American Broadcasting Company

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American Broadcasting Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
American Broadcasting Company

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The American Broadcasting Company (abbreviated

ABC, stylized in the logo as abc since 1962) is an
American commercial broadcast television network.
Throughout its history, ABC has supported its
financial operations by diversifying into the press, the
publishing industry, the operation of theaters, and
filmmaking. Many of the company's assets in these
fields have been sold to other entities, and since 2007,
when ABC Radio (also known as "Cumulus Media
Networks") was sold to Citadel Broadcasting, ABC
has reduced its broadcasting operations almost
exclusively to television. It is the world's fifth-oldest
major broadcasting media network.
The network launched as a radio network on October
12, 1943, separated from and successor to the old
"NBC Blue Network" which had been purchased by
Edward J. Noble. It extended its operations to
television in 1948, following the elder broadcasting
networks of CBS and NBC. In the mid-1950s, ABC
merged with the theater chain United Paramount
Theatres, a former subsidiary of the film studio
Paramount Pictures. Leonard Goldenson, who had
been the head of UPT, made the new television
network profitable by leading it to broadcast many
successful series. By the 1970s, ABC sold its theater
operation division to Henry Plitt, who renamed it Plitt
Theatres. In the 1980s, after buying an 80% stake in
the cable sports channel ESPN, the network merged
with the publishing/broadcasting group Capital Cities
Communications. In 1996, ABC and Capital Cities'
other assets were purchased by The Walt Disney
Company.
American Broadcasting Company
Type
Television network
(defunct radio network)
Country
United States
First airdate
October 12, 1943
Availability
National
Slogan
"The Only Place To Be, ABC"
Headquarters
77 West 66th Street

New York City, New York,
United States
Parent
DisneyABC Television Group

(Disney Media Networks)
Key people
Zachary Blanche
Anne Sweeney
David Westin
Paul Lee
John Skipper
Launch date
October12,1943 (radio)
April19,1948 (television)
Former
names
NBC Blue Network
As one of the "Big Three television networks", ABC

has broadcast many programs that have contributed
Picture
720p/1080i (HDTV)
format
significantly to American popular culture. These
480i (4:3 SDTV)
include classic series such as Zorro, The
Affiliates
Lists:
Untouchables, The Fugitive, General Hospital, The
By state or by DMA
Courtship of Eddie's Father, The Brady Bunch, Happy
Days, and Roseanne; more recent titles such as Castle, Official
abc.go.com (http://abc.go.com/)
website
Lost, Revenge, Once Upon a Time, Desperate
Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, and Modern Family;
live broadcasts such as Monday Night Football; the reality shows America's Funniest Home Videos, The
Bachelor/Bachelorette and Dancing with the Stars; and the morning news program Good Morning
America.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Broadcasting_Company
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ABC's corporate headquarters are

located at 77 West 66th Street, on the
Upper West Side of Manhattan in
New York City.
Contents
1 History
1.1 19271945: Blue Network
1.2 19451949: Entry into television
1.3 1950s: Merger with United Paramount Theatres
1.3.1 Hollywood begins to produce television
series
ABC is hosted by NHK in Japan,

and is based at the NHK
Broadcasting Center in Tokyo.
1.3.2 First bonds with Disney

1.3.3 Syndication division and phonographic
labels
1.3.4 Counterprogramming: successful, but
criticized
1.4 1960s: Transition to color
1.4.1 19601965: Children's programming and
the debut of ABC Sports
1.4.2 19661969: New regulations and the
radio network's recovery
1.5 1970s: Success in television
1.6 1980s: Merger with Capital Cities, purchase of
ESPN, reprogramming Friday Nights
1.7 1990s: Acquisition by Disney
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1.8 2000s: Separation of the radio network

1.9 2010s: Decline
2 Affiliated television stations
3 Facilities and studios
4 Economic data
4.1 Financial results
4.2 Corporate management
5 Television programming
5.1 Programming library
5.2 List of selected programs
6 Analysis
6.1 Visual identity
6.2 Place in American media
6.3 International development
7 Movies by ABC or its divisions
8 See also
9 References
9.1 Footnotes
9.2 Bibliography
10 External links
History
19271945: Blue Network
In the 1930s, radio in the United States was dominated by three companies: the Mutual Broadcasting
System, the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), and the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), the
last of which was owned by the electronics manufacturer Radio Corporation of America (RCA). RCA
owned two networks which each ran different varieties of radio programming, and were named NBC
Blue and NBC Red. NBC Blue was created in 1927 primarily to test new programs on less important
markets than those served by NBC Red, which served the major cities,[1] and to test drama series.[2]
In 1934, Mutual Broadcasting filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
regarding its difficulties in establishing new stations, in a radio market that was already being saturated
by NBC and CBS.[2] In 1938, the FCC began a series of investigations into the practices of radio
networks[2] and published its report on the broadcasting of network radio programs in 1940. The report
recommended that RCA separate either NBC Red or NBC Blue from its control.[1] At that time, NBC
Red was the principal radio network in the United States and, according to the FCC, RCA was using
NBC Blue to eliminate any hint of competition. Having no power over the networks themselves, the
FCC established a regulation forbidding licenses to be issued for radio stations if they were affiliated
with a network which already owned multiple networks[1] that were of interest to the public.[2]
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Once Mutual's appeals against the FCC were rejected, RCA decided to sell NBC
Blue in 1941, and gave the mandate to do so to Mark Woods.[3] In January 1942,
RCA converted the NBC Blue Network into an independent subsidiary,[2] and
NBC Red and NBC Blue became two separate companies, dividing their
respective assets. Between 1942 and 1943, Woods offered the entire NBC Blue
Network on sale for a price of $8 million.[4][5] This package included leases on
land lines, three pending television licenses (WJZ-TV in New York, KGO-TV in
San Francisco and WENR-TV in Chicago, all eventually established on channel
7), sixty affiliates, four facilities (in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and
Washington D.C.), contracts with actors, and the brand associated with the Blue
Network. The investment bank Dillon, Read & Co. (acquired in 1997 by the
Swiss Bank Corporation) offered $7.5 million, but Woods and RCA president
Edward Noble,
founder of ABC
David Sarnoff rejected the offer.[4]

Edward John Noble, the owner of Life Savers candy, the Rexall drugstore chain, and the radio station
WMCA in New York, accepted the $8 million purchase of the network.[1][2] According to the FCC's
rules, the transaction, which was to include Noble's purchase of three RCA stations, would require Noble
to resell his station with the FCC's approval.[4] The commission authorized the transaction on October
12, 1943.[3][6] Soon afterward, the Blue Network was purchased by the new company founded by Noble,
the American Broadcasting System.[2] The network was renamed American Broadcasting Company
(ABC) in 1944, and its parent company became American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.[2][4] Woods
retained his position as president and CEO of ABC until December 1949, then became vice-chairman of
the board before leaving ABC altogether on June 30, 1951.[7]
Meanwhile, in August 1944, the West Coast division of the Blue Network, which owned the station
KGO-AM in San Francisco, bought the KECA-AM station in Los Angeles from Earl C. Anthony for
$800,000.[8] Both stations were then managed by the vice-president of the Blue Network's West Coast
division, Don Searle.[9]
19451949: Entry into television

The ABC Radio Network created its audience slowly. The network's acquisition of WXYZ-AM, a
station in Detroit, from KingTrendle Broadcasting in 1946 for a little less than $3 million,[10] allowed it
to acquire several radio serials, including The Lone Ranger, Sergeant Preston, and The Green Hornet,
which had originated on that station.[11] WXYZ continued to be owned by ABC until 1984.
ABC became an aggressive competitor to NBC and CBS when, continuing NBC Blue's traditions of
public service, it broadcast symphony performances conducted by Paul Whiteman,[2] performances from
the Metropolitan Opera, and jazz concerts delivered through its broadcast The Chamber Music Society of
Lower Basin Street announced by Milton Cross.[12] The network also became known for such
suspenseful dramas as Sherlock Holmes, Gang Busters, and Counterspy, as well as several midafternoon youth programs.[12] However, ABC made a name for itself by using the practice of
counterprogramming, with which it often placed shows of its own against the offerings of NBC and
CBS, adopting the use of the Magnetophon tape recorder, brought to the U.S. from Nazi Germany after
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its conquest, to pre-record its programming.[11] With the help of the Magnetophon tape recorder, ABC
was able to provide its stars with greater freedom in terms of time, and also attract several big names,
such as Bing Crosby[11] at a time when NBC and CBS did not allow pre-taped shows.
While its radio network was undergoing reconstruction, ABC found it difficult to avoid falling behind on
the new medium of television.[13] To ensure a space, in 1947 ABC submitted five applications for
licenses, one for each market where it owned and operated a radio station.[14] These applications
requested the allocation of frequency 7, as Frank Marx, then ABC's vice-president of engineering,
thought that the lower frequencies would be requisitioned and reallocated for the U.S. Army.[14]
On April 19, 1948, the ABC television network began its broadcasts and picked up its first primary
affiliate, WFIL-TV in Philadelphia[15] (later renamed WPVI-TV). The first program on the network was
On the Corner, featuring Henry Morgan. Other stations carrying it were WMAR-TV, Baltimore,
Maryland; WMAL-TV, Washington, D.C.; and WABD, New York City.[16]
In August 1948, the network's flagship owned-and-operated station, WJZ-TV in New York City (later
renamed WABC-TV), began its broadcasts.[15] The first broadcast ran for two hours in the evening of
August 10, 1948.[17] ABC's other owned-and-operated stations launched over the course of the next 13
months.[15] WENR-TV in Chicago launched on September 17, 1948,[18] while WXYZ-TV in Detroit
went on the air October 9, 1948.[19] In October 1948, the FCC realized that it had issued too many
licenses for TV stations, so it froze applications for new stations.[20] However, KGO-TV in San
Francisco, which had received its license prior to the freeze, went on the air May 5, 1949.[21][22] On May
7, 1949, Billboard revealed that ABC had proposed an investment of $6.25 million, of which it would
spend $2.5 million to convert 20 acres (80,937m2) of land in Hollywood into what would become The
Prospect Studios, and construct a transmitter on Mount Wilson, in anticipation of the launch of KECATV, which was scheduled to launch August 1,[23] but would not actually go on the air until September
16.[24][25]
In the fall of 1949, ABC found itself in the position of an outsider, with less coverage than two of its
competing networks, CBS and NBC, even though it was on par with them in some of the major cities
and had a head start over its third rival at the time, the DuMont Television Network.[26] Before the
freeze ended in 1952, there were only 108 existing television stations in the United States; a few major
cities such as Boston had only two television stations, many other cities such as Pittsburgh and St. Louis
had only one, and still many others, such as Denver and Portland, had no television service at all.[26] The
result was a strange period where television flourished in certain areas and network radio remained the
main source of broadcast entertainment and news in others.
1950s: Merger with United Paramount Theatres

