Countdown Clock Reveals TNA Headed to PopTV, January 2016

[ztwhite]

So there's a countdown clock on http://www.impactwrestling.com.

It's kind of misleading because based on the clock, it would expire at 5:00am ET on Thanksgiving Day (at least here in the U.S.), November, 26.

I'm not sure when TNA's deal with Destination America is up (or if it's even confirmed that it's expiring), but it seems like a strange date and time to make an 'announcement'.

Thoughts ?

 

[NSL]

I just checked, and it looks like it ends at 10a, today. I don't know what it could be, especially at that hour, but it might just be a relaunched website. I would like to think, but knowing TNA I could be very wrong, that they would give a little more notice than a few hours, if it were something that were actually huge news.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

It ends this morning. I have no idea what this means. TNA's history of hype isn't exactly pristine, but I do generally still enjoy the idea of something big happening.

At it's height, I'd say it'll be an announcement of a new television deal. At it's lowest, perhaps a complete site overhaul?

 

[ABMorales787]

They've also changed their Facebook profile picture to a pitch black square since last night. This is most likely some sort of silly hype deal. Maybe its a Black Friday marketing scheme of sorts? Or their entire social media was hacked again.

 

[King Patrick Star]

Top 10 things the TNA countdown clock could mean.

10. The TNA / ROH / GFW merger!!
9. The return of Jeff Hardy…again.
8. The return of Jeff Jarrett…again.
7. The return of the Main Event Mafia…but without any “real” Main Eventers.
6. The return of Hulk Hogan…again.
5. The return of Ric Flair…again.
4. The return of Kurt Angle…again.
3. Finally, the Rock has come to…T…N…A!!
2. Stone Cold!! Stone Cold!! Stone Cold!!
1. The debut of Chris Jericho!!

 

[NSL]

WTF is PopTV, and how is that TV deal a good thing? I'm almost positive they now have a smaller national TV market, than Lucha Underground, and they put out a product about a 5th as good.

I still think this "announcement" would have been better served being a website overhaul. This deal is underwhelming.

 

[Zeven_Zion]

WTF is PopTV, and how is that TV deal a good thing? I'm almost positive they now have a smaller national TV market, than Lucha Underground, and they put out a product about a 5th as good.

I still think this "announcement" would have been better served being a website overhaul. This deal is underwhelming.

Pop's available in more households than Destination America, from what I'm reading. 20 million more. That sounds like an upgrade to me.

Good for TNA. They found a new home. Now let's rebuild.

 

[NSL]

Pop's available in more households than Destination America, from what I'm reading. 20 million more. That sounds like an upgrade to me.

Good for TNA. They found a new home. Now let's rebuild.

If that's true, then that's amazing. I honestly never heard of Destination America until ROH started airing there, and then I noticed Impact also airing. I'm going to assume Pop is not available in my area, or some other less-viewed station is going to be switching over. I'll keep an eye out for it, but I'm not about to set reminders and mark the calendar, and then sit there and scroll through 1000 channels to find it. If I happen to come across it, cool. If not, I think I can live without it just fine.

EDIT: It looks like the lead-in to Impact Wrestling is Days Of Our Lives. I'm sure they'll manage to keep a lot of viewers hanging on. Probably because most 80 year olds will fall asleep at 830p with the TV still running.

 

[Zeven_Zion]

If that's true, then that's amazing. I honestly never heard of Destination America until ROH started airing there, and then I noticed Impact also airing. I'm going to assume Pop is not available in my area, or some other less-viewed station is going to be switching over. I'll keep an eye out for it, but I'm not about to set reminders and mark the calendar, and then sit there and scroll through 1000 channels to find it. If I happen to come across it, cool. If not, I think I can live without it just fine.

What I don't know is if you have to pay to get Pop. I'm just going off of Wikipedia here, don't take my word for it. But from what I'm seeing, Pop's better than DA. But again, I know jack shit about networks.

I'm just glad TNA lives on.

 

[NSL]

What I don't know is if you have to pay to get Pop. I'm just going off of Wikipedia here, don't take my word for it. But from what I'm seeing, Pop's better than DA. But again, I know jack shit about networks.

I'm just glad TNA lives on.

I went to their page and checked the channel finder, and while it's in my area, it's only on Dish Network, DirectTV, and Time Warner. I'd estimate that about 75-80% of the people in this area have AT&T U-Verse. So, I don't know if they're counting actual people that receive the channel, or the populations of the areas where the channel is available, but that could make a drastic difference.

EDIT: And, like you said, I'm not sure if you have to pay for it. Just because it's available through Dish or Direct TV, does not mean it's part of a basic package. It may be in an expensive package with a bunch of stuff you would never use.

 

[Prince Vee]

It ends this morning. I have no idea what this means. TNA's history of hype isn't exactly pristine, but I do generally still enjoy the idea of something big happening.

At it's height, I'd say it'll be an announcement of a new television deal. At it's lowest, perhaps a complete site overhaul?

I reckon the same too. It must be a new TV deal. TNA has been trying to make some drastic decisions over the past few months. But many of those hypes didn't go well as they would've anticipated. Dixie had been bantering about the hypes in the past, but this seems sort of different. I'm really interested to know!

 

[ABMorales787]

They fucking live. PopTV used to be TV Guide and happens to be the home of Paragon Pro Wrestling based on Las Vegas. Its a basic channel to the best of my knowledge seeing as I have it on basic cable.

EDIT: Its basic cable so you either have it on your basic tier or your provider doesn't have it. Not on premium tiers.

