1、The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network|, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. It first broadcast on television in 1948. Corporate headquarters are in Manhattan in
2、 New York City,while programming offices are in Burbank, California adjacent to the Walt Disney Studios and the Walt Disney Company corporate headquarters. ABC is the mostwatched television network in the United States as of 2008.The current slogan is “Start Here“, except television idents continue
3、to use the former “Americas Broadcasting Company“ slogan. Before the “AmericasBroadcasting Company“ slogan, television idents used the full corporate name from 1997-2000.The formal name of the operation is American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., and that name appears on copyright notices for its in-h
4、ouse network productions and on all official documents of the company, including paychecks and contracts. A separate entity named ABC Inc., formerly Capital Cities/ABC Inc., is that firms direct parent company, and that company is owned in turn by Disney. The network is sometimes referred to as the
5、Alphabet Network, due to the letters “ABC“ being the first three Latin letters.HistoryCreating ABCFrom the organization of the first true radio networks in the late 1920s, broadcasting in the United States was dominated by two companies, CBS and RCAs NBC. Before NBCs 1926 formation, RCA had acquired
6、 AT throughout 1942 and 1943, NBC Red and NBC Blue divided their assets. A price of $8 million was put on the assets of the Blue group, and Woods shopped the Blue package around to potential buyers. One such, investment bank Dillon made an offer of $7.5 million, but Woods and RCA chief David Sarnoff
7、 held firm at $8 million. The Blue package contained leases on land-lines and on studio facilities in New York, Washington, Chicago andLos Angeles; contracts with talent and with about sixty affiliates; the trademark and “good will“ associated with the Blue name; and licenses for three stations (WJZ
8、 in New York, San Franciscos KGO, and WENR in Chicago - really a half-station, since WENR shared time and a frequency with “Prairie Farmer“ station WLS),with which it would later merge after World War II.RCA finally found a buyer in Edward Noble, owner of Life Savers candy and the Rexall drugstore c
9、hain. In order to complete the station-license transfer, Noble had to sell the New York radio station that he owned, WMCA. Also, FCC hearings were required. Controversy ensued over Nobles intention to keep Mark Woods on as president, which led to the suggestion that Woods would continue to work with
10、 (and for) his former employers. This had the potential to derail the sale. During the hearings, Woods said the new network would not sell airtime to the American Federation of Labor. Noble evaded questioning on similar points by hiding behind the NAB code. Frustrated, the chairman advised Noble to
11、do some rethinking. Apparently he did, and the sale closed on October 12, 1943. The new network, known simply as “The Blue Network“, was owned by the American Broadcasting System, a company Noble formed for the deal. It sold airtime to organized labor.In mid-1944, Noble renamed his network American
12、Broadcasting Company. This set off a flurry of re-naming; to avoid confusion, CBS changed the call-letters of its New York flagship, WABC-AM 880, to WCBS-AM in 1946. In 1953, WJZ in New York took on the abandoned call-letters WABC.ABC Radio began slowly; with few “hit“ shows, it had to build an audi
13、ence. Noble paid to acquire more stations, among them Detroits WXYZ; one of the founding stations of the Mutual network. WXYZ was where The Lone Ranger, Sergeant Preston, Sky King and other popular daily serials originated. With this purchase, ABC instantly acquired a bloc of established daily shows
14、. Noble also bought KECA (now KABC) in Los Angeles, to give the network a Hollywood production base. Counter-programming became an ABC specialty, for example, placing a raucous quiz-show like Stop the Music! against more thoughtful fare on NBC and CBS. Unlike the other networks, ABC pre-recorded man
15、y programs; advances in tape-recording brought back from conquered Germany meant that the audio quality of tape could not be distinguished from “live“ broadcasts. As a result, several high-rated stars who wanted freedom from rigid schedules, among them Bing Crosby, moved to ABC. Though still rated f
16、ourth, by the late 1940s ABC had begun to close in on the better-established networks.1948: Enter Leonard Goldenson and ABCs entry into televisionFaced with huge expenses in building a radio network, ABC was in no position to take on the additional costs demanded by a television network. To secure a
17、 place at the table, though, in 1947, ABC submitted requests for licenses in the five cities where it owned radio stations. All five requests were for each station to broadcast on channel 7; ABC executives thought at the time that the low-band (channels 2 through 6) TV channels would be discontinued
18、, thus making these five stations broadcasting on VHF channel 7 the lowest on the TV dial and therefore the best channel positions. (Such a move never occurred in the analog era; though with the poor digital TV performance of low-band channels it could conceivably happen in the future, DTVs use of l
19、ogical channel numbers will protect the lower dial positions.)On April 19, 1948, the ABC television network went on the air. Interestingly, the network picked up its first affiliate, WFIL-TV in Philadelphia (now WPVI-TV) before its first owned and operated station (“O more typical of the film divisi
20、ons offerings were Song of Norway and Candy, both heavily promoted while still in production but critical and box-office disasters upon release. They also started a new innovation in television, the concept of the Movie of the Week. This series of made for TV films aired once per week on Tuesday nig
21、hts. Three years later, Wednesday nights were added as well. Palomar Pictures International, the production company created by Edgar J. Scherick after leaving ABC, produced several of the Movies of the Week.The network itself, meanwhile, was showing signs of overtaking CBS and NBC. Broadcasting in c
22、olor from the mid-1960s, ABC started using the new science ofdemographics to tweak its programming and ad sales. ABC invested heavily in shows with wide appeal, especially situation comedies such as Happy Days, Barney Miller, Threes Company and Taxi. Programming head Fred Silverman was credited with
23、 reversing the networks fortunes by spinning off shows such as Laverne there was little offered that was innovative or compelling. Like his counterpart at CBS, William S. Paley, founding-father Goldenson had withdrawn to the sidelines. ABCs ratings and the earnings thus generated reflected this loss
