E.W. Scripps Co.‘s national networks are getting into the holiday season programming swing by scheduling five new Christmas-themed movies that will appear on Ion and Bounce over the rest of the year.
Laff and Grit, two other Scripps networks, will also focus on airing holiday films. Laff will air a week of family-friendly holiday movies starting Dec. 6. Grit will have holiday-themed Westerns on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Hallmark Channel established the power of holiday programming to drive ratings and advertising revenue. Other programmers, including ABC Family — now Freeform — and AMC have moved to airing more seasonal fare.
Former Hallmark Channel head Bill Abbott’s new company GAC Media is launching with a holiday blitz of a dozen holiday movies under the Great American Christmas banner.
Bounce’s original holiday movie is Who is Christmas Eve? It stars Paige Hurd, Romeo Miller and Juliana Harkavy and premieres on Nov. 21. Hurd is also a co-producer of the film.
Scripps’s new holidays movies on Ion are Christmas Down Under, starring Paul O’Brien and Justine Kacir, premiering Nov. 21, A Christmas Witness with Arielle Kebbel and Colin Egglesfield, on Nov. 28; The Christmas Thief, starring Lana Lawton and Vivica A. Fox, debuting Dec. 5; and New Lease on Christmas, starring Clair Coffee and George Stults, premiering on Dec. 11.
Last year, Ion was the top network airing original holiday programming among adults 25-54, according to Nielsen.