 

[Zeven_Zion]

I went to their page and checked the channel finder, and while it's in my area, it's only on Dish Network, DirectTV, and Time Warner. I'd estimate that about 75-80% of the people in this area have AT&T U-Verse. So, I don't know if they're counting actual people that receive the channel, or the populations of the areas where the channel is available, but that could make a drastic difference.

EDIT: And, like you said, I'm not sure if you have to pay for it. Just because it's available through Dish or Direct TV, does not mean it's part of a basic package. It may be in an expensive package with a bunch of stuff you would never use.

You could be right, I didn't think about that. Maybe someone here knows more about it, I'm really curious.

 

[Fabulous Freebirds]

Much better than Destination America. Tuesday night timeslot is very interesting. I hope more news comes out about the deal. Is TNA getting paid for this? How many years is this deal?

But, it's a good day for TNA as a company. PopTV is a much better channel and fits the wrestling audience with the shows they air. A pop culture network; wrestling fans love pop culture and not shows about Big Foot or BBQ like on DA.

 

[Prince Vee]

But there's a positive blokes, they air it on Tuesday nights! I reckon there's no WWE show to spoil their parties on Tuesdays.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

Well, I think the one thing we can all agree on is this — this is their last chance. It really is.

This simply has to work. I'll be interested to read about the details of the partnership, but it's not as though DA wasn't pumping up Impact out of the gate either. Their January and February events were all energy. It fizzled less than six months in.

But I'm glad TNA/IW isn't going under... yet.

 

[TDFG]

Good for TNA but like the rest of you, I'll wait until the promotional stuff and first couple of episodes are done before any judgement.

Hopefully TNA can use this as the boost they need.

 

[Azane]

Hopefully they've learned from mistakes, They still have a ton of talent if they can hold on and rekindle the flame, but they've also shed a ton of their talents, so it's going to be an uphill battle.

I had to look through to see if I even get the network, it's a far cry from Spike TV, they definitely need to stop taking Jabs at the WWE Behemoth and make their name for themselves at this point.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

Good for TNA but like the rest of you, I'll wait until the promotional stuff and first couple of episodes are done before any judgement.

Hopefully TNA can use this as the boost they need.

The real barometer for their success will come a few months into the relationship. Remember, DA was quite excited about TNA early on too. They had replays airing, and had extra content all set up and ready to go. Eventually, all that content was cancelled and the product went into a lull by like the six to eight month point.

Right now they're selling hope again. How much of a chance everyone gives them will probably largely depend on what happens during the India tapings that'll lead to this launch.

 

[Chrome]

WTF is PopTV, and how is that TV deal a good thing? I'm almost positive they now have a smaller national TV market, than Lucha Underground, and they put out a product about a 5th as good.

I still think this "announcement" would have been better served being a website overhaul. This deal is underwhelming.

POP TV reaches ~85 million households (~64% of all US households with at least 1 television).

For comparison, Destination America reaches ~57 million households (~49% of all US households with at least 1 television), so it is definitely an upgrade for TNA in terms of POTENTIAL viewers.

However, POP TV only launched earlier this year (it is a rebranded TV Guide channel), whereas Destination America was relaunched by Discovery in 2012. Depending on how much exposure POP gets, there is potential for TNA to actually get less viewers because the POP channel and brand is much newer, and has less market penetration. The only good thing is CBS Is backing POP, so they have more capital to throw at POP than Discovery does for DA.

This is an upgrade for TNA, great!

 

[Lowdown]

Well good to see they found a home, though I was clueless about POP TV until the earliest thread about it being the TV Guide channel. This needs to work out for them, no question. There's only so many chances that you can get, and TNA is running low on ammo, so to speak. The move to Tuesday could be good or bad, depending on what they'll be up against. Here's to hoping this will work out long term, like beyond 6 months to a year.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

It's an upgrade in potential reach, but they are still going to face the same "what the hell channel is that?" conundrum they faced with Destination America. I mean, I had to look it up too. I had no idea what channel that was, or where it was in my line-up, or even if it was in my line-up.

 

[Fabulous Freebirds]

Well, I think the one thing we can all agree on is this — this is their last chance. It really is.

This simply has to work. I'll be interested to read about the details of the partnership, but it's not as though DA wasn't pumping up Impact out of the gate either. Their January and February events were all energy. It fizzled less than six months in.

But I'm glad TNA/IW isn't going under... yet.

I don't agree with that at all. TNA stays on as long as Panda Energy wants them on. The fanbase for TNA does not dictate the future for the company. It really doesn't.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

I don't agree with that at all. TNA stays on as long as Panda Energy wants them on. The fanbase for TNA does not dictate the future for the company. It really doesn't.

Of course the fanbase dictates the future, because if the fanbase bails, the network will cancel the show. This is basic television law.

When I say it’s their last shot I mean that they’ve been on three networks now in what, four years? It’s not going to be easy to find a fourth, I’d imagine, and if the numbers continue to dip, they may not find an interested partner at all.

 

[justinsayne]

It's an upgrade in potential reach, but they are still going to face the same "what the hell channel is that?" conundrum they faced with Destination America. I mean, I had to look it up too. I had no idea what channel that was, or where it was in my line-up, or even if it was in my line-up.

Pop is basically a TV Guide channel, just re-branded with a new name, so TNA is going to air a channel where the bottom third of the screen is just a continuous scrolling of everything else that is currently on every other channel at the moment. I feel there are so many jokes that just write themselves about TNA on Pop.