In American television terminology, a fourth network is a reference to a fourth commercial broadcast (over-the-air)

television network A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay television providers. Until the mid- ...

, as opposed to the

Big Three television networks In the United States, there are three major traditional commercial broadcast television networks — CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System), NBC (National Broadcasting Company), and ABC (American Broadcasting Company) — that due to their lon ...

that dominated U.S. television from the 1950s to the 1980s: ABC,

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

and

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

. When the U.S. television industry was in its infancy in the 1940s, there were four major full-time television networks that operated across the country: ABC, CBS, NBC and the DuMont Television Network. Never able to find solid financial ground, DuMont ceased broadcasting in August 1956. Many companies later began to operate television networks which aspired to compete against the Big Three. However, between the 1950s and the 1980s, none of these start-ups endured and some never even launched. After decades of these failed "fourth networks", many television industry insiders believed that creating a viable fourth network was impossible. Television critics also grew jaded, with one critic placing this comparison in the struggles of creating a sustaining competitor to the Big Three, "Industry talk about a possible full-time, full-service, commercial network structured like the existing big three, ABC, CBS and NBC, pops up much more often than the fictitious town of

Brigadoon ''Brigadoon'' is a musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, and music by Frederick Loewe. The song " Almost Like Being in Love", from the musical, has become a standard. It features two American tourists who stumble upon Brigadoon, ...

." The first lasting attempt at a fourth network as DuMont went into decline was arguably the Educational Television and Radio Center (ETRC). Founded in 1953, it slowly grew into the

National Educational Television National Educational Television (NET) was an American educational broadcast television network owned by the Ford Foundation and later co-owned by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It operated from May 16, 1954 to October 4, 1970, and ...

or NET network and then was superseded by

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

by 1970. The October 1986 launch of the

Fox Broadcasting Company The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an Television in the United States, American Commercial broadcasting, commercial terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by Fox C ...

was met with ridicule; despite the industry skepticism and initial network instability, the Fox network eventually proved profitable by the early 1990s, becoming the first successful fourth network and eventually surpassing the Big Three networks in the demographics and overall viewership ratings by the early 2000s.

Background

In the 1940s, four television networks began operations by linking local

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the eart ...

s together via

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile te ...

's coaxial cable telephone network. These links allowed stations to share

television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

s across great distances, and allowed advertisers to air commercial advertisements nationally. Local stations became affiliates of one or more of the four networks, depending on the number of licensed stations within a given

media market A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...

in this early era of television broadcasting. These four networks – the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), and the DuMont Television Network – would be the only full-time television networks during the 1940s and 1950s, as in 1948, the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

(FCC) suspended approvals for new station construction permits. Although other companies – including Paramount Pictures (with the

Paramount Television Network Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...

) and the

Mutual Broadcasting System The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Old-time radio, golden ...

– announced network plans or began limited network operations, these companies withdrew from television after the first few years, or in the Paramount Television Network's case the service withered through attrition over the same span as did DuMont's, losing most of its programming by 1953 and ceasing operations in 1956. The FCC's " freeze," as it was called, was supposed to last for six months. When it was lifted after four years in 1952, there were only four full-time television networks. The FCC would only license three local VHF stations in most U.S. television markets. A fourth station, the FCC ruled, would have to broadcast on the UHF band. Hundreds of new UHF stations began operations, but many of these stations quickly folded because television set manufacturers were not required to include a UHF tuner until 1964 as part of the All-Channel Act. Most viewers could not receive UHF stations, and most advertisers would not advertise on stations which few could view. Without the advertising revenue enjoyed by the VHF stations, many UHF station owners either returned their station licenses to the FCC, attempted to trade licenses with

educational Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...

stations on VHF, attempted to purchase a VHF station in a nearby market to move into theirs, or cut operating costs in attempts to stay in business . Since there were four networks but only three VHF stations in most major U.S. cities, one network would be forced to broadcast on a UHF outlet with a limited audience. NBC and CBS had been the larger networks, and the most successful broadcasters in radio. As they began bringing their popular radio programs and stars into the television medium, they sought – and attracted – the most profitable VHF television stations. In many areas, ABC and DuMont were left with undesirable UHF stations, or were forced to affiliate with NBC or CBS stations on a part-time basis. ABC was near bankruptcy in 1952; DuMont's network was unprofitable after 1953. On August 6, 1956, DuMont ceased regular network operations; the end of DuMont allowed ABC to experience a profit increase of 40% that year, although ABC would not reach parity with NBC and CBS until the 1970s. The end of the DuMont Network left many UHF stations without a reliable source of programming, and many were left to become independent stations. Several new television companies were formed through the years in failed attempts to band these stations together in a new fourth network.

Early network timeline

DateFormat =yyyy ImageSize =width:750 height:auto barincrement:20 Period =from:1945 till:1957 TimeAxis =orientation:horizontal PlotArea =right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 Colors = id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:red from:1946 till:end text:

bar:2 color:tan2 from:1948 till:end text:

bar:3 color:blue from:1948 till:end text: ABC bar:4 color:orange from:1946 till:1956 text: DuMont bar:5 color:skyblue from:1948 till:1956 text:

Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...

bar:6 color:claret from:1953 till:end text: ETRC (NET) bar:7 color:blue from:1956 till:end text:

NTA Film Network The NTA Film Network was an early American television network founded by Ely Landau in 1956. The network was not a full-time television network like CBS, NBC, or ABC. Rather, it operated on a part-time basis, broadcasting films and several f ...

bar:8 color:orange from:1956 till:1956 text:George Fox Organization bar:9 color:green from:1956 till:end text:

Sports Network Sports channels are television speciality channels (usually available exclusively through cable and satellite) broadcast sporting events, usually live, and when not broadcasting events, sports news and other related programming. The first spor ...

