The
American Broadcasting Company

American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial
broadcast television network that is a flagship property of
Disney–ABC
Television

Television Group, a subsidiary of the Disney Media
Networks division of The
Walt Disney

Walt Disney Company. The network is
headquartered on Columbus Avenue and West 66th Street in Manhattan,
New York City. There are additional major offices and production
facilities elsewhere in New York City, as well as in
Los Angeles

Los Angeles and
Burbank, California.
Since 2007, when ABC Radio (also known as
Cumulus Media

Cumulus Media Networks) was
sold to Citadel Broadcasting, ABC has reduced its broadcasting
operations almost exclusively to television. The fifth-oldest major
broadcasting network in the world and the youngest of the Big Three
television networks, ABC is often nicknamed as "The Alphabet Network",
as its initialism also represents the first three letters of the
English alphabet, in order.
ABC launched as a radio network on October 12, 1943, serving as the
successor to the
NBC

NBC Blue Network, which had been purchased by Edward
J. Noble. It extended its operations to television in 1948, following
in the footsteps of established broadcast networks
CBS

CBS and NBC. In the
mid-1950s, ABC merged with United Paramount Theatres, a chain of movie
theaters that formerly operated as a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures.
Leonard Goldenson, who had been the head of UPT, made the new
television network profitable by helping develop and greenlight many
successful series. In the 1980s, after purchasing an 80% interest in
cable sports channel ESPN, the network's corporate parent, American
Broadcasting Companies, Inc., merged with Capital Cities
Communications, owner of several print publications, and television
and radio stations. In 1996, most of Capital Cities/ABC's assets were
purchased by The
Walt Disney

Walt Disney Company.
The television network has eight owned-and-operated and over 232
affiliated television stations throughout the United States and its
territories.
ABC News

ABC News provides news and features content for select
radio stations owned by Citadel Broadcasting, which purchased the ABC
Radio properties in 2007.
Contents
1 History
1.1
Blue Network

Blue Network (1927–1945)
1.2 Entry into television (1945–1949)
1.3 American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres
1.3.1 Hollywood begins to produce television series
1.3.2 First bonds with Disney
1.3.3 Affiliate issues
1.3.4 Counterprogramming: successful, but criticized
1.4 Transition to color (1960s)
1.4.1 Children's programming and the debut of ABC Sports (1960–1965)
1.4.2 New regulations and the radio network's recovery (1966–1969)
1.5 Success in television (1971–1980)
1.6 Merger with Capital Cities, purchase of
ESPN

ESPN and reprogramming
Friday nights (1981–1990)
1.7 Continued success and acquisition by Disney (1991–2000)
1.8 New century, new programs; divisional restructuring (2001–2010)
1.8.1 Separation of the radio network
1.8.2 Entertainment reorganization and struggles with new shows
(2007–2009)
1.9 Current state
2 Programming
2.1 Daytime
2.2 Specials
2.3 Programming library
3 Stations
4 Facilities and studios
5 Related services
5.1 Video-on-demand services
5.2 ABC HD
6 Visual identity
7 International development
7.1 Canada
8 Movies produced by ABC or its divisions
9 See also
10 References
10.1 Footnotes
10.2 Bibliography
11 External links
History[edit]
Blue Network

Blue Network (1927–1945)[edit]
Main article: Blue Network
In the 1930s, radio in the United States was dominated by three
companies: the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), the Mutual
Broadcasting System, and the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). The
last was owned by electronics manufacturer Radio Corporation of
America (RCA), which owned two radio networks that each ran different
varieties of programming,
NBC

NBC Blue and
NBC

NBC Red. The
NBC

NBC Blue Network
was created in 1927 for the primary purpose of testing new programs on
markets of lesser importance than those served by
NBC

NBC Red, which
served the major cities,[3] and to test drama series.[4]
In 1934, Mutual 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.[4] In 1938, the FCC began a series of investigations into the
practices of radio networks[4] and published its report on the
broadcasting of network radio programs in 1940. The report recommended
that
RCA

RCA give up control of either
NBC

NBC Red or
NBC

NBC Blue.[3] At that
time, the
NBC

NBC Red Network was the principal radio network in the
United States and, according to the FCC,
RCA

RCA was using
NBC

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[3] that provided content of public
interest.[4]
Edward Noble, founder of ABC
Once Mutual's appeals against the FCC were rejected,
RCA

RCA decided to
sell
NBC

NBC Blue in 1941, and gave the mandate to do so to Mark Woods.[5]
RCA

RCA converted the
NBC

NBC
Blue Network

Blue Network into an independent subsidiary,
formally divorcing the operations of
NBC

NBC Red and
NBC

NBC Blue on January
8, 1942,[4][6] with the
Blue Network

Blue Network being referred to on-air as
either "Blue" or "Blue Network".[7] The newly separated
NBC

NBC Red and
NBC

NBC Blue divided their respective corporate assets. Between 1942 and
1943, Woods offered to sell the entire
NBC

NBC Blue Network,[8][9] a
package that included leases on landlines, three pending television
licenses (
WJZ-TV

WJZ-TV in New York City,
KGO-TV

KGO-TV in
San Francisco

San Francisco and WENR-TV
in Chicago), 60 affiliates, four operations facilities (in New York
City, Chicago,
Los Angeles

Los Angeles and Washington D.C.), contracts with
actors, and the brand associated with the Blue Network. Investment
firm Dillon, Read & Co. offered $7.5 million to purchase the
network, but the offer was rejected by Woods and
RCA

RCA president David
Sarnoff.[8]
Edward John Noble, the owner of
Life Savers

Life Savers candy, drugstore chain
Rexall
.jpg/500px-Rexall_Drugs_(logo).jpg)
Rexall and
New York City

New York City radio station WMCA, purchased the network for
$8 million.[3][4] Due to FCC ownership rules, the transaction, which
was to include the purchase of three
RCA

RCA stations by Noble, would
require him to resell his station with the FCC's approval.[8] The
Commission authorized the transaction on October 12, 1943.[5][10] Soon
afterward, the
Blue Network

Blue Network was purchased by the new company Noble
founded, the American Broadcasting System.[4] Noble subsequently
acquired the rights to the "American Broadcasting Company" name from
George B. Storer in 1944; its parent company adopted the corporate
name American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.[4][8] Woods retained his
position as president and CEO of ABC until December 1949, and was
subsequently promoted to vice-chairman of the board before leaving ABC
altogether on June 30, 1951.[11]
Meanwhile, in August 1944, the West Coast division of the Blue
Network, which owned
San Francisco

San Francisco radio station KGO, bought Los
Angeles station KECA from
Earle C. Anthony for $800,000.[12] Both
stations were then managed by Don Searle, the vice-president of the
Blue Network's West Coast division.[13]
Entry into television (1945–1949)[edit]
ABC's corporate headquarters are located at 77 West 66th Street, on
the
Upper West Side

Upper West Side of
Manhattan

Manhattan in New York City.
The
ABC Radio Network

ABC Radio Network created its audience slowly. The network's
acquisition of
Detroit

Detroit radio station WXYZ from KingTrendle
Broadcasting in 1946 for a little less than $3 million (and which
remained under ABC ownership until 1984),.[14]
ABC became an aggressive competitor to
NBC

