TNA Goes to POP!!!

TNA Wrestling officially announced today that Impact Wrestling would be moving to POP TV on Tuesday nights.  The series will debut on POP TV on 1/5/16.

The announcement was made via a Youtube video that was released upon the end of a countdown clock that the company quietly placed on their website and on the social media of a number of executives.

POP TV will become the fourth home for the Impact Wrestling series in the United States.  The series, then one hour in length, debuted in June 2004 on FOX Sports after the promotion dropped it's initial business plan of weekly Wednesday night PPV events.  Impact debuted on SpikeTV in October 2005 and went from a late night weekend  event to a two hour primetime series, ending in December 2014.

After TNA and Spike parted ways, Impact debuted in January 2015 on Destination America with TNA President Dixie Carter at the time presenting the move as something that would allow the promotion to grow beyond just having a two hour TV series.  While the partnership initially saw additional programming for TNA, within months that had withered away and TNA ended up being odd man out on a secondary network that building around supernatural and cryptozoological mystery programming.

The move will be an immediate positive one for the series as POP TV is available in 75,255,000 homes via cable and satellite providers, far more then  Destination America.  DA is available in 57,238,000 homes via the same providers but in many cases was on secondary and paid tiers.

PWInsider.com first reported POP TV was one of the prime candidates for Impact Wrestling in the PWInsider Elite section, which you can subscribe to by clicking here.


official press release
LOS ANGELES, CALIF. – Nov. 19, 2015 – Get ready for #ImpactOnPop. Pop, a network that celebrates the excitement of being a fan, will soon become the exclusive U.S. television home of IMPACT WRESTLING, the hard-hitting, high-flying global sports sensation enjoyed by millions of fans around the world.

Pop will premiere IMPACT WRESTLING with a live two-hour, action-packed broadcast on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016, and the show will continue to air every Tuesday night at 9:00 PM, ET/PT. The show features some of the biggest stars in professional wrestling, including Jeff and Matt Hardy, EC3, Kurt Angle, Bobby Lashley, The Wolves, Eric Young, Tigre Uno and Gail Kim.

“Wrestling has been a fan-fueled staple since the ‘50s, and continues to be some of the most-watched appointment television today. The die-hard fandom and extraordinary passion surrounding IMPACT WRESTLING captures the spirit of Pop as a network that celebrates fan-driven entertainment and excitement,” said Brad Schwartz, President of Pop. “We’re committed to this new partnership and psyched to bring the show’s loyal fans a dedicated night to watch their favorite show on Pop every week.”

IMPACT WRESTLING is a strong global brand seen on networks in more than 120 countries around the world and broadcast in 17 languages. Its fans are some of the most devoted and socially active in sports, with more than 15 million aggregated social media followers and nearly 700 million video views on YouTube, making it the seventh-most-viewed sports channel, ahead of MLB®, NHL®, MLS® and FIFATV®.

“Pop’s enthusiasm for our partnership and the network’s fan focus is a perfect fit for our company,” said TNA President Dixie Carter. “Wresting has always been at the forefront of pop culture with the most passionate, loyal fan base. We’re thrilled to be in business with Pop and to bring IMPACT WRESTLING to more than 80 million homes."

TNA: The Jason Voorhees of pro wrestling. Every time you think they're finally dead, they come back to provide more horror and disappointment.

Apparently this is channel 273 on Direct TV, making this the 2nd station TNA has moved to that I didn't even know I had.

EDIT: pop used to be the TV guide channel...that's funny.

I could get it, but currently it's not in my package.

and again uverse subscribes get screwed uverse doesn't carry pop.
thanks TNA at least I have kodi foor the pc and watch wrestling add on to watch wrestling any time on my pc

It's something.

Spudz rumor is TNA is paying for time. What have you heard?

Swarles wrote:Spudz rumor is TNA is paying for time. What have you heard?

Pop is paying for TNA and has 'major plans for Impact'.

Swarles wrote:Spudz rumor is TNA is paying for time. What have you heard?

I have read a number of things so far, no idea what true at this point although that what i want be true cause lol tna

I'm guessing insider Joe read this article ..

Impact Wrestling is NOT paying for airtime on Pop TV, despite speculation — and Pro Wrestling Sheet has learned the network has big plans for TNA‘s flagship show.

The deal between Impact Wrestling and Pop TV was announced Thursday morning, and sources close to the situation tell us TNA signed a regular TV deal with the network to air the weekly series — it’s not paid programming.

After the announcement was made, there was speculation TNA may be paying for the airtime … due to the networks affiliation with Paragon Pro Wrestling who shelled out cash for their time slot.

A rep for the network says, “IMPACT WRESTLING is a big priority for us and will become an important part of Pop’s primetime line-up. We have a wide-spanning, multi-pronged relationship that we will be monetizing and building together as partners.”

paragon left pop for 4 other channels: Tufftv(ota DTV substation),YoutooAmerica(another ota channel)
a channel on dish and a dallas tv station.
prior to announcement Impact was taking with WGN America which just became a basic cable station
now avail in il

Notes from a  PWInsider interview with Brad Schwartz and Dixie Carter I found on tnasylum

-This is a multi-year deal. Pop wants this to last as long as it can.

-January 5th will a Live Show. More will be announced early next week. A lot of exciting things are happening with it.