At the end of 1949, the movie theater operator United Paramount Theatres (UPT) was forced by the
Supreme Court of the United States to become an independent entity, separating itself from the film
studio Paramount Pictures.[27] For its part, ABC was on the verge of bankruptcy, with only five stations
and nine full-time affiliates.[28] Its revenues, which were related to advertising and were indexed
compared to the number of listeners/viewers, failed to compensate for its heavy investments in buying
and building stations. In 1951, a rumor even mentioned that the network would be sold to CBS.[14][29] In
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1951, Noble held a 58% stake in ABC,[30] giving him $5 million with which to prevent ABC from going
bankrupt; as banks refused further credit,[31] that amount was obtained through a loan from the
Prudential Insurance Company of America.[32]
Leonard Goldenson, the president of UPT (which sought to diversify itself at the time), approached
Noble in 1951 and proposed that UPT purchase ABC.[31] Noble received further offers, including one
from Bill Paley of CBS, but that would have forced CBS to sell
at least its New York and Los Angeles stations.[33] Goldenson
and Noble reached a tentative agreement in the late spring of
1951[31] that ABC would become a subsidiary of UPT, but
would remain autonomous in its management.[34] On June 6,
1951, UPT's board of directors validated their tentative
agreement.[34] However, the transaction had to be approved by
the FCC because of the presence of television networks and the
recent separation between Paramount and UPT. Insofar as the
Paramount Pictures film studio was already a shareholder of the
DuMont Television Network, the FCC conducted a series of
hearings to ensure whether Paramount was truly separated from
A former Paramount theater in

Denver
United Paramount Theatres, and whether it was violating antitrust laws.[13]

In 1952, when the FCC ended its freeze on applications for new
stations, among the issues to be addressed was the approval of
the merger between UPT and ABC.[20] One member of the
commission saw the possibility of ABC, funded by UPT,
becoming a viable and competitive third television network.[35]
On February 9, 1953, the FCC authorized UPT's purchase of
ABC in exchange for $25 million in shares,[35][36] and the
company was renamed American Broadcasting-Paramount
Theatres, Inc. The new company was based in Paramount's
headquarters at 1501 Broadway in New York,[37] and owned six
AM radio stations and many FM ones, as well as five TV stations
and 644 cinemas in 300 cities throughout the United States.[32] In
consideration of this merger, UPT sold its television station in
Chicago, WBKB-TV, to CBS for $6 million. CBS changed the
calls to WBBM-TV,[38] It kept ABC's existing Chicago station,
WENR-TV. The merged company moved the WBKB call letters
to channel 7, which would eventually become WLS-TV.[39]
Goldenson began to sell some of the old theaters to finance the
1501 Broadway served as the

corporate headquarters for American
Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres.
new television network.[32]

On May 1, 1953, ABC's flagship stations WJZ, WJZ-FM and WJZ-TV in New York adopted the
callsigns of WABC, WABC-FM and WABC-TV, respectively,[40] and moved to 7 West 66th Street, one
block from Central Park.[32] The WABC call letters were abandoned by the flagship station for CBS
Radio in 1946. The name WJZ would later be assigned to the then-ABC affiliate in Baltimore owned by
Westinghouse in 1959, in an historical tie to the fact that WJZ was originally established by
Westinghouse.
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However, a problem emerged regarding the directions taken by ABC and UPT. In 1950, Noble
appointed Robert Kintner to be ABC's president while he himself served as its CEO, a position he would
hold until his death in 1958.[13] Despite the promise of non-interference between ABC and UPT,
Goldenson had to intervene in ABC's decisions because of financial problems and the FCC's long period
of indecision. Goldenson added to the confusion when, in October 1954,[41] he proposed a merger
between UPT and DuMont Television Network, which was also in financial trouble.[13] As part of this
merger, the network would have been renamed ABC-DuMont for five years, and DuMont would have
received $5 million in cash, room on the schedule for existing DuMont programming, and guaranteed
advertising time for its receivers.[13] Also, to satisfy the FCC's constraints, it would have been required
to sell either WABC-TV or WABD-TV (DuMont's New York station) and two other stations with it.[13]
The merged ABC-DuMont would have had the resources to compete with CBS and NBC.[41]
Goldenson sought to develop the ABC network in the U.S. by trying to convince local stations to
become affiliated with the ABC network.[13] For this, he contacted local entrepreneurs who owned TV
stations themselves, many of whom had previously invested in Paramount cinemas and had worked with
him when he undertook the responsibility for restructuring United Paramount Theatres.[13] Goldenson
also tried international investing; for example, he acquired a 5% stake in two new Japanese networks,
Mainichi Broadcasting System in 1951 and Nihon Educational Television in 1957.[42]
Hollywood begins to produce television series
At the same time that he made his attempts at the network's growth, Goldenson had been trying since
mid-1953 to provide content for the network by contacting his old acquaintances in Hollywood, with
whom he had worked when UPT was a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures.[13] ABC's merger with UPT
led to the creation of relationships with Hollywood's film production studios, breaking a quarantine that
had existed at that time between film and television,[43] the latter of which had previously been more
connected to radio. ABC's flagship productions at the time were The Lone Ranger (19491957), based
on the same-titled radio program, and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (19521965).
Goldenson's efforts paid off, and on October 27, 1954, the network was able to launch a "New ABC"
campaign with the productions of several studios, including Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Bros., and
20th Century Fox.[44]
Warner tried with mixed success to adapt some of its most successful films as ABC television series, and
showcase such adaptations in a programming block known as Warner Bros. Presents. The wheel series,
which aired during the 195556 season, showcased television adaptations of the 1942 films Kings Row
and Casablanca; Cheyenne, adapted from the 1947 film Wyoming Kid; Sugarfoot, a remake of the 1954
film The Boy from Oklahoma; and Maverick, which helped to attract the network's audiences.[43]
However, the most iconic of ABC's relationships with Hollywood producers was its agreement with
Walt Disney; after the start of the network's bond with the Disney studio, James Lewis Baughman, who
worked in the press at that time, observed that "at ABC's headquarters in New York, the secretaries
[were now] wearing hats with Mickey Mouse ears."[43]
First bonds with Disney
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Walt Disney and his brother Roy contacted Goldenson at the end of 1953[45] to allow ABC to finance
part of the Disneyland project in exchange for Disney's
production of a television broadcast.[46][47][48] Walt wanted ABC
to invest $500,000 and accrued a guarantee of $4.5 million in
additional loans, a third of the budget intended for the
park.[46][49] Around 1954, ABC agreed to finance Disneyland in
exchange for the broadcasting of a new Sunday television
program, Disneyland, which debuted on the ABC network on
October 27, 1954[46][47][48] as the first of many anthology TV
programs that Disney would broadcast over the course of the
next fifty years.
The budget for the construction of the park, upon its completion
in July 1955, totaled $17 million,[50] while ABC owned 35% of
Disneyland, Inc., the company that had been created to build and
manage thepark.[47] When the park opened on July 17, 1955, a
special live broadcast, Dateline: Disneyland, was aired on
ABC.[51] Shortly thereafter, on October 3, 1955, a second regular
program produced by Disney was launched: The Mickey Mouse
Club, designed as a weekday children's program aired Monday
through Friday, which starred the "Mouseketeers," a group of 24
Wernher von Braun and Ernst

Stuhlinger in the episode "Mars and
Beyond" (1957) from Disneyland, the
first of many Walt Disney anthology
television series.
children.[47][52]
Syndication division and phonographic labels
By 1954, all U.S. networks had regained control of their programming, with higher advertising revenues:
ABC's increased by 67% with $26 million, NBC's went up by 30% with $100 million, and CBS's rose by
44% with $117 million.[53] On March 27, 1954, ABC created a subsidiary named ABC Films
Syndication Division, which specialized in syndication and in-house production of broadcasts, and was
headed by George Shupert.[54] However, ABC had only 14 primary affiliates as opposed to CBS's 74
and NBC's 71. Most markets outside the largest ones weren't large enough to support three full network
affiliates. In some markets that were large enough for a third full affiliate, the only available commercial
allocation was on the less-desirable UHF band. Until the All-Channel Viewing Act mandated the
inclusion of UHF tuning, most viewers needed a converter to watch UHF stations. Even with a
converter, the picture was marginal at best. Additionally, UHF stations have never gotten good reception
in rugged terrain. These factors made many prospective station owners skittish about investing in a UHF
station, especially one that would have had to take on an affiliation with a weaker network. As a result,
in most markets outside the largest ones, ABC was relegated to secondary status on one or both of the
existing stations, usually via off-hours clearances. (A notable exception during this time was WKST-TV
in Youngstown, Ohio, now WYTV, despite Youngstown's small market size and close proximity to
Cleveland and Pittsburgh even decades before the city's economic collapse.) According to Goldenson,
this meant that an hour of programming on ABC reported five times less than its competitors.[55]
However, the network's intake of money at the time would allow it to accelerate its production of
content. Still, ABC's limited reach would continue to hobble it for the next two decades; several smaller
markets would not grow large enough to support a full ABC affiliate until the 1960s, with some very
small markets having to wait as late as the 1980s or even the advent of digital terrestrial television,
which allowed stations like WTRF-TV in Wheeling, West Virginia to begin airing ABC programming
on a digital subchannel after airing it in off-hours decades before.
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In 1955, ABC founded a record company, the AmPar Record Corporation,[56] which launched the record
label ABC-Paramount Records. Several other labels would be established or purchased by ABC in the
following years. DuMont Television Network ceased broadcasting on September 15, 1955,[41] and went
bankrupt the next year. ABC then found itself as the third U.S. television network, but still continued to
look for successful programming. That same year, Kintner was forced to resign because of
disagreements between Noble and Goldenson,[13] a consequence of Goldenson's many interventions in
ABC's management. In 1959, ABC International created a company called WorldVision Enterprises for
overseas syndication.[57]
Counterprogramming: successful, but criticized
It was not until the late 1950s that the ABC network became a
serious contender for NBC and CBS, and this was thanks to its
diverse range of programming meeting the expectations of the
public, such as westerns and detective series, but despite an
almost 500% increase in advertising revenues between 1953 and
1958, the network remained able to cover only between 10% and
18% of the total U.S. population, due to still having a relatively
low number of affiliates compared to NBC and CBS.[58] In 1957,
Ollie Treiz discovered that the variety show Bandstand, aired on
WFIL-TV in Philadelphia, had very good ratings, and taking that
into account, he managed to introduce that show to a national
audience, re-titling it American Bandstand;[59] the show quickly
became a social phenomenon by presenting new talent and new
dances to the American youth.[59] On September 3, 1958, the
In 2002, dancers and other cast

members from the 32-year run of
American Bandstand reunited with
host Dick Clark to celebrate the 50th
anniversary of the show's local
television debut.
Disneyland TV series was retitled Walt Disney Presents[48] as it

became disassociated with the same-named theme park. The movement in westerns, which ABC is
credited for having started, represented a fifth of all primetime series on American television in January
1959, at which point a movement in detective shows was beginning as well.[60] ABC requested yet more
productions from Disney.[61] At the end of 1958, Desilu Productions offered its detective series The
Untouchables to CBS, but that network rejected the show because of its use of violence; the production
company next presented it to ABC, which agreed to approve the show,[62] and began broadcasting it in
April 1959. The Untouchables went on to quickly become "immensely popular."[62]
This sort of programming offered ABC an image of the "philosophy of counterprogramming against its
competitors," the network offering its viewers a strong lineup of programs contrasting with those of its
rival networks,[61] which helped Goldenson give the network a continuum between film and
television.[63] ABC's western series opposed and defeated the variety shows that NBC and CBS were
airing in the fall of 1957, and its detective shows did the same in the fall of 1959. To captivate the
network's audiences, short 66-minute series were scheduled a half-hour before their hour-long
competition.[63] In May 1961, Life magazine criticized the public enthusiasm and sponsorship for this
type of shows at the expense of news programming and denounced an unofficial law "replacing the good
programs with the bad ones."[64]
1960s: Transition to color