ScaleMajor =gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:1945

Rationale

Some within the industry felt there was a need for a fourth network; that complaints about diversity in programming could be addressed by adding another network. "We need a fourth, a fifth, and a sixth network," one broadcaster stated. While critics rejected "the nightly tripe being offered othe public on the three major networks," they were skeptical that a fourth network would offer better material: " e wonders if a new network lacking the big money already being spread three ways will be able to come up with tripe that is equal. Certainly a new network is not going to stress quality programming when the ratings indicate that the American public prefer hillbillies, cowboys and spies. A new network will have to deliver an audience if it is to attract the big spenders from the ranks of sponsors." Advertisers, too, called for the creation of a fourth network. Representatives from

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer he ...

and

General Foods General Foods Corporation was a company whose direct predecessor was established in the United States by Charles William Post as the Postum Cereal Company in 1895. The company changed its name to "General Foods" in 1929, after several corporate ...

, two of the largest advertisers in the U.S., hoped the competition from a fourth network would lower advertising rates on the Big Three. Independent television producers, too, called for a fourth network after battles with the Big Three.

Failed attempts

1950s

DateFormat =yyyy ImageSize =width:750 height:auto barincrement:20 Period =from:1950 till:1962 TimeAxis =orientation:horizontal PlotArea =right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 Colors = id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:red from:1950 till:end text:

bar:2 color:claret from:1953 till:1958 text: ETRC (NET) bar:2 color:claret from:1958 till:end text: NETRC (NET) bar:3 color:blue from:1956 till:1961 text:

bar:4 color:yellow from:1956 till:1956 text:George Fox Organization bar:5 color:green from:1956 till:end text:

bar:6 color:orange from:1950 till:1956 text: DuMont bar:7 color:skyblue from:1950 till:1956 text:

ScaleMajor =gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:1950

George Fox Organization network

George Fox, the president of the

George Fox Organization George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...

, announced tentative plans for a television film network in May 1956. The plan was to sign 45 to 50 affiliate stations; each of these stations would have input in deciding what programs the network would air. Four initial programs – ''Jack for Jill,'' ''I'm the Champ,'' ''Answer Me This,'' and ''It's a Living'' – were slated to be broadcast; the programs would be filmed in Hollywood. However, only 17 stations had agreed to affiliate in May. The film network never made it off the ground, and none of the planned programs aired.

Sports Network/Hughes Network

Also in 1956, Dick Bailey founded the Sports Network, a specialty television network which aired only

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

programs. Millionaire

Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film producer, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in th ...

purchased the network in 1968, changing its name to the

Hughes Television Network HTN Communications, better known as Hughes Television Network (HTN) and formerly Sports Network, was an American television network created by Richard Eugene Bailey. The company is now in the business of providing video and audio services to spo ...

. Speculation abounded that Hughes would add non-sports programs to the lineup, launching a fourth network. One television critic speculated "If Hughes does have the exciting sports programs they can change viewer's dialing habits. If dialing habits are changed might he extend his network facilities to include nonsport programming? It would be one way, less costly and with far less of a risk, to start the illusionary fourth network." Despite the speculation, the Hughes Network never offered non-sports programs and never developed into a fourth major television network.

Mutual Broadcasting System

The Mutual Broadcasting System, as one of the four major radio networks that existed at the time, was considered a candidate for creating a fourth network. When Mutual came under the ownership of General Tire's General Teleradio along with five television stations, General Tire president Thomas F. O'Neil started putting a potential Mutual all-movie network together. Mutual purchased a large group of English films and paid $1.5 million for the right of unlimited play for two years of

Roy Rogers Roy Rogers (born Leonard Franklin Slye; November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998) was an American singer, actor, and television host. Following early work under his given name, first as co-founder of the Sons of the Pioneers and then acting, the rebra ...

and Gene Autry

westerns The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...

NTA Film Network

On October 15, 1956,

National Telefilm Associates National Telefilm Associates (NTA) was an audio-visual marketing company primarily concerned with the syndication of American film libraries to television, including the Republic Pictures film library. It was successful enough on cable television ...

launched the NTA Film Network, a

syndication Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

service which distributed both films and television programs to independent television stations and stations affiliated with NBC, CBS or ABC; the network had signed agreements with over 100 affiliate stations. The ''ad hoc'' network's flagship station was

WNTA-TV WNET (channel 13), branded on-air as "Thirteen" (stylized as "THIRTEEN"), is a primary PBS member television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area. Owned by The WNET Group (formerly known as the ...

(channel 13) in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. The NTA Network was launched as a "fourth TV network," and trade papers of the time referred to it as a new television network. Despite this major fourth network effort, by 1961 WNTA-TV was losing money, and the network's flagship station was sold to the

Educational Broadcasting Corporation WNET (channel 13), branded on-air as "Thirteen" (stylized as "THIRTEEN"), is a primary PBS member television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area. Owned by The WNET Group (formerly known as the ...

that November. WNTA-TV became WNDT (later WNET), the flagship station of the

network, a forerunner of PBS.. NTA network operations did not continue without a flagship station, although parent company National Telefilm Associates continued syndication services. ''Divorce Court'' was seen as late as 1969.

1960s

DateFormat =yyyy ImageSize =width:750 height:auto barincrement:20 Period =from:1960 till:1972 TimeAxis =orientation:horizontal PlotArea =right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 Colors = id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:red from:1960 till:end text:

bar:2 color:claret from:1960 till:1963 text: NETRC (NET) bar:2 color:claret from:1963 till:1970 text:

NET Net or net may refer to: Mathematics and physics * Net (mathematics), a filter-like topological generalization of a sequence * Net, a linear system of divisors of dimension 2 * Net (polyhedron), an arrangement of polygons that can be folded up ...

bar:2 color:tan2 from:1970 till:end text:

bar:3 color:green from:1960 till:1968 text:Sports Network bar:3 color:blue from:1968 till:end text: Hughes bar:4 color:orange from:1966 till:1967 text: Overmyer bar:5 color:yellow from:1965 till:1965 text:Unisphere Broadcasting System bar:5 color:yellow from:1968 till:end text:

Mizlou Mizlou Television Network, Inc. or Mizlou Communications, Inc., is a former sports broadcast television network. It was active from 1962 to 1991, and in 1992 it was re-established as Mizlou Television Network, Inc., which is now based in Tampa, ...

bar:6 color:orange from:1970 till:1970 text:Kaiser bar:7 color:red from:1960 till:1961 text:

ScaleMajor =gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:1960

Pat Weaver's network

Pat Weaver Sylvester Laflin "Pat" Weaver Jr. (December 21, 1908 – March 15, 2002) was an American broadcasting executive who was president of NBC between 1953 and 1955. He has been credited with reshaping commercial broadcasting's format and philosophy ...