NBC and
CBS

CBS when, continuing
NBC

NBC Blue's traditions of public service, it aired symphony
performances conducted by Paul Whiteman,[4] performances from the
Metropolitan Opera, and jazz concerts aired as part of its broadcast
of
The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street announced by Milton
Cross.[15] The network also became known for such suspenseful dramas
as Sherlock Holmes,
Gang Busters

Gang Busters and Counterspy, as well as several
mid-afternoon youth-oriented programs.[15] However, ABC made a name
for itself by utilizing the practice of counterprogramming, with which
it often placed shows of its own against the offerings of
NBC

NBC and CBS,
adopting the use of the
Magnetophon

Magnetophon tape recorder, brought to the U.S.
from
Nazi Germany
.jpg/440px-Westfaelischer_Friede_in_Muenster_(Gerard_Terborch_1648).jpg)
Nazi Germany after its conquest, to pre-record its
programming.[16] With the help of the Magnetophon, ABC was able to
provide its stars with greater freedom in terms of time, and also
attract several big names, such as Bing Crosby[16] at a time when NBC
and
CBS

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.[17]
To ensure a space, in 1947, ABC submitted five applications for
television station licenses, one for each market where it owned and
operated a radio station (New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San
Francisco and Detroit).[18] These applications all requested for the
stations to broadcast on VHF channel 7, as Frank Marx, then ABC's
vice-president of engineering, thought that the low-band VHF
frequencies (corresponding to channels 2 through 6) would be
requisitioned from broadcasting use and reallocated for the U.S.
Army.[18]
The ABC television network made its debut on April 19, 1948, with
WFIL-TV in
Philadelphia

Philadelphia (now WPVI-TV) becoming its first primary
affiliate.[19] The first program ever broadcast on the network was On
the Corner, featuring satirist Henry Morgan. Other stations carrying
the initial broadcast were
WMAR-TV

WMAR-TV in Baltimore, WMAL-TV in
Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C. and WABD, the DuMont station in New York City, since
ABC's New York station had yet to sign on.[20]
The network's flagship owned-and-operated station,
WJZ-TV

WJZ-TV in New York
City (later re-called WABC-TV), signed on the air on August 10,
1948,[19] with its first broadcast running for two hours that
evening.[21] ABC's other owned-and-operated stations launched over the
course of the next 13 months:[19] WENR-TV in
Chicago

Chicago signed on the air
on September 17,[22] while
WXYZ-TV

WXYZ-TV in
Detroit

Detroit went on the air on
October 9, 1948.[23] In October 1948, as a result of an influx of
television station license applications that it had issued as well as
a study it undertook on the use of the VHF spectrum for broadcasting
purposes, the FCC implemented a freeze on new station
applications.[24] However,
KGO-TV

KGO-TV in San Francisco, which had received
its license prior to the freeze, made its debut on May 5,
1949.[25][26] 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 (80,937 m2) of land in Hollywood into what
would become The Prospect Studios, and construct a transmitter on
Mount Wilson, in anticipation of the launch of KECA-TV, which was
scheduled to begin operations on August 1[27] (but would not actually
sign on until September 16).[28][29]
In the fall of 1949, ABC found itself in the position of an outsider,
with less coverage than two of its competing networks,
CBS

CBS and NBC,
even though it was on par with them in some major cities and had a
headstart over its third rival at the time, the DuMont Television
Network.[30] 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

Pittsburgh and St. Louis) had only one, and still many others
(such as
Denver

Denver and Portland) did not yet have any television
service.[30] The result was an uneven transition period where
television flourished in certain areas and network radio remained the
sole source of broadcast entertainment and news in others.
American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres[edit]
Main article: American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres
At the end of 1949, movie theater operator United Paramount Theatres
(UPT) was forced by the U.S. Supreme Court to become an independent
entity, separating itself from Paramount Pictures.[31] For its part,
ABC was on the verge of bankruptcy, with only five owned-and-operated
stations and nine full-time affiliates.[32] 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
purchasing and building stations. In 1951, a rumor even mentioned that
the network would be sold to CBS.[18][33] In 1951, Noble held a 58%
ownership stake in ABC,[34] giving him $5 million with which to
prevent ABC from going bankrupt; as banks refused further credit,[35]
that amount was obtained through a loan from the Prudential Insurance
Company of America.[36]
Leonard Goldenson, the president of UPT (which sought to diversify
itself at the time), approached Noble in 1951 on a proposal for UPT to
purchase ABC.[35] Noble received other offers, including one from CBS
founder William S. Paley; however, a merger with
CBS

CBS would have forced
that network to sell its
New York City

New York City and
Los Angeles

Los Angeles stations at the
very least.[37] Goldenson and Noble reached a tentative agreement in
the late spring of 1951[35] in which UPT would acquire ABC and turn it
into a subsidiary of the company that would retain autonomy in its
management.[38] On June 6, 1951, the tentative agreement was approved
by UPT's board of directors.[38] 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 Paramount
Pictures was already a shareholder in the DuMont
Television

Television Network,
the FCC conducted a series of hearings to ensure whether Paramount was
truly separated from United Paramount Theatres, and whether it was
violating antitrust laws.[17]
In 1952, when the release of the FCC's Sixth Report and Order
announced the end of its freeze on new station license applications,
among the issues the Commission was slated to address was whether to
approve the UPT-ABC merger.[24] One FCC Commissioner saw the
possibility of ABC, funded by UPT, becoming a viable and competitive
third television network.[39] On February 9, 1953, the FCC approved
UPT's purchase of ABC in exchange for $25 million in shares.[39][40]
The merged company, renamed American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres,
Inc. and headquartered in the
Paramount Building

Paramount Building at 1501 Broadway in
Manhattan,[41] owned six AM and several FM radio stations, five
television stations and 644 cinemas in 300 U.S. cities.[36] To comply
with FCC ownership restrictions in effect at the time that barred
common ownership of two television stations in the same market, UPT
sold its
Chicago

Chicago television station, WBKB-TV, to
CBS

CBS (which
subsequently changed the station's call letters to WBBM-TV) for $6
million,[42] while it kept ABC's existing
Chicago

Chicago station, WENR-TV.
The merged company acquired the WBKB call letters for channel 7, which
would eventually become WLS-TV.[43] Goldenson began to sell some of
the older theaters to help finance the new television network.[36]
On March 1, 1953, ABC's
New York City

New York City flagship stations – WJZ,
WJZ-FM and
WJZ-TV

WJZ-TV – changed their respective callsigns to WABC,
WABC-FM and WABC-TV,[44] and moved their operations to facilities at 7
West 66th Street, one block away from Central Park.[36] The WABC call
letters were previously used by the flagship station of
CBS

CBS Radio (now
W
CBS

CBS (AM)) until 1946. The WJZ calls would later be reassigned to the
then-ABC affiliate in
Baltimore

Baltimore in 1959, in an historical nod to the
fact that WJZ was originally established by the
Baltimore

Baltimore station's
owner at the time, Westinghouse.
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.[17] 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,[45] he proposed a merger
between UPT and the DuMont
Television

Television Network, which was also mired in
financial trouble.[17] 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 DuMont Laboratories
receivers.[17] In addition, to comply with FCC ownership restrictions,
it would have been required to sell either
WABC-TV