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During the 1960s, ABC continued on the same path that it began to take in the mid-1950s, consolidating
the network to gain loyalty from the public. The network's finances improved and allowed it to invest. In
May 1960, ABC bought the WLS radio station in Chicago, which had shared airtime with WENR since
the 1920s.[65] This acquisition allowed ABC to consolidate its presence in the market. On May 9, 1960,
WLS launched a new lineup of programming related to ABC.[66] In 1960, the Canadian John Bassett,
who was trying to establish a television station in Toronto, sought the help of ABC.[67] Goldenson
agreed to acquire a 25% stake in CFTO-TV, but Canadian legislation denied this participation, so ABC
withdrew from the project before the launch of the channel.[67]
19601965: Children's programming and the debut of ABC Sports
On September 30, 1960, ABC began broadcasting The
Flintstones, another example of counterprogramming; although
that show was filmed in color from the beginning, it was initially
broadcast in black-and-white, because ABC technically would
not show its programming in color at the time.[68] The
Flintstones allowed ABC to present a novelty, that of children's
programming, but it also allowed the network to begin replacing
the family orientation that had been the flagship of Disney's
programming.[68]
The contract allowing ABC to air Walt Disney Presents was due
to expire in 1961.[69] In 1959, the Disney company, having
regained a better financial situation, had purchased ABC's shares
The "ABC Circle" logo, designed by

Paul Rand, was introduced in a 1962
identification card.
in Disneyland for $7.5 million[46] and initiated discussions to

renew the television collaboration. Walt Disney was approached by NBC to produce color broadcasts of
his anthology series, which would be renamed Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.[69] Goldenson
said ABC could not counter the offer, because the network did not have the technical and financial
resources.[69] Thus, ABC and Disney's television collaboration expired in 1961.[46]
However, in 1961 ABC continued with its niche in animated series with Calvin and the Colonel, Matty's
Funday Funnies, Top Cat, and The Bugs Bunny Show,[68] the last of which showcased classic Looney
Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts. As for its activity in amusement parks, the network compensated for
the sale of Disneyland in October 1962 by purchasing the Silver Springs Nature Theme Park, an
amusement and zoological park in Ocala, Florida with a total area of 3,900 acres (1,578ha).[70][71]
Always in search of new programs that would help it to compete with NBC and CBS, ABC's
management noted that sports was a carrier issue.[72] On April 29, 1961, ABC began broadcasting a
sports show called Wide World of Sports created by Edgar Scherick through his company Sports
Programs, Inc. and produced by a young Roone Arledge.[73][74] ABC bought the company in exchange
for shares,[75] leading it to become the future core of ABC Sports, with Arledge as the executive
producer of that division's shows.[76] Wide World of Sports, in particular, was not merely devoted to a
single sport, but rather to generally all sporting events.[72]
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Due to pressure from film studios wanting to maximize their production, U.S. networks were beginning
to broadcast films on television.[77] In 1962, ABC joined CBS and NBC in broadcasting films on the
Sunday night slot, though its Sunday night movie program debuted a year behind its competitors, and
was initially broadcast in black and white instead of color.[77] However, ABC remained in third place
despite a significant increase, with a 33% audience rate as opposed to the 15% rate from 1953, and
revenues of $15.5 million which represented a third of CBS's total revenues.[77] To catch up, ABC
followed up The Flintstones with another animated series from Hanna-Barbera, The Jetsons, which
debuted on September 23, 1962 as the first TV series to be broadcast in color on the network.[78] On
April 1, 1963, ABC debuted its long-running soap opera General Hospital,[79] and on September 17 of
the same year, it premiered a drama series titled The Fugitive.[80]
The 19641965 season was marked by the debuts of several classic series including Bewitched on
September 17[81] and The Addams Family on September 18. Arledge's success was confirmed in 1964
when he became vice-president of ABC Sports.[82]
19661969: New regulations and the radio network's recovery
It was not until the 19651966 season that color became
dominant over black and white for the three television networks.
ABC remained in third place among the three networks and still
needed money to grow. However, ABC's issues with color
became secondary compared to the network's financial problems,
because in 1964 the network found itself, as Goldenson later
wrote, "in the middle of a war [where] the battlefield was Wall
Street".[83] Many companies sought to take control of ABC,
including Norton Simon,[77] General Electric, International
Telephone and Telegraph,[84] and Litton Industries.[85]
In this context, the company was renamed from American
Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres to American Broadcasting
Company in 1965,[86] while its cinema division became ABC
Theatres, and its recording division was renamed ABC Records
in 1966.[87] After the death of David O. Selznick on June 22,
1965, his assigns sold the catalog of the films he produced after
During this period, ABC moved its
1935 to ABC Films, with few exceptions.[88] As far as

corporate headquarters to 1330
programming was concerned, ABC launched The Dating Game
Avenue of the Americas.
in December 1965, and followed that show up with The
Newlywed Game in July 1966. Due to the saturation of its
premises at 7 West 66th Street in New York, Goldenson found a new headquarters for ABC in a fourstory building located at 1330 Avenue of the Americas at the corner of 54th Street[89][90] (now occupied
by The Financial Times'
s New York office). This operation allowed for the conversion of the premises
at 66th Street into television and radio studios.[90]
On December 7, 1965, Goldenson proposed to ABC management a merger with ITT, to which the two
companies agreed on April 27, 1966.[85] The FCC approved the merger on December 21, 1966, but the
previous day, Donald F. Turner, head antitrust regulator for the United States Department of Justice,
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expressed doubts related to such things as the emerging market for cable broadcasting.[91] Another doubt
concerned the journalistic integrity of ABC and how it could be influenced by the overseas ownership of
ITT.[92] The ITT management promised that their company would allow ABC to retain autonomy in the
publishing business.[91] The merger was suspended, and a complaint was filed by the Department of
Justice in July 1967. After a trial that began in October 1967 and ended on January 1, 1968, the merger
was canceled.[93]
On January 12, 1966, ABC began broadcasting the highly successful series Batman, starring Adam
West.[94] In 1967, Ralph Beaudin, CEO of WLS, was appointed as the head of ABC Radio.[95] Under
his leadership, ABC Radio was divided into four "networks", each one devoted to one of four different
types of programming: newscasts, informative series, pop music, and talk shows.[96] Two other
networks were later created for rock and traffic news.
In 1968, ABC took advantage of new regulations to buy the radio stations KXYZ-AM and KXYZ-FM in
Houston for $1 million in shares and $1.5 million in bonds,[97] reaching its limit of seven owned-andoperated stations. Roone Arledge was named president of ABC Sports, and the company also founded
its own film studio, ABC Pictures (renamed ABC Motion Pictures between 1979 and 1985[98]), whose
first production was Charly, a 1968 film directed by Ralph Nelson. There are two subsidiaries, Palomar
Pictures International, and Selmur Pictures. In July 1968, ABC continued its acquisitions in the
amusement parks sector by opening ABC Marine World in Redwood City, California;[99] that park was
sold in 1972 and demolished in 1986, and its area later became home to the headquarters of Oracle
Corporation.
In July 1968, ABC Radio launched a special programming project for its FM stations, entrusted to Allen
Shaw,[100] a former program manager at WCFL (AM) in Chicago.[101] Shaw was commissioned by
Harold L. Neal, president of ABC Radio, to compete with the new progressive rock and DJ stations.[102]
The new program called LOVE Radio, with selected music, was launched on the seven FM stations
owned by ABC in late November 1968; it replaced nearly all of the programming for these stations, but
several affiliates retained the majority of their programming, such as KXYZ in Houston.[102] From
August 1970, Shaw confirmed that ABC FM's music choice policy should be reviewed to allow listeners
access to many styles of music.[103]
As far as television is concerned, since the early 1960s, the American broadcasting industry regularly
offered made-for-TV movies; to satisfy its fans, in September 1969 ABC launched its Movie of the Week
program, a weekly program with dramas produced on an average budget of $400,000$450,000 by
talented filmmakers.[104] It featured productions by such directors as Aaron Spelling, David Wolper, and
Steven Spielberg (the last of whom gained early success for his 1971 film Duel, which was shown on the
program).
1970s: Success in television