, a former president of NBC, twice attempted to launch his own television network. According to one source, the network would have been called the Pat Weaver Prime Time Network. Although the new network was announced, no programs were ever produced.

Unisphere/Mizlou

In mid-1965, radio businessman Vincent C. Piano proposed the Unisphere Broadcasting System. The service would have operated for 2½ hours each night. However, Piano had difficulty signing affiliates; a year later, no launch date had been set, and the network still lacked a "respectable number of affiliates in major markets." The network finally launched under the name

Mizlou Television Network Mizlou Television Network, Inc. or Mizlou Communications, Inc., is a former sports broadcast television network. It was active from 1962 to 1991, and in 1992 it was re-established as Mizlou Television Network, Inc., which is now based in Tampa, ...

in 1968, but the concept had changed. Like the Hughes Network, Mizlou only carried occasional sporting and special events. Despite developing a sophisticated microwave and landline broadcasting system, the company never developed into a major television network.

National Educational Television

Educational television (ETV) had existed since 1952, but was poorly funded. Only a few educational television stations existed during the 1950s. By 1962, 62 educational stations were in operation, most of which had affiliated with the non-commercial educational,

(NET). That year, the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...

approved $32 million in funding for educational television, giving a boost to the

non-commercial A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that does not, in some sense, involve commerce, at least relative to similar activities that do have a commercial objective or emphasis. For example, advertising-free community ...

television network. Although at the 1962 revamp of the organization, NET was branded a "fourth network", later historians have disagreed. McNeil (1996) stated, "in a sense, NET was less a true network than a distributor of programs to educational stations throughout the country; it was not until late 1966 that simultaneous broadcasting began on educational outlets."

Overmyer/United Network

Millionaire Daniel Overmyer built a chain of five UHF stations during the mid-1960s. In late 1966, Overmyer announced plans for a new fourth network, named the Overmyer Network. The name was later changed to the United Network, but the network itself broadcast only for a single month, and aired only one program, ''

The Las Vegas Show ''The Las Vegas Show'' was an American late night television program broadcast in May 1967 on the short-lived United Network. The two-hour-long talk show, hosted by comedian Bill Dana, was supposed to be the flagship program of a planned fourth ...

''. The lack of reliable VHF stations helped kill the new, unprofitable network. Shortly after the network ceased operations, one critic called Overmyer/United a fiasco, and likened it to the earlier DuMont, NTA Film Network and Weaver network failures.

Westinghouse or Metromedia

By the late 1960s, several fourth networks had vanished. Television set manufacturers were required to include a UHF tuner after 1964, and it was thought this would help UHF stations and any company hoping to band (mostly) UHF stations together in a fourth network. Two companies, Westinghouse and

Metromedia Metromedia (also often MetroMedia) was an American media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and controlled Orion Pictures from 1988 to 1997. Metromedia was established in 1956 after the DuMon ...

, were floated in 1969 as possible fourth network entries. Westinghouse was the owner of several VHF stations and produced several series which aired on its stations and those owned by other companies; along with

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...

and GE subsidiary

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

, Westinghouse was also a cofounder of NBC in 1926 before both GE and Westinghouse had to divest their shares for antitrust reasons in 1930. (GE would later repurchase RCA in 1986.) However, Donald McGannon, president of Westinghouse, estimated it would take $200 million per year to operate a full-time television network and a modest news department. McGannon denied his company had full network aspirations. Decades later, Westinghouse would later purchase CBS and adopt that network's identity while divesting itself of its legacy industrial businesses. Metromedia, the successor company to the defunct DuMont Network, was a healthy chain of independent television stations. Although Metromedia "dabbled at creating a fourth network," the company was content with offering series to independent stations on a part-time basis, "nowhere near the conventional definition of a network."

Kaiser Broadcasting

In September 1967, the Kaiser Broadcasting Company announced plans for live network operations by 1970. Kaiser owned eight UHF television stations, most of them in large cities, including

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, and

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

. The planned network never gained traction, and Kaiser sold the stations in 1977.

1970s

In the 1970s, the "occasional" television networks started to appear with greater frequency with Norman Lear,

Mobil Showcase Network The Mobil Showcase Network, also known as Mobil Showcase or Mobil Showcase Theatre, was an occasional or ad hoc television network from 1976 to 1984 with an ad hoc group of stations. Background A Mobil Oil media expert, Herb Schmertz, wrote cann ...

Capital Cities Communications Capital Cities/ABC Inc. was an American media company. It was founded in 1985 when Capital Cities Communications purchased the much larger American Broadcasting Company. It eventually proposed a merger of equals with The Walt Disney Company and ...

, and

Operation Prime Time Operation Prime Time (OPT) was a consortium of United States, American independent station (North America), independent television stations to develop prime time programming for independent stations. OPT and its spin-off syndication company, Tel ...

, all entering the fray along with Metromedia. In 1978, SFM Media Service, which assisted with the Mobil Showcase Network, launched its own occasional network, the

SFM Holiday Network The SFM Holiday Network was an 'occasional' network from SFM Media which aired on holiday weekends (such as the 4th of July, Christmas, etc.) from 1978 until 1991. The network would usually clear 88% of the U.S. History After the success of t ...

and the

Golden Showcase Network. SFM was a provider of ad hoc network as a service to other clients including

Del Monte Foods Del Monte Foods, Inc (trading as Del Monte Foods) is an American food production and distribution company headquartered in Walnut Creek, California. Del Monte Foods is one of the country's largest producers, distributors and marketer of br ...

