So. o.k., let me get this straight, they are moving to a smaller network yet again and the only reason they were able to get the deal is because Anthems own part of the channel or something like that. Plus they are moving the show to the worst day possible to have a wrestling show on which is friday night at 10PM.
Nothing against them because i watch a couple of episode and they have made a tremendous job in reconstructing the company but agreeing to have your show on friday nights when you know you have stiff competition on that night since most of the wrestling shows are on friday is pretty much suicide and when smackdown move to friday in the fall, do they really believe that wrestling fans will want to sit through another 2 hour of wrestling after having watch a superior product in smackdown for 2 hours?
For now it’s not that bad because fans can watch either MLW or new japan live in the us at 8 pm then watch whatever of the 2 show they DVR and watch it and then go and either DVR or watch impact live.
This isn’t the right move for them but i guess when you have the reputation that they have, it’s going to be really hard to get a good Tv Deal in the u.s. So at this point, the best they can hope for is they don’t lose the little fanbase they have left with this move and that they can actually grow despite being on a smaller network then POP
I have no choice to assume that this makes the most financial sense. But I think at this point, a viable move could be to the largest possible network at whatever shit timeslot they offer just to capture the DVR audience. I know I would at least give Impact a shot if it was ever on a network that I get. Wouldn’t matter if it was on at 3 AM on a Thursday at that point.
Better off just trying to focus on international deals that could get them money instead of being on a Fringe US network. Hell Fight Network has an app, just focus on making those house show matches look ready for tv and push their angles in house with promos like ECW did until networks start looking for them instead of vice versa.