WABC-TV or DuMont
owned-and-operated station WABD in the
New York City

New York City market, as well
as two other stations.[17] The merged ABC-DuMont would have had the
resources to compete with
CBS

CBS and NBC.[45]
Goldenson sought to develop the ABC television network by trying to
convince local stations to agree to affiliate with the network.[17] In
doing this, he contacted local entrepreneurs who owned television
stations themselves, many of whom had previously invested in Paramount
cinemas and had worked with him when he undertook the responsibility
of restructuring United Paramount Theatres.[17]
Hollywood begins to produce television series[edit]
At the same time he made attempts to help grow ABC, 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.[17] 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,[46] the latter of which had previously been more
connected to radio. ABC's flagship productions at the time were The
Lone Ranger, based on the radio program of the same title, and The
Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, the latter of which (at 14 seasons,
running from 1952 to 1966) held the record for the longest-running
prime time comedy in U.S. television history, until it was surpassed
by
The Simpsons

The Simpsons in 2003.
Goldenson's efforts paid off, and on October 27, 1954, the network
launched a campaign ushering in the "New ABC", with productions from
several studios, including Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,
Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. and 20th
Century Fox.[47]
Warner tried with mixed success to adapt some of its most successful
films as ABC television series, and showcase these adaptations as part
of the wheel series
Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Presents. Airing during the 1955–56
season, it showcased television adaptations of the 1942 films Kings
Row and Casablanca; Cheyenne (adapted from the 1947 film Wyoming Kid);
Sugarfoot

Sugarfoot (a remake of the 1954 film The Boy from Oklahoma); and
Maverick.[46] 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 as a columnist at that time, observed that "at
ABC's headquarters in New York, the secretaries [were now] wearing
hats with
Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse ears".[46]
First bonds with Disney[edit]
Wernher von Braun

Wernher von Braun and
Ernst Stuhlinger

Ernst Stuhlinger in the episode "Mars and
Beyond" (1957) from Disneyland, the first of many Walt Disney
anthology television series.
Walt Disney

Walt Disney and his brother Roy contacted Goldenson at the end of
1953[48] for ABC to agree to finance part of the
Disneyland

Disneyland project in
exchange for producing a television program for the
network.[49][50][51] 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.[49][52] Around 1954, ABC agreed to finance
Disneyland

Disneyland in exchange for the right to broadcast a new Sunday night
program, Disneyland, which debuted on the network on October 27,
1954[49][50][51] as the first of many anthology television programs
that Disney would broadcast over the course of the next 50 years.
When
Disneyland

Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955, ABC aired a special live
broadcast commemorating the park's first day of operation, Dateline:
Disneyland.[53] Shortly thereafter, on October 3, 1955, a second
regularly scheduled program produced by Disney made its debut, The
Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse Club, a children's program that aired Monday through
Friday afternoons, which starred a group of 24 children known as the
"Mouseketeers".[50][54] The two Disney programs made 1955 the year
that the network was first profitable and as a station owner.[55]
Affiliate issues[edit]
By 1954, all U.S. networks had regained control of their programming,
with higher advertising revenues: ABC's revenue increased by 67%
(earning $26 million), NBC's went up by 30% ($100 million) and CBS's
rose by 44% ($117 million).[56] However that year, ABC had only 14
primary affiliates compared to the 74 that carried the majority of CBS
programs and the 71 that were primarily affiliated with NBC. Most
markets outside the largest ones were not large enough to support
three full-time network affiliates. In some markets that were large
enough for a third full-time affiliate, the only available commercial
allocation was on the less-desirable UHF band. Until the All-Channel
Receiver Act (passed by Congress in 1961) mandated the inclusion of
UHF tuning, most viewers needed to purchase a converter to be able to
watch UHF stations, and the signal quality was marginal at best even
with a converter. Additionally, during the analog television era, UHF
stations were not adequately receivable 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, with the exception of the largest markets, 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 the small size of
the surrounding market and its close proximity to
Cleveland

Cleveland and
Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh even decades before the city's economic collapse).
According to Goldenson, this meant that an hour of ABC programming
reported five times lower viewership than its competitors.[57]
However, the network's intake of money at the time would allow it to
accelerate its content production. 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-time ABC
affiliate until the 1960s, with some very small markets having to wait
as late as the 1980s or even the advent of digital television in the
2000s, which allowed stations like
WTRF-TV

WTRF-TV in Wheeling, West Virginia
to begin airing ABC programming on a digital subchannel after airing
the network's programs outside of recommended timeslots decades
before.
The DuMont
Television

Television Network ceased broadcasting on September 15,
1955,[45] and went bankrupt the next year. ABC then found itself as
the third U.S. television network, dubbed the "little third
network",[58] but still continued to look for successful programming.
That same year, Kintner was forced to resign due to disagreements
between Noble and Goldenson,[17] a consequence of Goldenson's many
interventions in ABC's management.[59]
Counterprogramming: successful, but criticized[edit]
In 2002, dancers and other cast members from the 32-year run of
American Bandstand

American Bandstand reunited with host
Dick Clark

Dick Clark to celebrate the 50th
anniversary of the show's local television debut.
It was not until the late 1950s that the ABC network became a serious
contender to
NBC

NBC and CBS, and this was in large part due to the
diverse range of programming that met the expectations of the public,
such as westerns and detective series. Despite an almost 500% increase
in advertising revenues between 1953 and 1958, the network only had a
national reach of between 10% and 18% of the total U.S. population, as
it still had relatively fewer affiliates than
NBC

NBC and CBS.[60] In
1957,
ABC Entertainment president Ollie Treiz discovered that the
locally produced variety show Bandstand had pulled very strong ratings
in the
Philadelphia

Philadelphia market on WFIL-TV; Treiz ultimately negotiated a
deal to take the show national, under the revised title American
Bandstand;[61] the show quickly became a social phenomenon by
presenting new musical talent and dances to America's youth[61] and
helped make a star out of its host, Dick Clark.
On September 3, 1958, the
Disneyland

Disneyland anthology series was retitled
Walt Disney

Walt Disney Presents[51] as it became disassociated with the theme
park of the same name. 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 detective shows
were beginning to rise in popularity as well.[62] ABC requested
additional productions from Disney.[63] In late 1958, Desilu
Productions pitched its detective series The Untouchables Starring
Robert Stack

Robert Stack to CBS; after that network rejected the show because of
its use of violence, Desilu then presented it to ABC, which agreed to
pick up the show,[64] and debuted The Untouchables in April 1959. The
series went on to quickly become "immensely popular".[64]
These kinds of programs presented ABC with an image of the "philosophy
of counterprogramming against its competitors", offering a strong
lineup of programs that contrasted with those seen on its rival
networks,[63] which helped Goldenson give the network a continuum
between film and television.[65] ABC's western series (as well as
series such as the actioner Zorro) went up against and defeated the
variety shows aired by
NBC

NBC and
CBS

CBS 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.[65] In May 1961, Life criticized
the public enthusiasm and sponsorship for these types of shows at the
expense of news programming and denounced an unofficial law "replacing
the good programs with the bad ones".[66]
Transition to color (1960s)[edit]
During the 1960s, ABC continued on the same path that it began to take
in the mid-1950s, by consolidating the network as part of its effort
to gain loyalty from the public. The network's finances improved and
allowed it to invest in other properties and programming. In May 1960,
ABC purchased
Chicago