In the early 1970s, ABC completed its transition to color broadcasting and began to pass CBS and NBC
in terms of audience. It also began to use behavioral and demographic data for better placement of
advertising spaces.[105] ABC's gains in audience share were greatly helped by the fact that several
smaller markets had grown large enough for full service from all three networks.
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In 1970, ABC debuted the sports program Monday Night Football[106] (which moved to ESPN in 2006),
and several soap operas such as All My Children. According to Goldenson, broadcasting Monday Night
Football allowed ABC regular audience ratings of 15%16%, with a budget managed by ABC Sports
for Monday nights to reallocate the weekly budget for ABC Primetime to just six days, as opposed to
seven on competing networks.[107]
In 1970, the FCC imposed its Financial Interest and Syndication
Rules, a set of regulations that aimed to prevent the Big Three
networks from monopolizing the broadcast landscape, by
preventing them from owning any of the programming that they
aired in the primetime.[108] This decision caused ABC Films to
split in 1972 into two separate companies: WorldVision for
syndication, and ABC Circle Films for production.[109][110]
WorldVision, which had existed since 1959, was sold to ABC
officials for nearly $10 million.[110]
In April 1970, Congress passed the Public Health Cigarette
Smoking Act which banned cigarette advertising from all
television and radio networks, including ABC, when it took
Publicity photo of the mobile studios

used by ABC in 1976
effect on January 2, 1971.[111] In 1974, due to the low

profitability of its cinemas, the Central West division of ABC
Theatres, named ABC Great States, was sold to Henry Plitt.[109]
On January 17, 1972, Elton Rule was named President and COO
of ABC a few months after Goldenson suffered a heart attack.[29]
In the early 1970s, Michael Eisner, who joined ABC in 1966,
became the network's program development manager.[112] He
offered many ideas for series including Happy Days,[112] which
debuted in January 1974,[113] and several soap operas as well,
but his main credit at ABC was for developing youth-oriented
programming.[114] He was responsible for moving Bugs Bunny
and company back to ABC after their cartoon shorts had spent
several years on CBS; developing the cartoon The Jackson 5ive
and a series about the Osmonds; and approving Super Friends, a
David Carradine, star of Kung Fu
show centered on the Justice League of America.[112] Eisner left ABC in 1976 to become president of
Paramount Pictures.[115]
In the spring of 1975, Fred Pierce, the newly named president of ABC Television, convinced Fred
Silverman to become the first president of an independent television production subsidiary named ABC
Entertainment, created from the namesake division responsible for the network's programming.[116] In
1974, ABC started broadcasting the detective series S.W.A.T. The same year, the network made the
decision to compete with NBC's morning news program Today. Its first attempt at such competition was
a program called AM America, but that show's success was not straightforward.[117] Before the end of
1975, ABC discovered that another news program, The Morning Exchange, produced for the local
Cleveland market through its affiliate WEWS-TV, seemed to appeal to its viewers;[117] in November
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1975, that show's concept was adopted for the network's national morning newscast, which was renamed
Good Morning America.[117] Meanwhile, ABC News sought to become a global leader in television
newscasts.[118]
In 1977, the southern division of ABC Theatres, known as ABC Southern, was sold to Henry Plitt, who
at the time was associated with Thomas Klutznick, a real estate entrepreneur in Chicago.[109] With this
sale, ABC was stripped of control over its theaters because of changes in the theater operation sector,
mainly the fact that the population was investing in the suburbs and moving away from old cinemas in
the larger cities.[109] In 1987, Plitt Theatres was bought by Cineplex Odeon Corporation.[109]
For its part, the television network produced many programs, and in 1977 several series were launched:
January saw the debut of Roots, a miniseries based on an Alex Haley novel that was published the
previous year; and September saw the premiere of The Love Boat. Roots went on to become one of the
highest-rated programs in all of American television, with unprecedented Nielsen ratings for its
finale.[119][120] The success of Roots, Happy Days, and The Love Boat allowed the network to become
first in the ratings among U.S. networks for the first time in the 19761977 season. On the international
level, however, many governments wanted to increase their independence and strengthen their
legislation, so ABC was forced to sell all of its interests in international networks, mainly in Japan and
Latin America.[67]
In 1977, Arledge was named president of the new ABC News division in addition to being president of
ABC Sports.[121] Also in 1977, ABC launched an expansion program for its offices in New York. On the
corner of Columbus Avenue and West 66th Street, it demolished an abandoned warehouse and built in
its place a 10-floor building which is nicknamed 7 Lincoln Square, but is actually located at 149
Columbus Avenue. Meanwhile, the former parking lot, located at 30 West 67th Street, was transformed
into an impressive 15-story building. Both buildings were completed in June 1979. WABC-TV moved
its offices from 77 West 66th Street to 149 Columbus Avenue, freeing up space for the ABC network
itself.
On January 20, 1978, the series Fantasy Island debuted on ABC. In June 1978, Arledge created the
news magazine 20/20.[122] In February 1979, ABC sold its recording division to MCA Inc. (MCA
standing for the company's former name, Music Corporation of America) for $20 million; by March 5 of
that same year, the label had disappeared and all of its 300 employees had been laid off.[123] The rights
to the works of ABC Records and all of MCA's other labels have since been acquired by Universal
Music Group.
For ABC, the 1970s were highlighted by several successful series including Kung Fu (an actionadventure western drama starring David Carradine, which ran from 1972 to 1975), The Six Million
Dollar Man (19741978), Happy Days (19741984), Wonder Woman (19751979), Starsky & Hutch
(1975-1979), Charlie's Angels (19761981), The Bionic Woman (19761978), Three's Company (19771984), Fantasy Island (19781984), and Battlestar Galactica (19781979). Many of these series were
approved by Fred Silverman, who was appointed in 1975 as the network's director of programming via
its ABC Entertainment division,[124] but left his post in 1978 to become CEO of NBC.
1980s: Merger with Capital Cities, purchase of ESPN, reprogramming Friday

Nights
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ABC dominated the American television landscape during the 1970s and early 1980s. Several flagship
series debuted on ABC during this time; for example, Dynasty premiered on January 12, 1981, five
months before the 1970s hit Charlie's Angels ended its run. Also in 1981, ABC launched the Alpha
Repertory Television Service (ARTS), a cable television service that offered cultural programming such
as ballet and opera.[125]
On August 9, 1982, ABC purchased a 10% stake in the
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (later known by
its abbreviated name, "ESPN") for the sum of $20 million, and in
return, ESPN gained the U.S. broadcast rights to the British
Open, which ABC had not been able to broadcast
completely.[126] This purchase provided ABC the opportunity to
purchase additional shares of up to 49% under certain
conditions.[127] One of them was the purchase of at least 10% of
the shares of Getty Oil before January 2,
1984.[127]
ESPN (identification card pictured)

was acquired by ABC in 1982.
In 1983, ABC sold KXYZ to Infinity Broadcasting

Corporation.[128] On January 4, 1984, The New York Times reported that ABC, through its subsidiary
ABC Video Enterprises, had exercised its option to purchase shares of Getty Oil in ESPN up to 15%, or
between $25 million and $30 million, which would allow it to increase its shares later.[127] In June 1984,
ABC's executive committee approved the purchase of ESPN, and ABC arranged with Getty Oil to obtain
80% of the company, while the remaining 20% was sold to Nabisco.[129] In 1984, in consideration of the
arrangements for ESPN, ARTS merged with RCA's Entertainment Channel project while the Hearst
Corporation added its participation, in a new cable channel called Arts & Entertainment Television
(A&E).[125] Meanwhile, ABC withdrew from the theme park business for good when it sold Silver
Springs Nature Theme Park in Florida.[99]
In January 1985, the FCC published an amendment to its regulations which was to increase the
maximum number of stations that could be owned by a single television network from seven to
twelve.[130] Thomas S. Murphy, CEO of Capital Cities Communications, contacted Goldenson in
December 1984 to propose a merger of their respective companies.[130] On March 16, 1985, the ABC
executive committee accepted the purchase offer from Capital Cities.[131]
On March 18, 1985, Capital Cities officially launched its bid on ABC for $3.5 billion. The offer
consisted of $118 for each of ABC's shares plus a guarantee of 10%, or $3, for a total of $121 per
share.[130] To finance this purchase, Capital Cities borrowed $2.1 billion to a consortium of banks,
which sold more of those assets that violated FCC rules for $900 million and separated several interests
in cable, which were sold to The Washington Post Company.[132] The remaining $500 million was
provided by Warren Buffett, who promised that his company Berkshire Hathaway would purchase
$3,000,000 in shares, at $172.50 apiece.[132][133]
On September 5, 1985, ABC merged with Capital Cities and was renamed Capital Cities/ABC. ABC
acquired more television stations (such as KFSN-TV, KTRK-TV, and WJRT-TV), the media group
Fairchild Publications, and four newspapers such as The Kansas City Star and the Fort Worth StarTelegram.[134] In return, ABC sold WXYZ-TV to the E. W. Scripps Company. In 1985, as far as
programming is concerned, The Love Boat ended its run just one year after Happy Days and Three's
Company had ended theirs. Meanwhile, Jim Duffy left the network's presidency for the management of
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ABC Communications, a subsidiary that specialized in community service programming, such as shows
related to literary education.[118] At that time, NBC regained the lead in the ratings among the Big
Three. To counteract NBC, ABC decided to focus on comedy and family series with titles such as Mr.
Belvedere, Roseanne, Who's the Boss?, Just the Ten of Us, The Wonder Years, Full House, Home
Improvement, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, Step by Step, Boy Meets World, and Perfect Strangers. The
latter two programs both spawned successful follow-ups, Girl Meets World and Family Matters
respectively. Following the initial success of these series, ABC reprogrammed Friday nights for this type
of programming in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, on a programming block known as "TGIF"
("Thank God It's Funny").[135]
The ABC/Capital Cities merger went into effect on January 3, 1986, and several changes occurred in the
management at that time:[136] Frederick S. Pierce became president of ABC's broadcasting division,
Michael P. Millardi became vice president of ABC Broadcasting and president of ABC Owned Stations
and ABC Video Enterprises, John B. Sias became president of the ABC Television Network, Brandon
Stoddard became president of ABC Entertainment (a position to which he had been appointed in
November 1985), and Roone Arledge became president of ABC News and ABC Sports. In February
1986, Thomas S. Murphy, who had been CEO of Capital Cites since 1964, was appointed chairman and
CEO emeritus of ABC.[137] In 1988, a new headquarters was built for ABC, just off the WABC-TV
studios on West 66 Street. The television network's restructuring program, launched in 1974, helped
with the purchases and exchanges of nearly 70 stations in the late 1980s, adding more than 2 million
viewers.[118]
1990s: Acquisition by Disney