24、 of drive. Under the circumstances, ABC was a ripe takeover target. However, no one expected the buyer to be a media company only a tenth the size of ABC,Wikipedia:Capital Cities Communications. The corporate name was changed to Capital Cities/ABC.As the 1990s began, one could conclude the company w
25、as more conservative than at other times in its history. The miniseries faded off. Saturday morning cartoons were phased out. But the network did acquire Orion Pictures television division in the wake of the studios bankruptcy, later merging it with its in-house division Wikipedia:ABC Circle Films t
26、o create ABC Productions. Shows produced during this era included My So-Called Life, The Commish, and American Detective(the latter co-produced with Orion before the studios bankruptcy). In an attempt to win viewers on Friday night, the TGIF programming block was created. The lead programs of this t
27、ime included Full House, Family Matters, and Step by Step. These shows were family-oriented, but other shows such as Roseanne were less traditional in their worldview, but were very successful in the ratings.1996 2003: Disney Purchase and the Network Decline2 In 1996, The Walt Disney Company acquire
28、d Capital Cities/ABC, and renamed the broadcasting group ABC, Inc., although the network continues to also use American Broadcasting Companies, such as on TV productions it owns.ABCs relationship with Disney dates back to 1953, when Leonard Goldenson pledged enough money so that the “Disneyland“ the
29、me park could be completed. ABC continued to hold Disney notes and stock until 1960, and also had first call on the “Disneyland“ television series in 1954. With this new relationship came an attempt at cross-promotion, with attractions based on ABC shows at Disney parks and an annual soap festival a
30、t Walt Disney World. (The former president of ABC, Inc., Robert Iger, now heads Disney.) In 1997, ABC aired a Saturday morning block called One Saturday Morning which changed to ABC Kids in 2002. It featured a 5-hour line-up of childrens shows (mostly cartoons) for children ages 5-12. but it was cha
31、nged to a 4-hour line-up in 2005. Since then, it was aimed for children more in the 10-16 range.Despite intense micro-managing on the part of Disney management, the flagship television network was slow to turn around. In 1999, the network was able to experience a brief bolster in ratings with the hi
32、t game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. A new national phenomenon, Survivor, on CBS persuaded the schedulers at ABC to change Millionaires slot over to the Wednesday Time slot at 8:00 to kill Survivor before it got a ratings hold. The first results were promising for CBS; they lost by only a few
33、ratings points. ABC tried to keep the strength running, so they tried an unprecedented strategy for Millionaire by airing the show four times a week during the next Fall season, in the process overexposing WWTBAM, as it appeared on the network sometimes five or six nights during a week. ABCs ratings
34、 fell dramatically as competitors introduced their own game shows and the public grew tired of the format. Alex Wallau took over as president in 2000. Despite the repeated overexposure of Millionaire and its switch to syndication, ABC continued to find some success in dramas such as The Practice (wh
35、ich gave birth to a successful spinoff, Boston Legal, in 2004), Alias, and Once and Again. ABC also had some moderately successful comedies including The Drew Carey Show, Spin City, Dharma the $2.6 billion merger closed on June 12, 2007. ABC News a unit of the ABC Television Network will continue pr
36、oducing ABC News Radio, which Citadel has agreed to distribute for at least ten years.With the sale of ABC Radio, ABC becomes the second heritage American television network to sell its original radio properties. NBC sold its radio network to Westwood One in 1987, and its stations to various compani
37、es through 1988. CBS is now the only broadcast television network with its original radio link, though both Fox News (through Clear Channel Communications) and CNN (via CBS Westwood One division) have a significant radio presence.ABCs libraryToday, ABC owns nearly all its in-house television and the
38、atrical productions made from the 1970s forward, with the exception of certain co-productions with producers (for example, The Commish is now owned by its producer, Stephen Cannell).Also part of the library is the aforementioned Selznick library, the Cinerama Releasing/Palomar theatrical library and
39、 the Selmur Productions catalog the network acquired some years back, and the in-house productions it continues to produce (such as Americas Funniest Home Videos, General Hospital, and ABC News productions), although Disney-ABC Domestic Television (formerly known as Buena Vista Television|) handles
40、domestic TV distribution, while Disney-ABC International Television (formerly known as Buena Vista International Television) handles international TV distribution.Worldwide video rights are currently owned by various companies, for example, MGM Home Entertainment owns US video rights to many of ABCs
41、 feature films.Most of the in-house ABC shows produced before 1973 are now the responsibility of CBS Paramount Television (via its acquisition of Worldvision Enterprises in 1999).ProgrammingABC presently operates on a 92-hour regular network programming schedule. It provides 22 hours of prime time p
42、rogramming to affiliated stations: 8-11pm Monday to Saturday (all times ET/PT) and 7-11pm on Sundays. Programming will also be provided 11am-4pm weekdays (currently the talk show The View and soaps All My Children,One Life to Live and General Hospital); 7-9am weekdays (Good Morning America) along wi
43、th one-hour weekend editions; nightly editions of ABC World News, the Sunday political talk show This Week with George Stephanopoulos|, early morning news programs World News Now and America This Morning and the newsmagazine Nightline; the late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live; and a four-hour Satu
44、rday morning live-action/animation block under the name ABC Kids.In addition, sports programming is also provided weekend afternoons any time from 12-6pm (all times ET/PT).Prime timeReturning comedies are in red; new comedies are in pink; returning dramas are in green ; new dramas are in blue; returning reality shows are in yellow; new game shows are in beige; news programming is in brown; sports programming is in purple.All times are Eastern| and Pacific (subtract one hour for Central and Mountain time).