. DateFormat =yyyy ImageSize =width:750 height:auto barincrement:20 Period =from:1970 till:1982 TimeAxis =orientation:horizontal PlotArea =right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 Colors = id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:red from:1970 till:end text:

bar:2 color:tan2 from:1970 till:end text:

bar:3 color:blue from:1970 till:1977 text: Hughes bar:3 color:purple from:1977 till:1978 text:

bar:3 color:blue from:1978 till:end text:Hughes bar:4 color:green from:1970 till:end text:

bar:5 color:yellow from:1976 till:end text: Mobil bar:6 color:orange from:1970 till:1970 text:Kaiser bar:6 color:red from:1976 till:1976 text:

MetroNet Metronet may refer to: *Metronet (British infrastructure company), who maintained London Underground infrastructure between 2003 and 2008. *Metronet (Western Australia), government agency formed in 2017, responsible for managing extensions to Perth ...

bar:6 color:red from:1980 till:end text: Golden Showcase Network bar:7 color:skyblue from:1976 till:end text:

bar:8 color:red from:1973 till:1976 text: MGM Family Network bar:8 color:orange from:1978 till:end text:

ScaleMajor =gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:1970

MGM Family Network

MGM Television MGM Television Worldwide Group and Digital (alternatively Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television Group and Digital, commonly known as MGM Television and then-known as MGM/UA Television; common metonym: Lion) is an American television production/dis ...

entered the field with its self-proclaimed fourth network, the MGM Family Network (MFN), on September 9, 1973, with the movie ''

The Yearling ''The Yearling'' is a novel by American writer Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, published in March 1938. It was the main selection of the Book of the Month Club in April 1938. It won the 1939 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel. It was the best-selling n ...

'' on 145 stations. MFN was created to fill the family programming void from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. due to the implementation of the

Prime Time Access Rule The Prime Time Access Rule (PTAR) was a broadcasting regulation that was instituted in the United States by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1970 to restrict the amount of network programming that a local television station either ...

, using movies from the MGM library scheduled to air on one Sunday every two months. The premiere of MFN registered a 40 rating. The network broadcast only four times a year in September, January, March and May, and had 14 films assigned to the network from the MGM library.

MetroNet

In 1976, Metromedia teamed up with

Ogilvy and Mather Ogilvy is a New York City-based British advertising, marketing, and public relations agency. It was founded in 1850 by Edmund Mather as a London-based agency. In 1964, the firm became known as Ogilvy & Mather after merging with a New York City ag ...

for a proposed linking of independent television stations called MetroNet. The proposed programming would consist of several family dramas on Sunday nights, a half-hour serial and a gothic series similar to ''

Dark Shadows ''Dark Shadows'' is an American gothic soap opera that aired weekdays on the ABC television network, from June 27, 1966, to April 2, 1971. The show depicted the lives, loves, trials, and tribulations of the wealthy Collins family of Collinspo ...

'' on weeknights, and a variety program hosted by

Charo María Rosario Pilar Martínez Molina Baeza, professionally known by her stage name Charo, is a Spanish-American actress, singer, comedian, and flamenco guitarist. Charo began playing guitar at the age of nine and trained under the famed A ...

on Saturdays. The plans for MetroNet failed when advertisers balked at Metromedia's advertising rate, which was only slightly lower than that of each of the Big Three, and low national coverage, leaving for Operation Prime Time.

Operation Prime Time

Operation Prime Time (OPT) was a consortium of American

independent television stations An independent station is an independent radio or terrestrial television station which is independent in some way from broadcast networks. The definition of "independence" varies from country to country, reflecting governmental regulations, market ...

to develop prime time programming for independent stations. OPT and its spin-off syndication company, Television Program Enterprises (TPE), were formed by

Al Masini Alfred Michael Masini (January 5, 1930 – November 29, 2010) was an American television producer. Life and career Early life and education Al Masini was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. Raised by his widowed mother, Masini started working afte ...

. During its existence, OPT was considered the ''de facto'' fourth television network.''MarketWire via Yahoo! Finance''
December 1, 2010 Prime Time planned three book adaptions for their shows to air in May, July and November or December 1978 with two of them being

John Jakes John William Jakes (born March 31, 1932) is an American writer, best known for American historical and speculative fiction. His Civil War trilogy, ''North and South'', has sold millions of copies worldwide. He is also the author of The Kent Fam ...

's '' The Bastard'' and '' The Rebels'' leading the way for the rest of the

book series A book series is a sequence of books having certain characteristics in common that are formally identified together as a group. Book series can be organized in different ways, such as written by the same author, or marketed as a group by their pub ...

that OPT optioned including two then currently being written. Martin Gosch's and Richard Hammer's ''The Last Testimony of Lucky Luciano'' was the third adaptation scheduled for 1978.

Paramount Television Service

In 1977, Paramount Pictures made tentative plans to launch the Paramount Television Service, or Paramount Programming Service, a new fourth television network. Paramount also purchased the Hughes Network, including its satellite time. Set to launch in April 1978, it would have initially consisted of only one night a week of programming for three hours, with 30 Movies of the Week that would have followed ''

Star Trek: Phase II ''Star Trek: Phase II'' was the initial working title for what officially became titled ''Star Trek II,'' an unproduced American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as a sequel to (and continuation of) the original ''S ...

'' on Saturday nights. PTVS was delayed until the 1978–79 season due to advertisers that were cautious of purchasing commercial slots on the planned network. This plan was aborted when executives decided the venture would be too costly, with no guarantee of profitability. Paramount continued to produce television programs for the Big Three networks and Operation Prime Time, as well as first-run syndication. Paramount would eventually create a network,

UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' United Television. Viacom (through its Paramount Television unit, which pr ...

, in 1993.