In 1990, Thomas S. Murphy delegated his position as president to Daniel B. Burke while remaining
ABC's chairman and CEO.[137] Capital Cities/ABC reported revenues of $465 million.[138] In 1993, the
FCC changed its rules to remove the ban on networks holding interests in television production
studios.[139] That same year, ABC bought DIC Entertainment (DIC being an acronym for Diffusion,
Information and Communication), an animation studio of French origin,[140] and signed a contract with
Time Warner Cable to allow its television stations to be broadcast on TWC's cable network.[141] In
February 1994, with the departure of Daniel Burke, Thomas Murphy took the position of president[137]
before ceding control to Robert Iger. In order to compete with CNN, ABC attempted to launch a channel
called ABC Cable News in 1995, but that plan was shelved; however, ABC would reattempt the idea in
July 2004 with ABC News Now, a channel for the Internet and mobile phones.
On July 31, 1995, The Walt Disney Company and Capital Cities/ABC announced their intention to
merge for a total of $19 billion.[46][142] On August 29, 1995, ABC acquired WJRT-TV and WTVG from
SJL Broadcast Management and converted them into owned and operated stations.[143] On January 4,
1996, the Disney shareholders approved the merger at a special conference in New York.[142] On
February 9, 1996, Disney completed its acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC and renamed its new
subsidiary ABC Inc.[142] This acquisition allowed Disney to acquire 10 TV stations (9 VHF and one
UHF); 21 radio stations (11 AM and 10 FM); 80% of ESPN, varying percentages of The History
Channel, A&E Television Networks, and Lifetime Entertainment; and dozens of magazines and
newspapers.[46] In consideration of the redemption, and according to the FCC, Disney sold KCAL-TV in
Los Angeles to Young Broadcasting for $387 million.[144] On April 4, Disney sold the four newspapers
that ABC had controlled under Capital Cities to Knight Ridder for $1.65 billion.[145] Thomas S. Murphy
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withdrew from ABC and was replaced as president and CEO by Robert Iger.[146] Around the time of
their merger, ABC and Disney produced such shows as Home Improvement and the multiple Emmy
Award-winning comedy series Sports Night.
On May 10, 1999, Disney reorganized its publishing division, the Buena Vista Publishing Group, and
renamed it Disney Publishing Worldwide; the rechristened division became a subsidiary of Disney
Consumer Products while Hyperion Books became affiliated with ABC.[147] On July 8, 1999, Disney
consolidated Walt Disney Television Studio, Buena Vista Television Productions, and ABC's primetime
division into the ABC Entertainment Television Group. On December 31, 1999, ABC's contract with
Time Warner Cable officially ended, but it was renewed on time for the parties to reach an
agreement.[141]
During the 19992000 season, thanks to the unexpected success of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,
which premiered as a special occasional series in August 1999 and became a regular program on January
18, 2000,[148] ABC became the first network to move from third to first place in the ratings for a single
season. Based on the same-titled British program, the show was a wild ratings success throughout its
first year, but nearly three years after its debut, the U.S. version of Millionaire left the network's
primetime lineup and was switched to syndication. In spite of Millionaire'
s departure from ABC
Primetime, The Practice, My Wife and Kids, NYPD Blue and The Wonderful World of Disney managed
to help the network stay ahead of the competition in the ratings.
2000s: Separation of the radio network

On April 30, 2000, following a disagreement between ABC
and Time Warner Cable, TWC pulled the plug on the
WTVD station, which served the cities of Raleigh, Durham,
and Fayetteville in North Carolina. As the ABC network
reported on May 1, the FCC issued an order (published May
3) requiring TWC to restore the station, which was done in
the afternoon of May 2, after 24 hours of service
interruption.[141] In June 2000, Disney sold its 33% stake in
Eurosport for $155 million.[149]
On July 23, 2001, Disney
acquired Fox Family
Worldwide and integrated the
ABC's Times Square Studios in New York
group into ABC Entertainment under the name ABC Family[150] for $5.3
The ABC HD Logo
billion.[151] Upon acquiring Saban Entertainment, Disney gained the rights

to the catalog of 8,500 episodes of programming produced by that
company.[150] The group's youth-oriented channel was later renamed Jetix and fell under the control of
the Disney Channel. The deal was finalized on October 24, 2001.[150]
In 2004, ABC's audience went down by ten points, and the network found itself in the fourth place in
terms of market shares. However, during the 20042005 season, the network experienced an unexpected
success with new series such as Desperate Housewives, Lost, and Grey's Anatomy, which helped ABC
rise to the rank of second place in terms of viewership, behind only NBC, while CBS remained in third
place. On April 21, 2004, Disney announced a restructuring of its Disney Media Networks division with
George Bodenheimer as its co-CEO, and Anne Sweeney as the president of the DisneyABC Television
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Group (owner of ABC and Disney Channels Worldwide); Bodenheimer, who had already been president
of ESPN, also became president of ABC Sports.[152] On September 27, 2004, ABC announced the
launch of ABC1, a channel owned by the ABC Group in the United Kingdom.[153]
Between May and September 2005, rumors circulated about DisneyABC selling ABC Radio, with
Clear Channel Communications and Westwood One (which had bought NBC, CBS, and Mutual's radio
divisions) as potential buyers. On October 19, 2005, ABC announced the restructuring of the group into
six divisions: Entertainment Communications, Communications Resources, Kids Communications,
News Communications, Corporate Communications, and International Communications. On December
7, 2005, ABC Sports and ESPN signed an agreement with NASCAR for eight years of broadcasts of the
Nextel Cup, i.e., 17 of the 36 races held each season.[154]
On February 6, 2007, Disney and Citadel Broadcasting announced that the ABC Radio Network would
merge with Citadel. The new entity was named Citadel Communications,[155] and its ownership was as
follows: 52% owned by Disney, 32% by Forstmann Little, and 16% by former shareholders of Citadel
Broadcasting. On October 10, 2006, the DisneyABC Television Group entered into an agreement to
broadcast ABC News Now in India via Dish TV.[156]
In February 2007, Disney announced that it would rename the production studio Touchstone Television
as ABC Television Studio.[157] In May 2007, ABC unveiled a new imaging campaign, revolving around
the slogan "Start Here", which signifed the multi-platform availability of ABC content.[158] On
September 8, 2007, Disney announced that it would discontinue ABC1 in October because of the
channel's inability to attain a suitable audience.[159] On September 28, 2007, ABC's Hyperion division
moved its offices located in the ABC headquarters (at 77 West 66th Street) to invest two floors of 114
Fifth Avenue, the home of Disney Publishing Worldwide, during the course of a partial move to White
Plains, New York.[160]
The writer's strike of 20072008 affected the network in the 20082009 season, as various shows that
premiered in 2007, such as Dirty Sexy Money, Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone, and Samantha Who?, did not
live to see a third season on the network; and more series such as Boston Legal and the U.S. version of
Life on Mars suffered from low viewership, despite the former being a once-highlighted breakout
show.[161] On August 15, 2008, Disney denied rumors started by Caris & Co. that it would be selling
ABC's ten owned-and-operated stations.[162]
In early 2009, DisneyABC Television Group merged ABC Entertainment and ABC Studios into a new
division called ABC Entertainment Group, which would be responsible for both production and
broadcasting.[163][164][165][166][167] The group planned to reduce its workforce by 5% during this
reorganization.[168] On April 2, 2009, Citadel Communications decided to rename ABC Radio as
Citadel Media;[169] however, ABC News continued to provide press service for Citadel. On July 6,
2009, the website Hulu broadcast ABC programming for the first time,[170] following an April 2009
agreement giving Disney a 27% stake in Hulu. On 22 December 2009, DisneyABC Television Group
announced a partnership with Apple Inc. for pay-TV on iTunes, with content from Disney Channel and
ABC.[171]
2010s: Decline
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In March 2010, Disney considered spinning ABC off into an independent broadcasting company
because "it [did not] add a lot of value to Disney's other divisions".[172] It entered advanced negotiations
with two private equity firms to sell ABC; however, the sale was canceled because of an attempted
insider trade to the FBI by an ex-employee.[173]
In 2010, Lost ended after six seasons, the last of which was its lowest rated since its debut in 2004. The
once-instant hit Ugly Betty collapsed dramatically in ratings due to its move to the Friday night death
slot. Even after an attempt to boost ratings by moving it to Wednesdays, the show was ultimately
canceled, resulting in negative reactions from the public, and particularly from the show's fanbase.[174]
With the network's two former hit shows now out of the picture, the network's remaining top two veteran
shows Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy, and another hit show Brothers & Sisters, then
recorded their lowest ratings ever, a trademark that still continued into the network's 20102011
schedule. Similarly, ABC's dramas during that season continued to fail, with only Body of Proof being
renewed for a second season.[175] The network also struggled to establish new comedies to go with the
previous year's debuts, with only late-season premiere Happy Endings earning a second season.[175]
Meanwhile, the new lows hit by Brothers & Sisters led to its cancellation,[176] and the previous year's
only drama renewal, V, also failed to earn another season after a low-rated mid-season run.[176] Despite
this and another noticeable ratings decline, ABC would manage to outrate NBC for third by a larger
margin than the previous year.[177]
With relatively little buzz surrounding its 20102011 pilots, compounded by a sexual harassment suit
against him, Stephen McPherson resigned as ABC Entertainment Group president on July 27, 2010. His
replacement, Paul Lee (previously the president of sister cable channel ABC Family), was announced
the same day.[178][179]
With the cancellation of Supernanny in 2011, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition was the only series on
the network's schedule to be broadcast in 4:3 standard definition until the program ended its run as a
regular series in January 2012. On April 14, 2011, ABC canceled the long-running soap operas All My
Children and One Life to Live after a combined 84 years on the air.[180] The talk/lifestyle show that
replaced One Life to Live, The Revolution, failed to generate satisfactory ratings and was in turn
canceled. The 201112 season saw ABC drop to fourth place in the 18-49 demographic despite
renewing a handful of new shows for second seasons.[181]
In 2012, Spanish-language network Univision and ABC News announced a partnership to launch an
English-language news channel primarily aimed at Hispanic audiences; in February 2013, it was
revealed that the new network would be known as Fusion, and would launch later that year.[182][183]
The 2012-13 season failed to live up to the previous year, with only one drama, Nashville, and one
comedy, The Neighbors, earning a second season renewal. The 2013-14 season was a slight
improvement for ABC with three new hits in The Goldbergs, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Resurrection
all being renewed, but saw the cancellations of The Neighbors and Suburgatory as NBC, which had
lagged behind ABC for eight years would finish the season #1 in the 18-49 demographic for the first
time since 2004, and finish second place overall behind long-dominant CBS. Fortunately, ABC would
finish the season in third place as Fox had crashed to fourth in both demos.
In May 2013, ABC launched its Watch ABC player apps, which allow viewers to access live streams
from a local ABC affiliate from within the app, making ABC the first U.S. broadcast network to offer
this ability. Similarly to its sister WatchESPN app, the live streaming capability is only available to
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authenticated pay television subscribers in certain markets; the service launched with WABC-TV and
WPVI-TV in New York City and Philadelphia (with a free preview for non-subscribers running through
June), and is expected to launch across the remaining ABC O&Os (including markets such as Chicago,
Los Angeles, Houston, and San Francisco) by the start of the 201314 season. Hearst Television also
reached a deal to offer the service across its ABC-affiliated stations, which include outlets in Boston,
Kansas City and Milwaukee.[184][185]
Affiliated television stations

Since its inception, ABC has had many affiliated stations, which include the same two affiliated stations
that were the first to broadcast ABC's programming. As of 2010, ABC has 235 affiliated stations, owned
by eighty different companies, and is present in all U.S. states except New Jersey, which is served by
ABC O&O's WABC-TV from New York for North Jersey, and Philadelphia's WPVI-TV providing
South Jersey coverage.
Facilities and studios

