Sale to Scripps
On September 24, 2020, the Cincinnati-based E. W. Scripps Company announced that it would purchase Ion Media for $2.65 billion with financing from Berkshire Hathaway. With this purchase, Scripps divested 23 Ion-owned stations, but no announcement was made at the time as to which stations would be divested as part of the move. The proposed divestitures allowed the merged company to fully comply with the FCC local and national ownership regulations. Scripps agreed to a transaction with an unnamed buyer, who has agreed to maintain Ion affiliations for the stations. (The buyer was revealed in an October 2020 FCC filing to be Inyo Broadcast Holdings). It was also stated that Scripps decided to keep WNPX-TV, making it a sister station to CBS affiliate WTVF (channel 5), pending approval by the FCC. The transaction was finalized and closed on January 7, 2021.[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]
It was later announced on January 14, 2021, that E. W. Scripps Company would cease operations of Qubo, Ion Plus and Ion Shop on February 28, 2021, as it was reported that they would move their Katz Broadcasting networks (which include Bounce TV, Court TV, Ion Mystery, Grit and Laff) to the former Ion Media owned-and-operated stations, but will still retain Ion as their main affiliation.[27][28][29][30] On February 27 at 5 a.m., the station transitioned the second, third and fourth subchannels, with Court TV replacing Qubo on channel 28.2, Grit replacing Ion Plus on channel 28.3, and Laff replacing Ion Shop on 28.4. Laff continued to air on sister station WTVF channel 5.3, but was replaced with Bounce TV on September 1.[31]
On March 2, the E. W. Scripps Company announced plans to add two new networks to its digital broadcast portfolio (joining its six existing networks). Defy and TrueReal (the latter had initially been billed as Doozy), which will respectively target men and women in the 25-54 age range with factual lifestyle and reality programming, was announced to launch on several E. W. Scripps owned-and-operated stations. There was previous speculation that the two new networks would launch on WNPX, replacing both HSN and QVC on the fifth and sixth subchannels, as this was officially confirmed on June 22, 2021.[34][35][36] On June 30, 2021, WNPX-TV replaced both QVC and HSN with previews of both Defy TV and TrueReal, previewing the programming to launch on both networks.[37][38] Both networks officially launched on July 1, 2021.[39][40]
WNPX airs the entire Ion schedule and since the repeal of the Main Studio Rule, it carries the network without any local content outside of an hourly on-screen station identification; the station is also not currently used by WTVF to carry preempted CBS and syndicated programming.
On April 7, 2026, the Nashville Predators of the National Hockey League announced that Scripps Sports had acquired the regional rights to the team beginning in the 2026–27 NHL season, with games primarily airing on WNPX, and a subscription-based direct-to-consumer service to be announced. Scripps concurrently announced that WNPX would become an independent station under the branding "The Spot Nashville 28" later in the year.[41]