1980s

A few ad hoc networks were in developed during the 1980s as conventional full-time networks were not buying theatrical feature films as much due to declining ratings for those telecasts, with networks arguing that

pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, b ...

channels and

videotape Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocasse ...

s had reduced the demand for films compared to those seen in the 1960s and 1970s. The studios considered the fact that the networks usually ran their films during rating sweeps periods up against other theatrical films, as being the cause of the slide in viewership. These ad hoc networks, formed by an advertiser or studio, would provide to the production companies ratings histories that the pay services could not provide for sales in a syndicated package, and only tie up the movie for a two-week window. These were set up using a barter system, with the network retaining five minutes per hour of ad time. Besides the Premiere Network and Debut Network, Orion Pictures,

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

and a joint venture of Viacom and

Tribune Broadcasting Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC was an American media company which operated as a subsidiary of Tribune Media, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. The group owned and operated television and radio stations throughout the United St ...

all followed suit in announcing the launch of their own ad hoc networks in late 1984.

Golden Showcase Network

The Kraft

Golden Showcase Network, or Golden Showcase Network, was launched in 1980 with assistance from SFM and ran at least to 1989. Programs on the Golden Showcase included '' The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank'' and '' Little Girl Lost''.

MGM/UA Premiere Network

The Premiere Network, or MGM/UA Premiere Network, was an ad hoc network created by MGM/

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stud ...

, which announced plans to launch in 1984, originally set for an October launch. By that summer, the network had signed affiliation agreements with eight television stations in large markets. The service was expected to broadcast 24 movies in double-runs once a month for two years. MGM received 10½ minutes of advertising time within a two-hour movie telecast, while its stations would retain 11½ minutes. 100 television stations were signed as affiliates by October 1984, with the planned launch pushed back and set for November 10 of that year.

Debut Network

The Universal Pictures Debut Network, or simply the Debut Network, was a similar ad hoc film network created by

MCA Television NBCUniversal Syndication Studios (a.k.a. NUSS), formerly known as NBCUniversal Television Distribution (a.k.a. NUTD), Universal Domestic Television, Studios USA Television Distribution and MCA TV, is the television syndication division of NBCUnive ...

. The service reached agreements with ten stations in larger markets such as New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago by late 1984. The network planned to launch in two stages beginning in September 1985. In 1988, the movie network broadcast a special edition of '' Dune'' as a two-night event, with additional footage not included in the film's original release. In June 1990, the Debut Network was ranked in fifth place among the ten highest-rated syndicated programs according to Nielsen.

Premier Program Service

Premier Program Service (PPS) was born out of

MCA/Universal MCA Inc. (originally an initialism for Music Corporation of America) was an American media conglomerate founded in 1924. Originally a talent agency with artists in the music business as clients, the company became a major force in the film ind ...

and

Paramount Communications Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production and distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest ...

' respective entries for ownership of TV stations. MCA had purchased

WWOR-TV WWOR-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area as the flagship of MyNetworkTV. It is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alongside Fox flagship WNYW ...

in 1986 (shortly before its previous owner, RKO General, began to be stripped of their broadcast properties by the FCC), while Paramount purchased a controlling interest in five independent and Fox-affiliated stations from

TVX Broadcast Group The TVX Broadcast Group was an Television in the United States, American media company that owned a group of ultra high frequency, UHF television stations during the 1980s. Originally known as the Television Corp. of Virginia, the company was hea ...

in 1989 (which formed the cornerstone of the

Paramount Stations Group Paramount Stations Group (sometimes abbreviated as PSG) was a company that controlled a group of American broadcast television stations. The company existed from 1991 until 2001. History Paramount Communications, the then-parent company of Par ...

, after it acquired the remaining interest in TVX two years later).

and

Paramount Domestic Television Paramount Domestic Television (PDT) was the television distribution arm of American television production company Paramount Television, once the TV arm of Paramount Pictures. It was formed in 1982 originally as Paramount Domestic Television and V ...

(PDT) had formed Premier Advertiser Sales, a joint venture created for advertising sales of their existing syndicated programs in September 1989, from which PPS likely took its name and served as an outgrowth. By October 1989, MCA and Paramount were shopping the planned network to potential affiliates with WWOR and Paramount's stations as the core charter outlets. The partners were even approaching Fox-affiliated stations to affiliate with PPS, given that Premier's initial proposed schedule did not conflict with Fox's prime time schedule (which ran Saturday through Mondays at the time) and as an effort to make the network viable. Fox was expected to lose at least one affiliate to Premier in Paramount's Philadelphia station

WTXF-TV WTXF-TV (channel 29) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. Owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on Mark ...

. The network was planned for a January 1, 1991 launch with two nights of programming set to air in the first year (consisting of movies on Wednesdays and series produced by the two partner companies on Fridays) and a third night (consisting of a movie block on Thursdays) before the end of the year. The two series were said to be similar to ''

21 Jump Street ''21 Jump Street'' is an American police procedural television series that aired on the Fox network and in first run syndication from April 12, 1987, to April 27, 1991, with a total of 103 episodes. The series focuses on a squad of youthful-loo ...

'' and '' Star Trek: The Next Generation''. By February 1990, Paramount Communications and MCA Inc. had disbanded their plans to launch the Premier Program Service after Fox objected to their solicitation of its affiliates to serve as its charter outlets.

Hollywood Premiere Network

After the scuttling of the plans for PPS, MCA tried again. The Hollywood Premiere Network was formed by MCA and Chris-Craft Industries, owner of several major independent stations via their

United Television BHC Communications, Inc. was the holding company for the broadcast property of Chris-Craft Industries. BHC stands for "broadcasting holding company". History The firm was originally incorporated in 1977 as BHC, Incorporated by Chris-Craft Ind ...

subsidiary. With basic cable channels snapping up movie packages, independents looked to making their own programming. Hollywood Premiere was originally tested as a two night programming block on United's KCOP and MCA's WWOR before syndicating the programming to other markets. The block took three new programs and paired them with the existing Paramount syndicated series '' Star Trek: The Next Generation''; '' They Came from Outer Space'' and '' She-Wolf of London'' were paired in prime time Tuesday, while ''

Shades of L.A. ''Shades of LA'' is an American crime drama syndicated television series that aired from October 10, 1990 until April 6, 1991. Premise While recovering from a gunshot wound, a Los Angeles detective finds that he can see the spirits of the dead ...