Chicago radio station WLS, which had shared airtime with
WENR since the 1920s.[67] This acquisition allowed ABC to consolidate
its presence in the market. On May 9, 1960, WLS launched a new lineup
consisting of ABC Radio programming.[68] In 1960, Canadian
entrepreneur John Bassett, who was trying to establish a television
station in Toronto, sought the help of ABC to launch the station.[69]
Leonard Goldenson agreed to acquire a 25% interest in CFTO-TV;
however, legislation by the Canadian Radio-
Television

Television Commission
prohibited ABC's involvement, resulting in the company withdrawing
from the project before the station's launch.[69]
Children's programming and the debut of ABC Sports (1960–1965)[edit]
The "ABC Circle" logo, designed by Paul Rand, was introduced in a 1962
identification card.
The 1960s would be marked by the rise of family-oriented series in an
attempt by ABC to counterprogram its established competitors, but the
decade was also marked by the network's gradual transition to
color.[70] On September 30, 1960, ABC premiered The Flintstones,
another example of counterprogramming; although the animated series
from
William Hanna

William Hanna and
Joseph Barbera

Joseph Barbera was filmed in color from the
beginning, it was initially broadcast in black-and-white, as ABC had
not made the necessary technical upgrades to broadcast its programming
in color at the time.[71]
The Flintstones

The Flintstones allowed ABC to present a
novelty, that of prime-time animated programming, but it also allowed
the network to begin filling the hole opened by the conclusion of the
Disney partnership by carrying family-oriented programming from other
producers.[71]
In 1959,
Walt Disney

Walt Disney Productions, having improved its financial
situation, had purchased ABC's shares in the
Disneyland

Disneyland theme park for
$7.5 million[49] and initiated discussions to renew ABC's television
contract for
Walt Disney

Walt Disney Presents, which was due to expire in
1961.[70]
Walt Disney

Walt Disney was approached by
NBC

NBC to produce color
broadcasts of his anthology series (which would be renamed Walt
Disney's Wonderful World of Color).[70] Goldenson said ABC could not
counter the offer, because the network did not have the technical and
financial resources to carry the program in the format.[70] As a
result, ABC and Disney's first television collaboration ended in
1961[49] (the network would resume its relationship with Disney in
1985, when the anthology series returned to the network for a
three-season run as the Disney Sunday Movie until it lost the rights
to
NBC

NBC again in 1988; the Disney anthology series would return to ABC
in 1996, following the company's purchase of the future Capital
Cities/ABC, as The Wonderful World of Disney).
However, in 1961, ABC continued with its niche in animated series with
Calvin and the Colonel, Matty's Funday Funnies,
Top Cat

Top Cat and The Bugs
Bunny Show,[71] the latter of which showcased classic
Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes and
Merrie Melodies

Merrie Melodies shorts.
Always in search of new programs that would help it compete with NBC
and CBS, ABC's management believed that sports could be a major
catalyst in improving the network's market share.[72] On April 29,
1961, ABC debuted Wide World of Sports, an anthology series created by
Edgar Scherick through his company Sports Programs, Inc. and produced
by a young
Roone Arledge which featured a different sporting event
each broadcast.[73][74] ABC purchased Sports Programs, Inc. in
exchange for shares in the company,[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]
Due to pressure from film studios wanting to increase their
production, as the major networks began airing theatrically released
films,[77] ABC joined
CBS

CBS and
NBC

NBC in broadcasting films on Sunday
nights in 1962, with the launch of the ABC Sunday Night Movie, which
debuted a year behind its competitors and was initially presented in
black-and-white.[77] Despite a significant increase in viewership
(with its audience share having increased to 33% from the 15% share it
had in 1953), ABC remained in third place; the company had a total
revenue of $15.5 million, a third of the revenue pulled in by
CBS

CBS at
the same period.[77] To catch up, ABC followed up
The Flintstones

The Flintstones with
another animated series from Hanna-Barbera, The Jetsons, which debuted
on September 23, 1962 as the first television series to be broadcast
in color on the network.[78] On April 1, 1963, ABC debuted the soap
opera General Hospital,[79] which would go on to become the television
network's long-running entertainment program. That year also saw the
premiere of The Fugitive (on September 17),[80] a drama series
centering on a man on the run after being accused of committing a
murder he did not commit.
The 1964–65 season was marked by the debuts of several classic
series including
Bewitched

Bewitched (on September 17)[81] and The Addams Family
(on September 18). Arledge's success with acquiring prime sports
content was confirmed in 1964 when he was appointed vice-president of
ABC Sports.[82]
New regulations and the radio network's recovery (1966–1969)[edit]
During this period, ABC moved its corporate headquarters to 1330
Avenue of the Americas.
It was not until the 1965–66 season that color became the dominant
format for the three broadcast television networks. ABC, meanwhile,
remained in third place and still needed money to grow itself into a
major competitor. However, ABC's issues with its transition to color
became secondary compared to the network's financial problems; in
1964, the network found itself, as Goldenson later wrote in the 1991
book Beating the Odds: The Untold Story Behind the Rise of ABC, "in
the middle of a war [where] the battlefield was Wall Street".[83] Many
companies sought to take over ABC, including Norton Simon,[77] General
Electric, Gulf and Western Industries, International Telephone and
Telegraph[84] and Litton Industries.[85]
In 1965, the corporate entity, American Broadcasting-Paramount
Theatres, was renamed as the American Broadcasting Companies,[86][87]
while its cinema division became ABC Theatres; its recording division
was renamed
ABC Records

ABC Records in 1966.[88] In December of that year, the ABC
television network premiered The Dating Game, a pioneer series in its
genre, which was a reworking of the blind date concept in which a
suitor selected one of three contestants sight unseen based on the
answers to selected questions. This was followed up in July 1966 by
The Newlywed Game, featuring three recently married couples who
guessed the responses to their partner's questions (some of which were
fairly risque). As ABC began to outgrow its facilities at 7 West 66th
Street, Goldenson found a new headquarters for ABC in a 44-story
building located at 1330
Avenue of the Americas

Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan, 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 production facilities for television and
radio programs.[90]
On December 7, 1965, Goldenson announced a merger proposal with ITT to
ABC management; the two companies agreed to the deal on April 27,
1966.[85] The FCC approved the merger on December 21, 1966; however,
the previous day (December 20), Donald F. Turner, head antitrust
regulator for the United States Department of Justice, expressed
doubts related to such issues as the emerging cable television
market,[91] and concerns over the journalistic integrity of ABC and
how it could be influenced by the overseas ownership of ITT.[92] ITT
management promised that the 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, with
ITT going to trial in October 1967; the merger was officially canceled
after the trial's conclusion on January 1, 1968.[93]
On January 12, 1966, ABC replaced The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
with Batman, an action series based on the
DC Comics

DC Comics series starring
Adam West

Adam West that was known for its kitschy style.[94] In 1967, WLS radio
CEO Ralph Beaudin was appointed as the president of ABC Radio.[95]
Under his leadership, ABC Radio was divided into four "networks"
devoted to different types of programming: news, informative series,
pop music, and talk shows.[95] Two other networks were later created
to provide rock music and traffic reporting.
In 1968, ABC took advantage of new FCC ownership regulations that
allowed broadcasting companies to own a maximum of seven radio
stations nationwide in order to purchase
Houston