All of ABC's owned-and-operated stations and affiliates have had their own facilities and studios, but
transverse entities have been created to produce national programming. Thus, television series were
produced by ABC Circle Films beginning in 1962 and by Touchstone Television beginning in 1985,
before ABC Studios was formed in February 2007. Since the 1950s, ABC has had two main production
facilities: the ABC Television Center on Prospect Avenue in Hollywood, California, shared with KABCTV until 1999; and the ABC Television Center, East, a set of studios throughout the city of New York. A
new center, Times Square Studios, opened in Times Square in 1999.
ABC owns several facilities in New York grouped mainly on West 66th Street. The main set of facilities
is on the corner of Columbus Avenue and West 66th Street. In total, ABC's facilities occupy a combined
9,755 square meters (105,000sqft) of the 14,864 square meters (159,990sqft) of the blocks they
occupy. The aforementioned set includes:
The official headquarters at 77 West 66th Street, a 22-story building built in 1988 on a plot of 175
feet (53m) 200 feet (61m)
A pair of buildings at 149155 Columbus Avenue (with one building comprising 10 stories and
the other 7, and both containing glass bays connecting them to each other), constructed on a plot
of 100 feet (30m) 200 feet (61m)
3034 West 67th Street, a 15-story building with a facade on the 66th and 67th Street on a plot of
100 feet (30m) 100 feet (30m)
The former First Battery of New York National Guard, a five-story building located at number 56
on the other side of the street, on a plot of 174 feet (53m) 100 feet (30m)
ABC also owns 47 West 66th Street, one of three 14-story buildings on a plot of 375 feet (114m)
x 100 feet (30m). From 1983 to 2013, Disney leased 70,000 square feet (6,500m2) at 157
Columbus Avenue, just on the other side of 67th Street.[186]
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Entrance of ABC's
WABC-TV buildings at
headquarters at 77 West 149155 Columbus
66 Street
Avenue and behind 157
Columbus Avenue
ABC facilities in the

former First Battery of
New York National
Guard
ABC also owns the Times Square Studios at 1500 Broadway on land owned by a development fund for
the 42nd Street Project; it is in this studio that Good Morning America is aired. ABC News has premises
a little further on West 66 Street, in a 6-story building occupying a plot of 196 feet (60m) 379 feet
(116m) at 121135 West End Avenue. The block of West End Avenue housing the ABC News building
was renamed Peter Jennings Way in 2006 in honor of one of ABC News' most well-known
newscasters.[187]
Economic data
ABC's employees, like all employees of Disney and its subsidiaries, are eligible for membership in the
ABE Federal Credit Union, a cooperative savings and loan service founded in 1967.[188] With the
acquisition by Disney, this union became associated with Disney's Partners Federal Credit Union. The
acquisition of Marvel Entertainment allowed Marvel employees to join ABE-FCU.[189]
Main offices
New York:
77 West 66th Street, New York[190] (in the ABC headquarters)
125 West End Avenue, New York[190] (in the ABC News headquarters)
115 West 18th Street, New York (South Manhattan)[190]
California:
2300 Riverside Drive, Burbank[190] (in the ABC Studios Building at the Disney
headquarters)
2312 West Olive Avenue, Burbank[190] (north of the Burbank complex, near the Partners
FCU)
4151 Prospect Avenue, Los Angeles[190] (at The Prospect Studios)
190 N. State Street, Chicago, Illinois[190] (at the WLS-TV studios)
680 Birch Street, Bristol, Connecticut[190] (at the ESPN headquarters)
383 Middle Street, Bristol, Connecticut[190] (at the ESPN North Campus)
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1717 DeSales St. NW, Washington D.C.[190] (at ABC News' Washington Bureau)
Financial results
Annual financial statements of Capital Cities/ABC
(in millions of U.S. dollars)
Year
Revenues
TV/Radio
Press
Total
Net income
TV/Radio Press Total
1983[139]
302,785
459,510
762,295
124,696 104,034 228,730
1984[139]
348,106
591,616
939,722
144,182 133,179 277,361
1985[139]
378,297
642,583 1,020,880 150,970 138,512 289,482
1986[139]
3,153,619[CA 1] 970,755 4,124,374 474,535 158,999 602,678
1987[139]
3,433,749
1,006,597 4,440,346 632,910 146,717 745,990
1988[139]
3,749,557
1,023,896 4,773,453 722,171 129,720 816,029
1989[139]
3,899,898
1,057,405 4,957,394 836,149 130,444 922,512
1990[139]
4,283,633
1,101,969 5,385,602 830,457 132,371 923,215
1991[139]
4,329,743
1,052,246 5,381,989 669,708 122,905 761,233
1992[139][191]
4,265,561
1,078,566 5,344,127 619,317 136,389 755,706
1993[139]
4,663,215
1,010,438 5,673,653 778,077 125,647 903,724
1994[192]
5,277
1,102.1
6,379.7
1,127
155
1,239
5,727.5
1,151.1 6,878.5
1,164.8
139 1,238.8
1995[193]
Since 1996, ABC's financial results are included in those of Disney Media
Networks.
1. ^ Following the acquisition of ABC
Corporate management
19431953: Edward Noble
19531986: Leonard Goldenson
19861990: Thomas Murphy (chairman/CEO)[137]
19901994: Thomas Murphy (chairman), Daniel Burke (CEO)[137]
19941996: Thomas Murphy (chairman),[137] Bob Iger (CEO)
19962000: Bob Iger, president
20002004: Anne Sweeney, president of ABC Cable Networks Group and Disney Channels
Worldwide[194] with George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN
2004present: Anne Sweeney and George Bodenheimer, co-CEOs of Disney Media Networks
Television programming
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The ABC Television Network provides a schedule of 89 regular weekly hours of network programming.
The network provides 22 hours of prime time programming to affiliated stations: 811 p.m. Monday to
Saturday (all times ET/PT) and 711 p.m. on Sundays.
Daytime programming is also provided from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays (with a one-hour break at noon
ET/PT for local stations to air news or other programming such as syndicated shows) featuring the
talk/lifestyle shows The View and The Chew and the soap opera General Hospital. ABC News
programming includes Good Morning America from 7 to 9 a.m. weekdays (along with one-hour
weekend editions); nightly editions of ABC World News Tonight (whose weekend editions are
occasionally subject to abbreviation or preemption due to sports telecasts overrunning into the program's
timeslot), the Sunday political talk show This Week, early morning news programs World News Now and
America This Morning and the late night newsmagazine Nightline. Late nights feature the weeknight talk
show Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
The network's Saturday morning children's programming timeslot, consisting of three hours, is filled by
syndicator Litton Entertainment, which produces the Litton's Weekend Adventure block of programming
under an arrangement where the programming is syndicated out exclusively to ABC stations, rather than
being leased out directly by the network to Litton.
Sports programming is also provided on some weekend afternoons at any time from 3 to 6 p.m. ET (12
to 3 p.m. PT) and, during college football season, during prime time on Saturday nights through
Saturday Night Football. Due to the erratic and (outside of college football season) inconsistent
scheduling of sports programming on weekend afternoons, ABC carries the ESPN Sports Saturday block
on Saturdays, and on Sunday either encores of primetime reality series, burned off series which had no
room in the primetime schedule, occasional theatrical films which were acquired in the early to mid2000s that no longer have a primetime slot to air in or more recently, skating specials supplied by Disson
Skating, when no sports telecasts are scheduled, usually airing between 46 p.m. ET/PT. During the
summer season, ABC airs two highlight compilation programs for ESPN involving golf's The Open
Championship and The Wimbledon Championships from the United Kingdom to provide some
broadcast presence for both events on American television. Various X Games events are also carried
during their weekend events on ABC.
ABC holds the broadcast rights to the Academy Awards, American Music Awards, Disney Parks
Christmas Day Parade, Tournament of Roses Parade, Country Music Association Awards and the CMA
Music Festival. Since 2000, ABC has also owned the television rights to most of the Peanuts television
specials. Since 1974, ABC has generally aired Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve on New Year's Eve
(the only exception being in 1999, when ABC pre-empted the special for its own coverage of the
international millennium festivities). ABC has also aired the Miss America pageant from 1954 to 1956,
1997 to 2005, and since 2011. The pageant will return to Atlantic City in 2013 after being held in Las
Vegas since 2006, ABC will continue to broadcast the pageant through 2016.[195]
The network's daytime programming block, ABC Daytime, currently airs the soap opera General
Hospital, and talk shows The View and The Chew. General Hospital is the longest-running entertainment
program in the entire history of the ABC television network, having aired since 1963. ABC also
broadcasts the morning news program Good Morning America and has done so since 1975, though that
program is not considered to be part of the ABC Daytime block. Notable soap operas seen on the block
in the past include All My Children, One Life to Live, Ryan's Hope, Dark Shadows, Loving, The City and
Port Charles. ABC also aired the last nine years of the Procter & Gamble-produced The Edge of Night.
ABC Daytime has also aired a number of game shows, including The Dating Game, The Newlywed
Game, Let's Make a Deal, Password, Split Second, The $10,000/$20,000 Pyramid, Family Feud, The
Better Sex, Trivia Trap, All-Star Blitz and Hot Streak.
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Programming library
ABC owns nearly all its in-house television and theatrical productions made from the 1970s onward,
with the exception of certain co-productions with producers (for example, The Commish is now owned
by the estate of its producer, Stephen Cannell). Worldwide video rights are currently owned by various
companies, for example, MGM Home Entertainment via 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment owns
U.S. video rights to many of ABC's feature films.
When the FCC imposed its fin-syn rules in 1970, ABC proactively created two companies: Worldvision
Enterprises for syndication, and ABC Circle Films for production. However, between the publication
and implementation of these regulations, the separation of the network's catalog was made in 1973. The
broadcast rights to pre-1973 productions were transferred to Worldvision, which became independent in
the same year. The company has been sold several times since Paramount Television acquired it in 1999,
and has most recently been absorbed into CBS Television Distribution, a unit of CBS Corporation.
Nonetheless, Worldvision sold portions of its catalog, including the Ruby-Spears and Hanna-Barbera
libraries, to Turner Broadcasting System in 1990. With Disney's 1996 purchase of ABC, ABC Circle
Films was absorbed into Touchstone Television, a Disney subsidiary which in turn was renamed ABC
Studios in 2007.[157]
Also part of the library is the aforementioned Selznick library, the Cinerama Productions/Palomar
theatrical library and the Selmur Productions catalog that the network acquired some years back, and the
in-house productions it continues to produce (such as America's Funniest Home Videos, General
Hospital, and ABC News productions), although DisneyABC Domestic Television (formerly known as
Buena Vista Television) handles domestic television distribution, while DisneyABC International
Television (formerly known as Buena Vista International Television) handles international television
distribution.
List of selected programs