'' followed ''The Next Generation'' in prime time Wednesday. The budget per episodes were estimated at $600,000 less than the network per episode cost at $1 million that the partners claimed. The Hollywood Premiere Network began broadcasting on October 9, 1990. MCA and Chris-Craft canceled the package after the first season. However, MCA TV was shopping the block and its shows at the NATPE January 1991 TV trade show.

Fox

By 1985, there were 267 independent television stations operational in the U.S., most of which were broadcasting on UHF. In May 1985,

News Corporation News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New ...

paid $1.55 billion to acquire six independent stations in major U.S. cities from Metromedia. In October 1985,

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

(which News Corporation founder

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...

purchased the previous year) announced the formation of Fox Broadcasting Company, an independent television system, to compete with the three major television networks. 20th Century Fox's television division would partner with the former Metromedia stations to both produce and distribute programming. Because Metromedia was a company descended from the DuMont Television Network, radio personality

Clarke Ingram Clarke Ingram is a United States radio personality and programming executive. Ingram is best known in his home market (and hometown) of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Career Ingram was formerly the program director of two Pittsburgh stations, top 40 ...

argued that Fox was essentially not a new fourth network per se, but DuMont "rising from the ashes". Former DuMont stations like

WNYW WNYW (channel 5) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside Secaucus, New Jersey–licensed MyNetworkTV flagsh ...

and

KTTV KTTV (channel 11) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV ou ...

became charter affiliates of the new network. Fox debuted on October 6, 1986, with 88 affiliates, many of them UHF stations; the network started with only a single program, '' The Late Show,'' a late-night talk show hosted by

Joan Rivers Joan Alexandra Molinsky (June 8, 1933 – September 4, 2014), known professionally as Joan Rivers, was an American comedian, actress, producer, writer and television host. She was noted for her blunt, often controversial comedic persona—heavi ...

, which attempted (and mightily struggled) to compete against NBC stalwart ''

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' was an American late-night talk show hosted by Johnny Carson on NBC, the third iteration of the ''Tonight Show'' franchise. The show debuted on October 1, 1962, and aired its final episode on May 22, ...

.'' Fox expanded into prime time in two phases over the course of three months starting in April 1987, running two hours of programming per night on Saturdays and Sundays. The new network was ridiculed by critics and scorned by executives of the Big Three networks. They believed that Fox, like previous fourth networks, would be limited by being on UHF stations which had poor viewership and mediocre signal reception. NBC entertainment president

Brandon Tartikoff Brandon Tartikoff (January 13, 1949 – August 27, 1997) was an American television executive who was the president of NBC from 1981 to 1991. He was credited with turning around NBC's low prime time reputation with such hit series as ''Hill Stre ...

dismissively nicknamed Fox "the coat hanger network," implying that viewers would need to attach

wire hanger A clothes hanger, coat hanger, or coathanger, is a hanging device in the shape/contour of: * Human shoulders designed to facilitate the hanging of a coat, jacket, sweater, shirt, blouse or dress in a manner that prevents wrinkles, with a lower ...

s (often used as a free alternative to set-top

loop antenna A loop antenna is a radio antenna consisting of a loop or coil of wire, tubing, or other electrical conductor, that is usually fed by a balanced source or feeding a balanced load. Within this physical description there are two (possibly three) d ...

s used to receive UHF signals) to their television sets to view the network's shows. NBC head

Grant Tinker Grant Almerin Tinker (January 11, 1926 – November 28, 2016) was an American television executive who served as chairman and Chief executive officer, CEO of NBC from 1981 to 1986. Additionally, he was a co-founder of MTM Enterprises and a te ...

declared, "I will never put a fourth column on my schedule board. There will only be three." Indeed, just two years into its existence, the network was already struggling, and Fox executives considered pulling the plug on the network. By

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

, however, Fox had cracked the top 30 in the Nielsen ratings through the surprise success of ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer Simpson, Homer, Marge ...

'' (an animated series spun off from ''

The Tracey Ullman Show ''The Tracey Ullman Show'' is an American television variety show starring Tracey Ullman. It debuted on Fox on April 5, 1987, the network's second original primetime series to air following '' Married... with Children'', and ran until May 26, ...

,'' one of the network's initial series), which became the first series from a fourth network to enter the top 30 since the demise of DuMont more than 30 years earlier.Highest-rated series is based on the annual top-rated programs list compiled by

Nielsen Media Research Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rati ...

and reported in: By then, Fox did have some advantages that DuMont did not have back in the 1950s. During its first few years, Fox programmed just under the number of hours to be legally considered a network by the FCC (by carrying only two hours of programming a few nights a week, expanding to additional nights before eventually filling all seven nights in 1993), allowing it to make money and grow in ways that the established networks were prohibited from doing. News Corporation also had more resources and money to hire and retain programming and talent than DuMont. In addition, the expansion of

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

in the 1980s and 1990s allowed more viewers to receive UHF stations clearly (along with local VHF stations), through cable systems, without having to struggle with either over-the-air antennas or television sets with limited channel tuners to receive them. The

Foxnet Foxnet was an American cable television channel that was owned by the Fox Entertainment Group division of News Corporation. Serving as a national feed of the Fox Broadcasting Company (known simply as Fox), the service was intended for American t ...

cable channel began operations in June 1991 to provide Fox's programming to smaller markets that were not served by an over-the-air Fox affiliate or one of the few superstations that carried the network. Boosted by successful shows like '' Married... with Children,'' ''

,'' '' COPS,'' ''

Beverly Hills, 90210 ''Beverly Hills, 90210'' (often referred to by its short title, ''90210'') is an American teen drama television series created by Darren Star and produced by Aaron Spelling under his production company Spelling Television. The series ran for ...

