Ion Mystery (formerly Escape and Court TV Mystery, stylized as ESCAPE and MYSTERY; formerly branded on-air as Mystery) is an American free-to-air television network owned by the Katz Broadcasting subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. It focuses primarily on mystery, true crime, and police/legal procedural programs. It is available in several media markets via the digital subchannels of terrestrial television stations and on the digital tiers of select cable providers through a local affiliate of the network. History Katz Broadcasting announced the formation of Escape and sister network Grit on April 3, 2014, with a formal launch scheduled for that summer. When the network was first announced, Katz Broadcasting entered into an affiliation agreement with Univision Communications, which planned to launch Grit in 22 markets served by a station owned by the group or operated through local marketing agreements with Entravision Communications – giving Grit affiliates in 17 of the 20 largest U.S. television markets (including markets such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Dallas-Fort Worth). The network immediately sought carriage on the digital subchannels of television stations owned by other broadcasting companies. On August 11, 2014, Katz announced that the two networks would launch simultaneously on August 18. Escape launched at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time on that date, with the 1981 film Body Heat as the network's inaugural broadcast. On August 1, 2017, in an expansion of the company's existing interest, the E. W. Scripps Company announced it would purchase a 95% majority stake in Katz Broadcasting's assets (Escape, Grit, and Laff as well as the managerial rights for Bounce TV parent Bounce Media, LLC) for $292 million. Although Scripps assumed ownership of the group upon the purchase's completion on October 2, Katz will remain headquartered in Marietta, Georgia as an autonomous division of its new corporate parent. On September 30, 2019, Escape was rebranded as Court TV Mystery, serving as an extension to the Court TV brand. Following Scripps' acquisition of Ion Media in 2021, many of its digital subchannels, including Court TV and Court TV Mystery, were moved over to Ion-owned affiliates and on Scripps stations, were separated from stations also carrying Court TV, causing viewer confusion regarding the channel positions and carriage status of the two networks. The network was subsequently rebranded to Ion Mystery on February 24, 2022, with the "Ion" brand now more established regarding procedural dramas in general, including Ion