Adventure, fantasy, and science fiction series
The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (19541959)
The Fugitive (19631967)
Batman (19661968)
Kung Fu (19721975)
The Six Million Dollar Man (19741978)
Wonder Woman (19751977; later moved to CBS)
Charlie's Angels (19761981)
The Bionic Woman (19761977; later moved to NBC)
Fantasy Island (19781984)
Battlestar Galactica (19781979)
The Fall Guy (19811986)
MacGyver (19851992)
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (19931997)
V (20092011)
Once Upon a Time (2011Present)
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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013Present)

Comedies, dramas, and soap operas
General Hospital (1963present)
Dynasty (19811989)
Loving (19831995)
The Thorn Birds (1983)
Desperate Housewives (20042012)
Ugly Betty (2006-2010)
October Road (2007-2008)
Revenge (2011Present)
Situation comedies
Bewitched (19641972)
That Girl (1966-1971)
The Flying Nun (1967-1970)
The Brady Bunch (1969-1974)
The Odd Couple (1970-1975)
The Partridge Family (1970-1974)
Happy Days (19741984)
Barney Miller (1975-1982)
Welcome Back, Kotter (1975-1979)
Laverne and Shirley (1976-1983)
Three's Company (19771984)
Soap (1977-1981)
Diff'rent Strokes (19781985; NBC aired first seven seasons, while ABC aired 1984-85 season
only)
Mork and Mindy (1978-1982)
Taxi (1978-1983)
Benson (1979-1986)
It's a Living (1980-1982)
Too Close for Comfort (1980-1983)
Bosom Buddies (1980-1982)
Who's the Boss? (19841992)
Mr. Belvedere (1985-1990)
Growing Pains (1985-1992)
Perfect Strangers (1986-1993)
Head of the Class (1986-1991)
Full House (1987-1995)
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The Wonder Years (1988-1993)

Roseanne (19881997)
Family Matters (1989-1998; moved to CBS for final season)
Coach (1989-1997)
Doogie Howser, M.D. (1989-1993)
Dinosaurs (19911994)
Step by Step (19911998; moved to CBS for final season)
Home Improvement (1991-1999)
Hangin' with Mr. Cooper (1992-1997)
Boy Meets World (19932000)
Grace Under Fire (1993-1998)
Ellen (1994-1998)
The Drew Carey Show (1995-2004)
Spin City (1996-2002)
Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996-2000; moved to the WB)
Dharma and Greg (19972002)
Two Guys and a Girl (1998-2001)
Sports Night (1998-2000)
The Norm Show (1999-2001)
Madigan Men (2000-2001)
Scrubs (2001-2008 on NBC; 2009-2010 on ABC)
My Wife and Kids (20012005)
According to Jim (2001-2009)
8 Simple Rules (20022005)
George Lopez (2002-2007)
Less than Perfect (2002-2006)
Hope and Faith (2003-2006)
I'm with Her (2003-2004)
Samantha Who? (2007-2009)
The Middle (2009present)
Modern Family (2009present)
Last Man Standing (2011present)
The Goldbergs (2013-present)
blackish (2014-present)
Fresh Off the Boat (2015-present)
Detective, legal, and medical series
The Untouchables (19591963)
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The Streets of San Francisco (19721977)

Starsky & Hutch (19751979)
Hart to Hart (19791984)
Matt Houston (19821985)
Matlock (19921995; previously aired on NBC for six years)
NYPD Blue (19932005)
The Practice (1997-2004)
Alias (20012006)
Boston Legal (20042008)
Grey's Anatomy (2005present)
Private Practice (20072013)
Castle (2009present)
Scandal (2012present)
How to Get Away with Murder (2014present)
Game shows
Let's Make a Deal (19631977; later returned in versions on NBC and on CBS)
The Dating Game (19651973)
The Newlywed Game (19661974; continued in various incarnations until 2013)
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (19992002; later revived as a syndicated series)
Sports programming
Monday Night Football (19702005; after that, it was moved to ESPN)
Saturday Night Football (2006present)
Talk shows
Good Morning America (1975present)
The View (1997present)
Jimmy Kimmel Live! (2003present)
Variety shows
American Bandstand (19571987)
Others
Ripley's Believe It or Not! (19821986)
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (2003present)
Supernanny (20042012)
Wipeout (2008present)
Shark Tank (2009-present)
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Rising Star (2014-present)
Analysis
Since its inception, the American Broadcasting Company has evolved with the development of various
assets, many of which have been sold. The company originates from a radio network that went on the air
in 1927, was forced by law to separate from its parent company, and then became an independent
company. The new company diversified rapidly in the emerging medium of television.
Thanks to two mergers, one with United Paramount Theatres in 1950 and the other with Capital Cities in
the 1980s, the company diversified again. Under UPT, ABC was sister company to a large theater chain,
while under Capital Cities, it was sister company to various publications. However, ABC was separated
from its theaters by the time of the Capital Cities merger, and from its sister newspapers during Disney's
purchase of the network in the 1990s.
The 1993 annual report indicates that 70% of the Capital Cities/ABC media group's revenue came from
the sale of advertising space, and for the rest, the two main positions were subscriptions to pay-TV
channels and direct sales of books and journals.[139]
Visual identity
The ABC logo has
evolved many times since
the network's creation in
the mid-1940s. The first
ABC logo, introduced in
1946, was a television
screen containing the
letters T and V, with a
vertical ABC microphone
in the center,[196]
Early logo of the ABC television
referencing the network's
network, used in 1946
roots in radio. When the
ABC-UPT merger was
finalized in 1953, the network introduced a new logo based on
the FCC seal, with the letters "ABC" enclosed in a circular shield
The "ABC Circle" logo, designed by

Paul Rand in 1962
surmounted by the American eagle.[196] In 1957, just before the

network began its first broadcasts in color, the ABC logo featured a tiny abc in the center of a large
lowercase letter a, which was called the "ABC Circle A".[196]
In 1962, graphic designer Paul Rand redesigned the ABC logo into its best-known form, with the letters
"abc" enclosed in a single black circle. The letters are strongly reminiscent of the Bauhaus typeface
designed by Herbert Bayer in the 1920s,[197] but also share similarities with several other fonts, such as
ITC Avant Garde and Horatio. The logo's simplicity made it easier to redesign and duplicate, which
conferred a benefit for ABC (mostly before the advent of computer graphics).
The 1970s and 1980s saw the emergence of many versions of the logo based mainly on special lighting
effects then under development: white, blue, pink, or rainbow neon; glittering dotted lines; etc. Among
the "ABC Circle" logo's many variants was a 1977 version that featured a bubble on a black background
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representing the circle with glossy gold letters, and as such, was the first ABC identification card to have
a three-dimensional appearance.[196]
In 1983, for the fortieth anniversary of the network's founding, the logo appeared in a gold CGI version
on a blue background, accompanied by the script slogan "That Special Feeling".[196] Ten years later,
with ABC's acquisition by Disney only a few years away, the "ABC Circle" logo returned to its classic
white-on-black color scheme, but with gloss effects on both the circle and the letters, and a bronze
border surrounding the circle.[196]
In 1997, the network began using a minimalist identification card featuring a small black-and-white
ABC Circle logo on a yellow background.[196] A new four-note theme tune was introduced alongside the
package, creating a sound signature on par with the NBC chimes, CBS's three-note sound mark, and the
Fox Fanfare was introduced at the same time, and has been updated with every television season
thereafter (though variants of the four-note signature used since the 1997-98 season remain in use during
the production company cards that follow the closing credits of most programs).
In 2000, ABC launched a web-based promotional campaign focused around its circle logo, also called
"the dot", where comic book character Little Dot prompted visitors to "download the dot", a program
which would cause the ABC logo to fly around the screen and settle in the bottom-right corner.[198] The
network hired the Troika Design Group to design and produce its 200102 identity, which continued
using the black-and-yellow coloring of the logo and featured dots and stripes in various promotional and
identification spots.[199]
On June 16, 2007, ABC began to phase in a new imaging campaign for the upcoming season, "Start
Here". Also developed by Troika, the on-air design was intended to emphasize the availability of ABC
content across multiple platforms (in particular, using a system of icons representing different devices,
such as television, computers, and mobile devices), and "simplify and bring a lot more consistency and
continuity to the visual representation of ABC." The ABC logo was also significantly redesigned as part
of the transition, featuring a glassier appearance; on-air, the logo was accompanied by animated water
effects and ribbon effects. Red ribbons were used to represent the entertainment division, while blue
ribbons were used for ABC News.[158][200]
In 2013, a new ABC logo was introduced for promotions for the 201314 season during the network's
upfront presentation on May 14, 2013, and officially introduced on-air on June 17, 2013 (although some
affiliates implemented the new design prior to then), as part of an overhaul of ABC's identity by the
design agency LoyalKaspar. The new logo carries a simpler gloss design than the previous logo, and
contains lettering closer resembling Paul Rand's original version of the circle logo. The logo is used in
gold, steel blue, dark gray, and red color schemes on-air. The gold version is primarily used on
entertainment-oriented outlets (such as ABC.com, Watch ABC, and by ABC Studios) and the on-screen
bug; blue and dark grey versions are used primarily by ABC News; the red version is used for ESPN on
ABC, while all four colors are used selectively in advertising and by affiliates. A new custom typeface,
"ABC Modern", was also created for use in advertising and other promotional materials.[201]
Place in American media

ABC has always been part of the "Big Three television networks" of the United States, alongside CBS
and NBC. At the beginning of the television network's existence, there was a fourth network, DuMont,
but that disappeared ten years into ABC's history, after which ABC became the "little third network".[50]
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In terms of programming, ABC found itself in the position of an outsider in the 1950s, counterprogramming against its competitors, and managed to launch a number of detective shows and
westerns.[202] The 1960s were marked by family-oriented series in the vein of this counterprogramming, but a slow transition to color.[69]
The 1970s marked a turning point for ABC, as it became first in the ratings with such shows as Monday
Night Football, ABC Movie of the Week, and the miniseries Roots.[203]
In 1980, 90% of viewers watched the prime-time shows on the three major networks.[204] In 1993, ABC
represented 23.63% of American households, just below the limit of 25% imposed by the FCC.[139] In
2005, on the same slot, the Big Three's season-ending average audience share represented only 32% of
American households, in competition with public television, satellite, and cable.[204]
International development
The first attempts to internationalize the ABC Television Network date from the 1950s, after Leonard
Goldenson, following the United Paramount Theatres model, tried to use on ABC the same strategies he
had made in expanding UPT's theater operation to the international market.[205] Goldenson said that
ABC's first international activity was broadcasting the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in June 1953;
CBS and NBC were unable to cover the coronation live due to technical problems and flight delays,
respectively.[206] NBC's plane landed in Latin America, leading ABC to learn of subsidiaries in that
region.[206] ABC then invested in Latin America, reaching 51% of a network covering Central
America.[207] Goldenson also cited interest in Japan in the early 1950s[42] and in Beirut in the mid1960s.[208]
The idea was to create a network of wholly and partially owned channels, and affiliates to rebroadcast
the network's programs. In 1959, this rerun activity was completed with program syndication, with ABC
Films selling programs to networks not owned by ABC.[209] The arrival of satellite television ended the
need for ABC to hold interests in other countries;[109] thus, all the network's international interests were
sold in the 1970s.[67]
A second period of international expansion is linked to that of the ESPN network in the 1990s, and
policies enacted in the 2000s by Disney Media Networks. In contrast to Disney's other channels, ABC is
broadcast in the United States, although the network's programming is syndicated in many countries.
The policy regarding wholly owned international networks was revived in 2004 with the creation of
ABC1 in the UK,[153] but due to poor viewership, the attempt to develop ABC International was
discontinued in 2007.[159]
Movies by ABC or its divisions