,'' ''

In Living Color ''In Living Color'' is an American sketch comedy television series that originally ran on Fox from April 15, 1990 to May 19, 1994. Keenen Ivory Wayans created, wrote and starred in the program. The show was produced by Ivory Way Productions in ...

,'' '' Melrose Place,'' and ''

The X-Files ''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction drama television series created by Chris Carter. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), who ...

'' (all appealing to the highly coveted and lucrative 18-49 demographic), Fox proved profitable by the 1990s. In December 1993, Fox hit a major milestone when it won the

rights Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory ...

to NFL football games from

, a move that by most accounts firmly established it as the fourth major television network. Soon afterward, Fox convinced several affiliates of the other networks (mostly CBS) to switch to Fox. DateFormat =yyyy ImageSize =width:750 height:auto barincrement:20 Period =from:1980 till:1992 TimeAxis =orientation:horizontal PlotArea =right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 Colors = id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:red from:1980 till:end text:

bar:2 color:tan2 from:1980 till:end text:

bar:3 color:blue from:1980 till:end text: Hughes bar:4 color:green from:1980 till:end text:

bar:5 color:yellow from:1980 till:1984 text:

bar:5 color:tan2 from:1990 till:1991 text: Star Television Network bar:6 color:skyblue from:1980 till:1987 text:

bar:6 color:purple from:1991 till:1991 text:PPS bar:7 color:orange from:1980 till:1991 text:

bar:8 color:red from:1986 till:end text:

bar:9 color:tan2 from:1988 till:end text:

Channel America Channel America (CA), officially Channel America Network, Inc., was the first United States terrestrial broadcast television network to be intentionally assembled out of LPTV, or low-power television licensees. The network was founded by David Po ...

bar:10 color:green from:1984 till:1986 text:MGM/UA Premiere Network bar:10 color:skyblue from:1990 till:end text: Fox Kids bar:11 color:yellow from:1985 till:1990 text:Universal Pictures Debut Network bar:12 color:skyblue from:1980 till:1989 text:Golden Showcase bar:13 color:orange from:1984 till:1989 text:Other ad-hoc movie networks ScaleMajor =gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:1980

Children's networks

* While commonly considered a part of the Fox network, the weekday

Fox Children's Network Fox Kids (originally known as Fox Children's Network and later as the Fox Kids Network; stylized as FOX KIDS) was an American children's programming block and branding for a slate of international children's television channels. Originally a joi ...

(later Fox Kids Network), was launched in 1990 as a separate joint venture between Fox and some of its affiliates to compete against the

Disney Afternoon The Disney Afternoon (later known internally as the Disney-Kellogg Alliance when unbranded), sometimes abbreviated as TDA, was a created-for-syndication two-hour programming block of animated television series. It was produced by Walt Disney Tel ...

syndicated block and to avoid being classified as a network under FCC rules if they aired over 15 hours of programming a week. * Bohbot Entertainment and Media moved its

Bohbot Kids Network Bohbot Kids Network (more commonly referred to and on-screen as BKN, originally known as Amazin' Adventures until 1997) is a children's programming block operated by Bohbot Entertainment (later BKN, Inc.) that aired in syndicated television stati ...

from syndication to network television on August 29, 1999, and was potentially considered to be the fourth broadcast kids' network. It consisted of two competing broadcasting services.

Additional networks

DateFormat =yyyy ImageSize =width:750 height:auto barincrement:20 Period =from:1990 till:2002 TimeAxis =orientation:horizontal PlotArea =right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 Colors = id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:red from:1990 till:end text: Big Four television networks and

bar:2 color:tan2 from:1990 till:1996 text:

bar:4 color:blue from:1993 till:1995 text: PTEN bar:5 color:green from:1991 till:1991 text:Premier Program Service bar:5 color:yellow from:1995 till:end text:

bar:6 color:skyblue from:1995 till:end text:

The WB The WB Television Network (for Warner Bros., or the "Frog Network", for its former mascot, Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network launched on terrestrial television, broadcast television on January 11, 1995, as a joint venture be ...

bar:7 color:tan2 from:1990 till:1991 text: Star Television Network bar:7 color:orange from:1994 till:1995 text: Spelling Premiere Network bar:7 color:tan1 from:1998 till:end text:

Pax TV Ion Television is an American broadcast television network owned by the Katz Broadcasting subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August 31, 1998, as Pax TV, focusing primarily on family-oriented ente ...

bar:8 color:blue from:1990 till:2001 text: Fox Kids bar:9 color:yellow from:1999 till:2000 text: BKN ScaleMajor =gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:1990

and the Star Television Network were mainly carried on smaller full-power or low-power television stations and depended more on barter and archived

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

content rather than first-run original programming. In the shadow of Fox's launch, Channel America was founded in 1987 as a network made up of low-power television stations; it launched in 1988 and added some cable-only affiliates. With the success with

, several other companies started to enter the fray in the 1990s to become the fifth commercial broadcast network that would allow a station to brand itself better and to stand out amongst the increasing number of channels particularly cable. Chris-Craft Industries and Warner Bros. Television Distribution (syndication arm) jointly launched the

Prime Time Entertainment Network The Prime Time Entertainment Network (PTEN) was an American television network that was operated by the Prime Time Consortium, a joint venture between the Warner Bros. Domestic Television subsidiary of Time Warner and Chris-Craft Industries. Fir ...

in September 1993, a consortium created in attempt at creating a new "fifth network." PTEN, Spelling Premiere Network, Family Network and the proposed WB Network & Paramount Network were being shopped in January 1994 against syndicated blocks

and Universal's " Action Pack." Spelling Premiere Network had launched in August 1994. All American Television considered launching a first-run movie network with 22 movies as of November 1994. Chris-Craft subsidiary

then partnered with Paramount (by then recently merged with Viacom) to create the United Paramount Network (

), which launched in January 1995. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. parent

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...

formed a partnership with the

Tribune Company Tribune Media Company, also known as Tribune Company, was an American multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media was one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 ...

to create

, which also launched less than a week after UPN made its debut. Concurrently, United left PTEN's parent, the Prime Time Consortium, to focus on UPN, leaving PTEN as primarily a syndicator of its remaining programs; the service shared affiliations with its respective parents' own network ventures (in some cases, resulting in PTEN's programming airing in off-peak time slots) until it finally folded in September 1997. In March 1998,

USA Broadcasting USA Broadcasting was an American television broadcasting company owned by the veteran entertainment industry executive Barry Diller. This company was the over-the-air broadcasting arm of USA Networks. Before founding USA Broadcasting, Diller w ...