-They are excited for being on Tuesday. They feel this timeslot will be the greatest opportunity for success.

-Dixie likes that Pop is in 85 million homes. She is future focused but wishes Destination America the best.

-When asked about the email that supposedly was sent from Dixie to members of Discovery she said that there are a lot of false things reported (lol). She promised a new vibe to IMPACT in 2016.

-January 5th will be a live show and then they will tape a few shows. After that they are going to the UK. They will be taping after that. She can't promise they will tour as much as they did years ago. The focus is on the content and product. They want to bring cameras to different locales though.

-Brad Schwartz put over the fact that a few years ago TNA delivered 1.4 million viewers on Spike. They are also one of the top couple shows on Destination America and on Spike.

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Spudz's thoughts
Keyword being a few years ago, with talent TNA no longer have and harder to find quality replacements cause of

A. money issues and their own awful way of doing things.

B. the growing of NXT and ROH, the arrival of Lucha Underground, GFW trying to get off the ground and from bad to spotty at best relationships with international companies.

I have to give Dixie/UTA credit for working their magic, look like Dixie fooled this Brad guy and other people at POP.. I am sure she made promises of 750,000 - 1 Million viewers within a year cause that what they were getting on Spike.

Also unless POP making changes, Impacts lead in will be same day repeat of Day of Our Lives.. So look for some crazy more than usual Soapy stuff always at the start of the show, trying to keep those viewers to not change the channel.

Spudz wrote:Also unless POP making changes, Impacts lead in will be same day repeat of Day of Our Lives.. So look for some crazy more than usual Soapy stuff always at the start of the show, trying to keep those viewers to not change the channel.

Alright, Claire Lynch is making a comeback!

I keep reading this thread title as "TNA Goes POP!"

heard from another forum that Pop will be coming to Uverse in 2016 lets hope its basic or part of the u200 package

Everyone had the TV Guide channel no? Pop is part of my regular package (I mean so was Destination America).

Anyway, guess we get another year of TNA until Pop realizes they've made a terrible mistake.

seeing how uverse has it own epg(electronic program guide) they didn't need to add tv guide network like on the older cable systems but as mentioned pop should be on uverse in 2016

Well, cable and satellite systems today don't NEED the TV Guide channel (which is why it was rebranded as POP TV).

However, most TV carriers have been carrying the channel as a holdover from when digital boxes weren't the norm for their customers, thus creating the need for what was previously the TV Guide Channel.

"Tuesday’s TNA Impact Wrestling television drew 255,000 total viewers for the first airing on Pop TV, according to Showbuzzdaily.com.

Powell’s POV: The last prime time airing of Impact Wrestling on Destination American drew 269,000 viewers in the same time slot. Thus, TNA should be pleased that the first show on Pop drew a comparable number. Of course, the key now is to add to the viewership count going forward in the next few months."

Edited in torchs report
January 5: The debut episode of Impact Wrestling on Pop drew 255,000 first-run viewers.

By comparison, the debut on Destination America this week last year drew 359,000 viewers. The benefit last year is Impact was on the tail-end of the Spike TV run when they were drawing 1.0 million viewers.

Now, one year later, TNA is on the tail-end of a Dest. America run when they were drawing 300,000 first-run viewers.

– Impact’s midnight replay drew 90,000 viewers, bringing the total audience on the night to 345,000 viewers.

– The first airing of Impact was outdrawn by its lead-in, a “Days of Our Lives” re-run, which drew 279,000 viewers.

“Days” fits Pop’s female-driven programming, skewing to 82 percent females 18-49 and only 18 percent males 18-49.

Impact then reversed the split with 60 percent males 18-49 and 40 percent females 18-49.

– TNA drew a median age of 54.1 years-old, similar to the audience on Destination America.

Of the 255,000 first-run viewers, 96,000 were adults 18-49, representing a 37.6 percentage of the audience within the desired a18-49 advertiser window.

Spudz's thoughts
Young & The Restless at 7:00est on Pop did 478,000 viewers.. If they don't get close to 400-500,000 on average in the next few months.. Going be interesting if Pop is ok with that.

James Storm getting almost a dollar per viewer seems like a good investment

lets not forget that poptv post shows on their website. Des Am didn't do that for tna so who knows for those who can't get poptv can still watch impact online which gives poptv website more hits

Those are some weak ratings, but who knows what POP is expecting from this deal.

If the rumors are true of TNA not getting paid by POP for airing on their network, then maybe they're more lenient with the immediate ratings for IMPACT, especially since it's a show that's bringing in a completely different demographic to their channel.

Making the show available on the website is also a sign of good faith, as Destination America never put IMPACT on any of their online outlets because they apparently didn't want to hurt the ratings of first-run airings of the show.

So there was no thread for this show so I'll just talk about the Knockout's Gauntlet from ONO here.

After hearing both Dave and Tom Lawlor bury this match, I needed to see it and yup it looks like we have worst match of the year locked up early, what a train wreck this was, timing all over the place, missed spots, Kong applying the laziest submission of all time

and I feel like I should apologize to Striker and Kevin Kelly for being so negative on their NJPW commentary because Josh and the pope are far, far worse

I didn't see this match but I can confirm Josh and Pope are all time bad.

Kong can barely move but I hope she got one of those guaranteed Panda contracts.

I thought she retired?