Houston radio stations KXYZ
and KXYZ-FM for $1 million in shares and $1.5 million in bonds.[96]
That year,
Roone Arledge was named president of ABC Sports; the
company also founded ABC Pictures, a film production company which
released its first picture that year, the Ralph Nelson-directed
Charly. It was renamed
ABC Motion Pictures in 1979; the unit was
dissolved in 1985.[97] The studio also operated two subsidiaries,
Palomar Pictures International and Selmur Pictures. In July 1968, ABC
continued its acquisitions in the amusement parks sector with the
opening of ABC Marine World in Redwood City, California;[98] that park
was sold in 1972 and demolished in 1986, with the land that occupied
the park later becoming home to the headquarters of Oracle
Corporation.
In July 1968, ABC Radio launched a special programming project for its
FM stations, which was spearheaded by Allen Shaw,[99] a former program
manager at WCFL in Chicago[100] who was approached by ABC Radio
president Harold L. Neal to develop a format to compete with the new
progressive rock and DJ-helmed stations.[101] The new concept called
"LOVE Radio", which featured a limited selection of music genres, was
launched on ABC's seven owned-and-operated FM stations in late
November 1968; the concept replaced nearly all of the programming
provided by these stations; however, several affiliates (such as KXYZ)
retained the majority of their content.[101] In August 1970, Shaw
announced that ABC FM's music choice policy should be reviewed to
allow listeners access to many styles of music.[102]
On the television side, in September 1969, ABC launched the Movie of
the Week, a weekly showcase aimed at capitalizing on the growing
success of made-for-TV movies since the early 1960s. The Movie of the
Week broadcast feature-length dramatic films directed by such talented
filmmakers as Aaron Spelling,
David Wolper and
Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg (the
latter of whom gained early success through the showcase for his 1971
film Duel) that were produced on an average budget of
$400,000–$450,000.[103] One of those movies - A Matter of
Humanities, broadcast in early 1969 - became the basis for the hit
show
Marcus Welby, M.D.

Marcus Welby, M.D. which, in its second season (1970-1971),
became ABC's first Number One show in the Neilsen ratings (Bewitched
was the closest the network had come prior to this, reaching #2 in its
debut season, 1964-1965). Other hits for the television network during
the late 1960s and early 1970s included the comedies The Courtship of
Eddie's Father,
The Brady Bunch

The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family, the
now-iconic That Girl, the Emmy-winning Room 222, and the drama The Mod
Squad.
Success in television (1971–1980)[edit]
Publicity photo of the mobile studios used by ABC in 1976.
David Carradine, star of Kung Fu.
In the early 1970s, ABC completed its transition to color; the decade
as a whole would mark a turning point for ABC, as it began to pass CBS
and
NBC

NBC in the ratings to become the first place network.[104] It also
began to use behavioral and demographic data to better determine what
types of sponsors to sell advertising slots to and provide programming
that would appeal towards certain audiences.[105] ABC's gains in
audience share were greatly helped by the fact that several smaller
markets had grown large enough to allow full-time affiliations from
all three networks.
In 1970, ABC debuted
Monday Night Football

Monday Night Football as part of its Monday prime
time schedule;[106] the program became a hit for the network and
served as the
National Football League

National Football League (NFL)'s premier game of the
week until 2006, when Sunday Night Football, which moved to
NBC

NBC that
year as part of a broadcast deal that in turn saw MNF move to ESPN,
took over as the league's marquee game. According to Goldenson, Monday
Night Football helped earn ABC regularly score an audience share of
15%–16%; ABC Sports managed the budget for the Monday night time
slot to reallocate the weekly budget for ABC's prime time schedule to
just six days, as opposed to seven on competing networks.[107] 1970
also saw the premieres of several soap operas including the
long-running All My Children, which ran on the network for 41 years.
In 1970, the FCC voted to pass the Financial Interest and Syndication
Rules, a set of regulations aimed at preventing the major networks
from monopolizing the broadcast landscape by barring them from owning
any of the prime time programming that they broadcast.[108] In 1972,
the new rules resulted in the company's decision to split ABC Films
into two separate companies: the existing Worldvision Enterprises,
which would produce and distribute programming for U.S. syndication,
and
ABC Circle Films as a production unit.[109][110] Worldvision was
sold to a consortium of ABC executives for nearly $10 million.[110]
In April 1970, Congress passed the Public Health
Cigarette

Cigarette Smoking Act
which banned cigarette advertising from all television and radio
networks, including ABC, when it took effect on January 2, 1971.[111]
Citing limited profitability of its cinemas, ABC Great States, the
Central West division of ABC Theatres, was sold to Henry Plitt in
1974.[109] On January 17, 1972,
Elton Rule was named President and
Chief Operating Officer of ABC a few months after Goldenson reduced
his role in the company after suffering a heart attack.[33]
In the early 1970s, Michael Eisner, who joined ABC in 1966, became the
network's program development manager.[112] He helped bring about
ideas for many series including
Happy Days

Happy Days (which originated as a
segment on the anthology series Love, American Style),[112][113] as
well as several soap operas; however, Eisner's main credit at ABC was
for developing youth-oriented programming.[114] He was responsible for
reacquiring the rights to the Looney Tunes-
Merrie Melodies

Merrie Melodies library,
bringing the shorts back to ABC after spending several years on CBS,
as well as developing The Jackson 5ive animated series and a series
about the Osmonds, and greenlighting Super Friends, based on DC
Comics'
Justice League

Justice League of America series[112] He also laid ground-work
for the development of educational children's programming (predating
the 1990 Congressional passage of the Children's
Television

Television Act)
through interstitials such as Time for Timer,
The Bod Squad and,
perhaps most famously, Schoolhouse Rock!. Eisner left ABC in 1976 to
become president of Paramount Pictures;[115] he would later become the
President of ABC's eventual parent company, Disney.
In the spring of 1975, Fred Pierce, the newly appointed president of
ABC Television, convinced
Fred Silverman to become the first president
and director of programming of the independent television production
subsidiary ABC Entertainment, created from the network's namesake
programming division.[116][117] In 1974, ABC premiered the police
series S.W.A.T. That same year, the network made the decision to
compete with NBC's morning news-talk program Today. Its first attempt
at such competition was AM America; however, that show's success was
not straightforward.[118] One of its affiliates,
WCVB-TV

WCVB-TV premiered
morning show Good Day!. First premiering in 1973 as Good Morning!, it
was groundbreaking for being entirely produced on the road and
broadcasting from locations outside the
Boston

Boston area. Also, in the
summer of 1975, ABC discovered that its
Cleveland

Cleveland affiliate WEWS-TV
was producing its own morning program The Morning Exchange, which
debuted in 1972 and was now locally pre-empting AM America; it was the
first morning show to utilize a set modeled after a living room, and
established a concept now commonplace among network morning shows in
which news and weather updates were featured at the top and bottom of
each hour. Discovering that their formats seemed to appeal to their
viewers,[118] the network became the first to adopt them for a new
national morning show, Good Morning America, which debuted on November
3, 1975.[118]
The 1970s were highlighted by several successful comedy, fantasy,
action and superhero-themed series for the network including Kung Fu,
The Six Million Dollar Man, Wonder Woman, Starsky & Hutch,
Charlie's Angels, The Bionic Woman,
Fantasy Island