's CityVision was called a network (one of eight) by then-NBC president Bob Wright. Testing was launched in June 1998 on USA's Miami station WAMI. CityVision was more of a local format that the company planned to use on additional channels.

Paxson Communications Ion Media (formerly known as Paxson Communications Corporation and Ion Media Networks) was an American broadcasting company that owned and operated over 71 television stations in most major American markets (through its television stations group ...

decided to create an alternative to the six existing networks in 1998, by creating

, a network launched to provide family-oriented entertainment programs. In September 1999, NBC and Pax TV became affiliated networks when NBC purchased a 32% share of Paxson Communications; NBC later sold its share in the network back to Paxson in 2003. Pax struggled to gain an audience, eventually dropping entertainment programming in daytime slots in favor of running infomercials; it eventually relaunched as a general entertainment network, under the name i: Independent Television, in July 2005 and became Ion Television in September 2007 (the network would gradually expand entertainment programming on its schedule over the succeeding seven years, refocusing on mainly reruns of network drama series and feature films). In 1999, Viacom purchased

, effectively placing it under common ownership with UPN, as a result of changes to FCC ownership rules that allowed the formation of duopolies (common ownership of two television stations within one media market). The WB, UPN and Pax all struggled throughout their existences, although they managed to gain a few hit series over their 11 years on the air (such as '' Buffy the Vampire Slayer,'' '' Star Trek: Voyager,'' ''

America's Next Top Model ''America's Next Top Model'' (abbreviated ''ANTM'' and ''Top Model'') is an American reality television series and interactive competition in which a number of aspiring models compete for the title of "America's Next Top Model" and a chance to b ...

,'' '' 7th Heaven,'' and ''

Dawson's Creek ''Dawson's Creek'' is an American teen drama television series about the lives of a close-knit group of friends in the fictional town of Capeside, Massachusetts, beginning in high school and continuing into college that ran from 1998 to 2003. T ...

''). The WB and UPN, in particular, launched at a time when cable and satellite television had begun eroding viewership of even the four major networks, resulting in few WB and UPN series earning ratings registering above 5 million total viewers. Both networks also suffered from issues in recruiting affiliates, as many mid-sized and small markets had only five or fewer commercial stations, forcing either The WB, UPN, or both to settle for sharing programming time on a single station (in a few cases, being carried on an existing ABC, NBC, CBS, or Fox station); however, in some of these markets, only one or neither of the two networks was able to gain over-the-air clearance (The WB remedied this by striking a deal with Chicago affiliate WGN-TV to carry the network on its then-superstation feed at its launch, before starting a group of mainly cable-only affiliates in September 1998). The WB and UPN struggled to gain new hits by 2005, and speculation constantly arose as to whether they would pull the plug. In September 2006, UPN and The WB ended operations, and their respective parent companies (

CBS Corporation The second incarnation of CBS Corporation (the first being a short-lived rename of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation) was an American multinational media conglomerate with interests primarily in commercial broadcasting, publishing, and ...

and

) decide to combine their programming and management to form

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...

. Foxnet also ended operations at around the same time, as more Fox affiliates had signed on in smaller markets since the mid-1990s. The launch of The CW and that network's decision to make Tribune's WB stations and

CBS Television Stations CBS News and Stations (formerly CBS Television Stations) is a division of the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global that owns and operates a group of American television stations. , Paramount owns 28 stations, broken down as follows ...

' UPN outlets the core of its charter affiliate group left

Fox Television Stations Fox Television Stations, LLC (FTS; alternately Fox Television Stations Group, LLC), is a group of television stations located within the United States, which are owned-and-operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of the Fox Co ...

' soon-to-be-former UPN affiliates without a network; because of this, Fox launched a secondary network,

MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...

, which debuted two weeks before The CW launched. Although The CW eventually found some modest footing, MyNetworkTV constantly struggled to sustain a wide audience, first with its initial

telenovela A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines ''tele'' (for "television") and ''novela'' (meaning "novel"). Similar drama genres around the world include '' teleserye'' ...

format and later with its reality and film-focused lineup. Fox would convert MyNetworkTV into a programming service in September 2009, relying solely on reruns of syndicated series originally aired by other broadcast and cable networks. Additional networks were formed with increasing frequency immediately before and especially following the digital television transition, which gave stations the ability to

multiplex Multiplex may refer to: * Multiplex (automobile), a former American car make * Multiplex (comics), a DC comic book supervillain * Multiplex (company), a global contracting and development company * Multiplex (assay), a biological assay which measu ...

their broadcast signals by adding subchannels, many of which since 2009 are being used to host networks focusing less or not at all on original content and relying mainly on programming acquired by various distributors (particularly classic series and feature films that are no longer being picked up by many cable networks). DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:750 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:2000 till:2018 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 Colors = id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:red from:2000 till:end text: Big Four television networks and

bar:3 color:yellow from:2000 till:2006 text:

bar:4 color:skyblue from:2000 till:2006 text:

bar:5 color:green from:2006 till:end text:

bar:6 color:skyblue from:2006 till:end text:

bar:7 color:tan1 from:2000 till:end text:

bar:7 color:claret from:2005 till:2007 text:I bar:7 color:tan1 from:2007 till:end text:Ion bar:8 color:Orange from:2009 till:end text: Digital subchannel networks ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:2000

References

{{Television in the United States History of broadcasting Television in the United States 4 (number)