See also
ABC Daytime
ESPN on ABC
DisneyABC Television Group
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ABC Owned Television Stations

Litton's Weekend Adventure
List of United States over-the-air television networks
References
Footnotes
1. ^ a b c d Goldenson & Wolf 19911993, p.96.
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Sterling 2004, p.291.
3. ^ a b Cox 2009, p.91.
5. ^ Barnouw 1968, p.190.
6. ^ "Golden Age of Radio Spotlight on Networks - National Broadcasting Company (NBC)"
(http://www.digitaldeliftp.com/LookAround/la_networkspot_nbc.htm). The Digital Deli Online
(http://www.digitaldeliftp.com/home.html). Retrieved May 30, 2011.
7. ^ Cox 2009, p.93.
8. ^ The Billboard, March 17, 1945, p. 6.
9. ^ "Hall of Fame 1986 - Don Searle" (http://www.ne-ba.org/about_us-hall_of_fame.asp?id=54). Nebraska
Broadcasters Association. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
10. ^ Sterling 2004, p.88.
11. ^ a b c Sterling 2004, p.89.
12. ^ a b Sterling 2004, p.292.
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Goldenson & Wolf 19911993, p.104.
14. ^ a b c Murray 1997, p.6.
15. ^ a b c Cox 2009, p.98.
16. ^ "ABC TV Network" (http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1948/1948-04-19-BC.pdf).
Broadcasting. April 19, 1948. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
17. ^ The Billboard, August 21, 1948, p. 3.
18. ^ The Billboard, September 27, 1952, p. 5.
19. ^ Kiska 2009, p.22.
20. ^ a b "Encyclopedia of Television - "Freeze" of 1948" (http://www.museum.tv/eotv/freezeof1.htm). Museum
of Broadcast Communications. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
21. ^ Lasar 2000, p.78.
22. ^ The Billboard, April 23, 1949, p. 120.
23. ^ The Billboard, May 14, 1949, p. 13.
24. ^ The Billboard, July 30, 1949, p.8.
25. ^ The Billboard, September 16, 1950, p. 5.
26. ^ a b Macdonald, J. Fred. "One Nation Under Television: The Rise and Decline of Network TV"
(http://jfredmacdonald.com/onutv/freeze.htm). Retrieved November 16, 2013.
27. ^ Legrand, Lherminier & Mannoni 1992, p.422.
28. ^ Weinstein 2006, p.28.
29. ^ a b Quinlan 1979, p.17.
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30. ^ Goldenson & Wolf 19911993, p.110.

31. ^ a b c Goldenson & Wolf 19911993, p.99.
32. ^ a b c d Sterling 2004, p.90.
33. ^ Goldenson & Wolf 19911993, p.100.
34. ^ a b Goldenson & Wolf 19911993, p.103.
36. ^ Joseph A. Loftus (February 10, 1953). "PARAMOUNT, A. B. C. CLEARED TO MERGE; F. C. C. Votes,
5-2, to Approve 25-Million Stock Switch to Strengthen Network Paramount Theatres and A. B. C. Win-F. C.
C. Clearance to Merge" (http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?
res=F00B11F7355E177B93C2A81789D85F478585F9&scp=6&sq=United+Paramount+Theatres&st=p). The
New York Times. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
37. ^ Kahn 2006, p.14.
38. ^ Goldenson & Wolf 19911993, p.102.
39. ^ Howard 1979, p.141.
40. ^ Cox 2009, p.94.
41. ^ a b c Long 1979, p.110.
43. ^ a b c Baughman & Atack 1983, p.58.
44. ^ Boddy 1992, pp.147-148.
45. ^ Goldenson & Wolf 19911993, p.121122.
46. ^ a b c d e f g Smith 1998, p.24.
47. ^ a b c d Walt Disney Company (February 17, 1998), Disney Factbook 1997 - Disney Through the Decades,
p.2
48. ^ a b c Smith 1998, p.152.
49. ^ Goldenson & Wolf 19911993, pp.123124.
50. ^ a b Smith 1998, p.151.
51. ^ Smith 1998, p.132.
52. ^ Smith 1998, p.363.
53. ^ Boddy 1992, pp.160.
54. ^ The Billboard, April 3, 1954, p. 10.
55. ^ Goldenson & Wolf 19911993, p.116.
56. ^ Kahn 2006, p.284.
57. ^ Wittebols 2004, p.22.
58. ^ Boddy 1992, p.147.
59. ^ a b Goldenson & Wolf 19911993, pp.161163.
60. ^ Baughman & Atack 1983, p.59.
61. ^ a b Cotter 1997, p.66.
62. ^ a b Baughman & Atack 1983, p.63.
63. ^ a b Baughman & Atack 1983, p.60.
64. ^ Baughman & Atack 1983, pp.63-64.
65. ^ Childers 2008, p.8.
66. ^ The Billboard, May 9, 1960, p. 11.
abcd
67. ^
Goldenson & Wolf 19911993,
p.232.
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68. ^ a b c Stabile & Harrison 2003, p.76.
70. ^ Goldenson & Wolf 19911993, p.423.
71. ^ Sherer, Ed (October 31, 1962). "ABC-Paramount new owners of Springs as final papers signed"
(http://news.google.com/newspapers?
id=k3ZPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GAUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1991%2C6109159). Ocala Star-Banner. Retrieved
March 26, 2013.
73. ^ Meserole, Mike (December 6, 2002). "Arledge Created Monday Night Football"
(http://espn.go.com/classic/obit/arledgeobit.html). ESPN Classic. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
74. ^ Ford 2004, p.466.
75. ^ Ford 2004, p.468.
76. ^ Goldenson & Wolf 19911993, p.182.
78. ^ "September 23, 1962 in History"
(http://www.brainyhistory.com/events/1962/september_23_1962_125882.html). BrainyHistory.com.
Retrieved May 30, 2011.
79. ^ Goldenson & Wolf 19911993, p.369.
80. ^ Goldenson & Wolf 19911993, p.241.
81. ^ Goldenson & Wolf 19911993, p.243.
82. ^ "Roone Arledge at the Encyclopedia of Television" (http://www.museum.tv/eotv/arledgeroon.htm).
Museum of Broadcast Communications. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
83. ^ Goldenson & Wolf 19911993, p.250.
84. ^ Goldenson & Wolf 19911993, p.258.
86. ^ Kahn, p.284.
87. ^ The Billboard, June 18, 1966, p. 3.
88. ^ Higgins 2006, p.186.
89. ^ Goldenson & Wolf 19911993, pp.243-244.
90. ^ a b The Billboard, October 24, 1964, p. 20.
92. ^ Goldenson & Wolf 19911993, p.261.
93. ^ Goldenson & Wolf 19911993, p.263.
94. ^ Goldenson & Wolf 19911993, p.247.
95. ^ Cox 2009, pp.9899.
96. ^ Cox 2009, pp.98-99.
97. ^ Broadcasting 76. Cahners Publishing Company. 1969. p.74.
98. ^ Harmetz, Aljean (November 15, 1985). "Abc And Cbs Give Up On The Movie Business"
(http://www.nytimes.com/1985/11/15/movies/abc-and-cbs-give-up-on-the-movie-business.html). The New
York Times.
100. ^ The Billboard, July 13, 1968, p. 23.
101. ^ Walker 2004, pp.106107.
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101. ^ Walker 2004, pp.106107.
102. ^ a b The Billboard, November 30, 1968, pp. 55-56.

103. ^ The Billboard, August 8, 1970, p. 26.
104. ^ Karol 2008, p.3.
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External links
Official website (http://abc.com/)
ABC Live Stream Online
(http://www.webstreams.tv/videos/abc-live-stream-online-
Wikimedia Commons has

media related to American
Broadcasting Company.
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ABC (http://www.museum.tv/eotv/americanbroa.htm) at the Museum of Broadcast
Communications Encyclopedia of Television
ABCNetwork's channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/ABCNetwork) on YouTube
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
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American Broadcasting Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company (abbreviated

American Broadcasting Company

October 12, 1943

"The Only Place To Be, ABC"

77 West 66th Street

DisneyABC Television Group

NBC Blue Network

As one of the "Big Three television networks", ABC

American Broadcasting Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ABC's corporate headquarters are

ABC is hosted by NHK in Japan,

1.3.2 First bonds with Disney

American Broadcasting Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1.8 2000s: Separation of the radio network

American Broadcasting Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

David Sarnoff rejected the offer.[4]

19451949: Entry into television

American Broadcasting Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1950s: Merger with United Paramount Theatres

American Broadcasting Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A former Paramount theater in

United Paramount Theatres, and whether it was violating antitrust laws.[13]

1501 Broadway served as the

new television network.[32]

American Broadcasting Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

American Broadcasting Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wernher von Braun and Ernst

American Broadcasting Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In 2002, dancers and other cast

Disneyland TV series was retitled Walt Disney Presents[48] as it

1960s: Transition to color

American Broadcasting Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The "ABC Circle" logo, designed by

in Disneyland for $7.5 million[46] and initiated discussions to

American Broadcasting Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

During this period, ABC moved its

1935 to ABC Films, with few exceptions.[88] As far as

American Broadcasting Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1970s: Success in television

American Broadcasting Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Publicity photo of the mobile studios

effect on January 2, 1971.[111] In 1974, due to the low

David Carradine, star of Kung Fu

American Broadcasting Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1980s: Merger with Capital Cities, purchase of ESPN, reprogramming Friday

American Broadcasting Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ESPN (identification card pictured)

In 1983, ABC sold KXYZ to Infinity Broadcasting

American Broadcasting Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1990s: Acquisition by Disney

American Broadcasting Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2000s: Separation of the radio network

ABC's Times Square Studios in New York

billion.[151] Upon acquiring Saban Entertainment, Disney gained the rights

American Broadcasting Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

American Broadcasting Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

American Broadcasting Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Affiliated television stations

Facilities and studios

American Broadcasting Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ABC facilities in the