Fantasy Island and Battlestar
Galactica. Many of these series were greenlit by Silverman, who left
ABC in 1978 to become president of NBC's entertainment division. The
rousing success of
Happy Days

Happy Days also led to a successful spin-off
series, Laverne & Shirley, which debuted during the 1975–76
season.
Charlie's Angels

Charlie's Angels and
Three's Company

Three's Company (which debuted during the
1976–77 season) were two prime examples of a trend among the major
networks during the 1970s known as "jiggle TV", featuring attractive,
often buxom, women in main and guest roles.
In 1977, Henry Plitt, who at the time was associated with Thomas
Klutznick, a real estate entrepreneur in Chicago, purchased the
southern division of ABC Theatres, ABC Southern.[109] The sale
stripped ABC of control over its theaters as a result of changes in
the theater operation sector, mainly the fact that the population was
migrating to the suburbs and moving away from older cinemas in larger
cities[109] (
Plitt Theatres

Plitt Theatres was later purchased by Cineplex Odeon
Corporation in 1987[109]).
For its part, the television network produced a few new hits during
1977: January saw the premiere of Roots, a miniseries based on an Alex
Haley novel that was published the previous year. Roots went on to
become one of the highest-rated programs in American television
history, with unprecedented ratings for its finale.[119][120] In
September, The Love Boat, a comedy-drama anthology series produced by
Aaron Spelling

Aaron Spelling which was based around the crew of a cruise ship and
featured three stories centered partly on the ship's various
passengers; although critically lambasted, the series turned out to be
a ratings success and lasted nine seasons. The success of Roots, Happy
Days and
The Love Boat

The Love Boat allowed the network to take first place in the
ratings for the first time in the 1976–77 season.[69] On September
13, 1977, the network debuted Soap, a controversial soap opera parody
which became known for being the first television series to feature an
openly gay main character (played by a then-unknown Billy Crystal); it
last ran on the network on April 20, 1981.
Meanwhile, ABC News, which formed as a newly separate division, sought
to become a global leader in television news.[121] In 1977, Roone
Arledge was named president of the new
ABC News

ABC News in addition to being
president of ABC Sports.[122] That same year, ABC launched a major
expansion of its office facilities in New York City. The company first
constructed a new 10-story building on land previously occupied by an
abandoned warehouse on the corner of Columbus Avenue and West 66th
Street; the facility that was built in its place is nicknamed "7
Lincoln Square" (although it is actually located at 149 Columbus
Avenue). Meanwhile, a 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

WABC-TV moved its operations
from offices at 77 West 66th Street to 149 Columbus Avenue, freeing up
space for the ABC network to house some of its operations.
In June 1978, Arledge created the newsmagazine 20/20;[123] after its
first episode received harshly negative reviews, the program – which
debuted as a summer series, before becoming a year-round program in
1979 – was immediately revamped to feature a mix of in-depth stories
and interviews, with
Hugh Downs

Hugh Downs appointed as its anchor (later paired
alongside his former Today colleague Barbara Walters). In February
1979, ABC sold its recording division to
MCA Inc.

MCA Inc. for $20 million; the
label was discontinued by March 5 of that year, and all of its 300
employees were laid off[124] (the rights to the works of ABC Records
and all of MCA's other labels have since been acquired by Universal
Music Group).
Merger with Capital Cities, purchase of
ESPN

ESPN and reprogramming Friday
nights (1981–1990)[edit]
ABC dominated the American television landscape during the 1970s and
early 1980s (by 1980, the three major networks represented 90% of all
prime-time television viewership in the U.S.[125]). Several flagship
series debuted on the network during this time including Dynasty, an
opulent drama from
Aaron Spelling

Aaron Spelling that became a hit when it premiered
as a midseason series in 1981, five months before Spelling's other ABC
hit
Charlie's Angels

Charlie's Angels ended its run. The network was also propelled
during the early 1980s by the continued successes of Happy Days,
Three's Company, Laverne & Shirley and Fantasy Island, and gained
new hits in Too Close for Comfort, Soap spinoff Benson and Happy Days
spinoff Mork & Mindy. In 1981, ABC (through its ABC Video Services
division) launched the Alpha Repertory
Television

Television Service (ARTS), a
cable channel operated as a joint venture with the Hearst Corporation
offering cultural and arts programming, which aired as a nighttime
service over the channel space of Nickelodeon.[126]
ESPN

ESPN (logo pictured) was acquired by ABC in 1982.
On August 9, 1982, ABC purchased a 10% stake in the Entertainment and
Sports Programming Network (ESPN) for $20 million; in exchange for the
interest,
ESPN

ESPN gained the U.S. television rights to the British Open,
which ABC had not been able to broadcast in its entirety.[127] The
purchase provided ABC the option of purchasing additional shares of up
to 49% under certain conditions,[128] which included the option to
purchase at least 10% of Getty Oil's shares in the channel prior to
January 2, 1984.[128]
In 1983, ABC sold
KXYZ to the Infinity Broadcasting Corporation.[129]
On January 4, 1984,
The New York Times

The New York Times reported that ABC, through its
subsidiary ABC Video Enterprises, had exercised its option to purchase
up to 15% (or between $25 million and $30 million) of Getty Oil's
shares in ESPN, which would allow it to expand its shares at a later
date.[128] In June 1984, ABC's executive committee approved the
company's interest acquisition in ESPN, and ABC arranged with Getty
Oil to obtain an 80% stake in the channel, while selling the remaining
20% to Nabisco.[130] That year, ABC and Hearst reached an agreement
with
RCA

RCA to merge ARTS and competing arts service, The Entertainment
Channel, into a single cable channel called Arts & Entertainment
Television

Television (A&E); the new channel subsequently leased a separate
satellite transponder, ending its sharing agreement with Nickelodeon
to become a 24-hour service.[126] Meanwhile, ABC withdrew from the
theme park business for good when it sold the Silver Springs Nature
Theme Park.[98]
In December 1984, Thomas S. Murphy, chief executive officer of Capital
Cities Communications, contacted
Leonard Goldenson about a proposal to
merge their respective companies.[131] On March 16, 1985, ABC's
executive committee accepted the merger offer,[132] which was formally
announced on March 18, 1985, with Capital Cities purchasing ABC and
its related properties for $3.5 billion and $118 for each of ABC's
shares as well as a guarantee of 10% (or $3) for a total of $121 per
share. The merger shocked the entertainment industry, as Capital
Cities was some 4 times smaller than ABC was at the time. [131] To
finance the purchase, Capital Cities borrowed $2.1 billion from a
consortium of banks, which sold certain assets that Capital Cities
could not acquire or retain due to FCC ownership rules for a combined
$900 million and sold off several cable television systems, which were
sold to The Washington Post Company (forming the present-day Cable
One).[133] The remaining $500 million was loaned by Warren Buffett,
who promised that his company
Berkshire Hathaway

Berkshire Hathaway would purchase $3
million in shares, at $172.50 apiece.[133][134] Due to an FCC ban on
same-market ownership of television and radio stations by a single
company (although the deal would have otherwise complied with new
ownership rules implemented by the FCC in January 1985, that allowed
broadcasters to own a maximum of 12 television stations[131]), ABC and
Capital Cities respectively decided to sell
WXYZ-TV

WXYZ-TV and Tampa
independent station
WFTS-TV

WFTS-TV to the
E. W. Scripps Company

E. W. Scripps Company (although
Capital Cities/ABC originally intended to seek a cross-ownership
waiver to retain WXYZ and Capital Cities-owned radio stations WJR and
WHYT).
The merger between ABC and Capital Cities received federal approval on
September 5, 1985. After the ABC/Capital Cities merger was finalized
on January 3, 1986, the combined company – which became known as
Capital Cities/ABC, Inc. – added four television stations
(WPVI-TV/Philadelphia, KTRK-TV/Houston, KFSN-TV/Fresno and
WTVD/Raleigh) and several radio stations to ABC's broadcasting
portfolio, and also included Fairchild Publications and four
newspapers (including
The Kansas City Star

The Kansas City Star and Fort Worth
Star-Telegram).[135] It also initiated several changes in its
management:[136] Frederick S. Pierce was named 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 was appointed president of the ABC
Television

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

ABC News and ABC Sports.
In February 1986, Thomas S. Murphy, who had been serving as CEO of
Capital Cities since 1964, was appointed chairman and CEO emeritus of
ABC.[137] Jim Duffy stepped down as ABC
Television

Television president for a
management position at ABC Communications, a subsidiary that
specialized in community service programming, including shows related
to literary education.[121]
As far as programming is concerned, four of ABC's marquee shows of the
1970s ended their runs during the mid-1980s: Laverne & Shirley
ended its run in 1983,
Happy Days

Happy Days and
Three's Company

Three's Company ended in 1984
(with the latter producing a short-lived spinoff that year), while The
Love Boat ended its run in 1986. After nearly a decade of ratings
trouble,
NBC

NBC had regained the ratings lead among the Big Three
networks in 1984 on the success of series such as The Cosby Show,
Cheers

Cheers and
Miami

Miami Vice. To counteract NBC, ABC decided to refocus
itself on comedies and family-oriented series beginning in the
mid-1980s including Who's the Boss?, Mr. Belvedere, Growing Pains,
Perfect Strangers, Head of the Class, Full House, The Wonder Years,
Just the Ten of Us

Just the Ten of Us and Roseanne.
Following the initial success of these series, ABC revamped its Friday
night schedule around family-friendly comedies in the late 1980s,
culminating in the 1989 debut of the "TGIF" block (which promotions
referenced stood for "Thank Goodness It's Funny").[138] Many of the
series featured during the run of the block were produced by
Miller-Boyett Productions, a Warner Bros.-based studio that briefly
programmed the entire Friday lineup during the 1990–91 season (with
Going Places joining Family Matters,
Full House

Full House and Perfect Strangers
on the "TGIF" schedule) and through its development deal with
Paramount
Television

Television prior to 1986 (as Miller-Milkis, and later,
Miller-Milkis-Boyett Productions), had earlier produced
Happy Days

Happy Days and
its various spinoffs among other series for the network.
In 1988, ABC constructed a new building to serve as the network's
headquarters, located near the studios of
WABC-TV

WABC-TV on West 66th Street.
The television network's restructuring program, launched in 1974,
helped with the purchases and exchanges of nearly 70 stations during
the late 1980s, and aided in increasing its ratings by more than 2
million viewers.[121]
Continued success and acquisition by Disney (1991–2000)[edit]
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.[139] Now at a strong
second place, the network entered the 1990s with additional
family-friendly hits including
America's Funniest Home Videos
.png)
America's Funniest Home Videos (which
has gone on to become the longest-running prime time entertainment
program in the network's history), Step by Step, Hangin' with Mr.
Cooper,
Boy Meets World

Boy Meets World and Perfect Strangers spinoff Family Matters,
as well as series such as Doogie Howser, M.D., Life Goes On, cult
favorite
Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks and The Commish. In September 1991, the network
premiered Home Improvement, a sitcom starring stand-up comic Tim Allen
centering on the family and work life of an accident-prone host of a
cable-access home improvement show. Lasting eight seasons, its success
led ABC to greenlight additional sitcom projects helmed by comedians
during the 1990s including The Drew Carey Show; Brett Butler vehicle
Grace Under Fire; and Ellen, which became notable for a 1997 episode
which served as the coming out of series star
Ellen DeGeneres

Ellen DeGeneres (as well
as her character in the series) as a lesbian.
In 1993, the FCC repealed the Financial Interest and Syndication
Rules, once again allowing networks to hold interests in television
production studios.[140] That same year, Capital Cities/ABC purchased
the French animation studio DIC Entertainment;[141] it also signed an
agreement with
Time Warner Cable

Time Warner Cable to carry its owned-and-operated
television stations on the provider's systems in ABC O&O
markets.[142] By that year, ABC had a total viewership share of 23.63%
of American households, just below the limit of 25% imposed by the
FCC.[140]
Daniel Burke departed from Capital Cities/ABC in February 1994, with
Thomas Murphy taking over as president[137] before ceding control to
Robert Iger. September 1993 saw the debut of NYPD Blue, a gritty
police procedural from
Steven Bochco

Steven Bochco (who created Doogie Howser, M.D.
and the critically pilloried
Cop Rock

Cop Rock for ABC earlier in the decade);
lasting twelve seasons, the drama became known for its boundary
pushing of network television standards (particularly its occasional
use of graphic language and rear nudity), which led some affiliates to
initially refuse to air the show in its first season.
In order to compete with CNN, ABC proposed a 24-hour news channel
called ABC Cable News, with plans to launch the network in 1995;
however, the plan would ultimately be shelved by company management.
ABC would reattempt such a concept in July 2004 with the launch of ABC
News Now, a 24-hour news channel distributed for viewing on the
Internet

Internet and mobile phones. On August 29, 1994, ABC purchased Flint,
Michigan affiliate
WJRT-TV

WJRT-TV and
WTVG

WTVG in
Toledo, Ohio

Toledo, Ohio (which was
previously affiliated with ABC from 1958 to 1970) from SJL Broadcast
Management, with the latter switching to ABC once its contract with
NBC

NBC expired two months after the purchase was finalized in early
1995.[143] Both stations were acquired as a contingency plan in the
event that
CBS

CBS reached an affiliation deal with
WXYZ-TV

WXYZ-TV (to replace
WJBK, which switched to Fox as a result of that network's group
affiliation agreement with New World Communications) in order to allow
the network to retain some over-the-air presence in the
Detroit

Detroit market
(the E.W. Scripps Company and ABC would reach a group affiliation deal
that renewed affiliation agreements with WXYZ and WEWS, and switch
four other stations, including two whose Fox affiliations were
displaced by the New World deal, with the network).[144]
On July 31, 1995,
The Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company announced an agreement to
merge with Capital Cities/ABC for $19 billion.[49][145] Disney
shareholders approved the merger at a special conference in New York
City on January 4, 1996,[145][146] with the acquisition of Capital
Cities/ABC being completed on February 9; following the sale, Disney
renamed its new subsidiary ABC Inc.[145] In addition to the ABC
network, the Disney acquisition integrated ABC's ten
owned-and-operated television and 21 radio stations; its 80% interest
in ESPN, ownership interests in The History Channel, A&E
Television

Television Networks, and Lifetime Entertainment; and Capital
Cities/ABC's magazine and newspaper properties into the company.[49]
As FCC ownership rules forbade the company from keeping both it and
KABC-TV, Disney sold
Los Angeles

Los Angeles independent station
KCAL-TV

KCAL-TV to Young
Broadcasting for $387 million.[147] On April 4, Disney sold the four
newspapers that ABC had controlled under Capital Cities to Knight
Ridder for $1.65 billion.[148] Following the merger, Thomas S. Murphy
left ABC with Robert Iger taking his place as president and CEO.[149]
Around the time of the merger, Disney's television production units
had already produced series for the network such as Home Improvement
and Boy Meets World, while the deal also allowed ABC access to
Disney's children's programming library for its Saturday morning
block. In 1998, ABC premiered the Aaron Sorkin-created sitcom Sports
Night, centering on the travails of the staff of a SportsCenter-style
sports news program; despite earning critical praise and multiple Emmy
Awards, the series was cancelled in 2000 after two seasons.
On May 10, 1999, Disney reorganized its publishing division, the Buena
Vista Publishing Group, renaming it as Disney Publishing Worldwide;
the rechristened division became a subsidiary of Disney Consumer
Products while
Hyperion Books

Hyperion Books became affiliated with ABC.[150] On July
8, 1999, Disney consolidated
Walt Disney

Walt Disney
Television

Television Studio, Buena
Vista
Television

Television Productions and ABC's primetime division into the ABC
Entertainment
Television

Television Group.
In August 1999, ABC premiered a special series event, Who Wants to Be
a Millionaire, a game show based on the British program of the same
title. Hosted throughout its ABC tenure by Regis Philbin, the program
became a major ratings success throughout its initial summer run,
which led ABC to renew Millionaire as a regular series, returning on
January 18, 2000. At its peak, the program aired as much as six nights
a week.[151] Buoyed by Millionaire, during the 1999–2000 season, ABC
became the first network to move from third to first place in the
ratings during a single television season. Millionaire ended its run
on the network's primetime lineup after three years in 2002, and in
September of that year, Buena Vista
Television

Television relaunched the show as
a syndicated program which throughout its run starred various hosts,
of whom the first and longest-tenured, Meredith Vieira, became the
first woman to win multiple Emmy Awards for hosting a game show.
New century, new programs; divisional restructuring
(2001–2010)[edit]
ABC's
Times Square Studios

Times Square Studios in New York City.
In addition to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, the network entered the
2000s with hits held over from the previous decade such as The
Practice,
NYPD Blue

NYPD Blue and The Wonderful World of Disney and new series
such as
My Wife and Kids

My Wife and Kids and According to Jim, all of which managed to
help ABC stay ahead of the competition in the ratings in spite of the
later departure of Millionaire. 2000 saw the end of the original
"TGIF", which was struggling to find new hits following the loss of
Family Matters

Family Matters and Step by Step to
CBS

CBS as part of its own failed
attempt at a family-oriented Friday comedy block in the 1997–98
season. Outside of 20/20, Friday nights remained a weak spot for ABC
for the next 11 years.
On April 30, 2000, as a result of a carriage dispute with ABC, Time
Warner Cable removed ABC owned-and-operated stations from the cable
provider's systems in four markets (
WABC-TV

WABC-TV in New York City, KABC-TV
in Los Angeles, KTRK in
Houston

Houston and
WTVD

WTVD in Raleigh-Durham). The
network had earlier reached an eleventh-hour deal to renew its
carriage agreement with the provider on December 31, 1999.[142] ABC
filed an emergency petition to the Federal Communications Commission
on May 1 to force TWC to restore the affected stations; the FCC ruled
in favor of ABC, ordering
Time Warner Cable

Time Warner Cable to restore the stations,
doing so on the afternoon of May 2.[142] ABC ended the 2000–01
season as the most-watched network, ahead of NBC.
Networks affiliates approved a two-year affiliate agreement in 2002.
In September 2006, Disney Chairman/CEO
Michael Eisner

Michael Eisner outlined a
proposed realignment of the ABC broadcast network day parts with the
similar unit in its cable channels: ABC Saturday mornings with Disney
Channels (Toon & Playhouse), ABC daytime with
Soapnet

Soapnet and ABC
prime time with ABC Family.[152] 2002 saw the debut of the network's
first hit reality series, The Bachelor (the elimination-style dating
show's success led to a spinoff, The Bachelorette, which premiered the
following year, as well as two additional spinoffs that later debuted
in the early 2010s).
In 2004, ABC's average viewership declined by ten ratings points,
landing the network in fourth place, behind NBC,
CBS

CBS and Fox (by the
following year, the combined season-ending average audience share of
ABC,
NBC

NBC and
CBS

CBS represented only 32% of U.S. households[125]).
However, during the 2004–05 season, the network experienced
unexpected success with new series such as Desperate Housewives, Lost
and
Grey's Anatomy

Grey's Anatomy as well as reality series Dancing with the Stars,
which helped ABC rise to second place, jumping ahead of CBS, but
behind a surging Fox. On April 21, 2004, Disney announced a
restructuring of its
Disney Media Networks

Disney Media Networks division with Marvin Jacobs
being named president of ABC parent Disney–ABC
Television

Television Group, and
ESPN

ESPN president
George Bodenheimer becoming co-CEO of the division with
Jacobs, as well as president of ABC Sports.[153] On December 7, 2005,
ABC Sports and
ESPN

ESPN signed an eight-year broadcast rights agreement
with NASCAR, allowing ABC and
ESPN

ESPN to broadcast 17
NASCAR

NASCAR Cup Series
races each season (comprising just over half of the 36 races held
annually) effective with the 2006 season.[154]
Separation of the radio network[edit]
Between May and September 2005, rumors circulated that Disney–ABC
was considering a sale of ABC Radio, with Clear Channel Communications
and Westwood One (which had earlier purchased NBC's radio division, as
well as the distribution rights to CBS's, and the Mutual Broadcasting
System during the 1990s) 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 February 6, 2007,
The Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company announced an agreement
with
Citadel Broadcasting

Citadel Broadcasting to merge the
ABC Radio Network

ABC Radio Network with Citadel.
The new entity, Citadel Communications,[155] was majority owned (52%)
by Disney, in conjunction with
Forstmann Little

Forstmann Little (32%) and former
shareholders of
Citadel Broadcasting

Citadel Broadcasting (16%). Citadel eventually merged
with
Cumulus Media

Cumulus Media in September 2011.
Entertainment reorganization and struggles with new shows
(2007–2009)[edit]
In February 2007, Disney announced that it would rename its Touchstone
Television

Television production unit as the ABC
Television

Television Studio (simplified to
ABC Studios

ABC Studios by that summer), as part of a corporate move to eliminate
secondary production brands such as Buena Vista.[156] In May 2007, ABC
unveiled a new image campaign, revolving around the slogan "Start
Here", which highlighted the multi-platform availability of ABC's
program content.[157]
The Writers Guild of America strike that halted production of network
programs for much of the 2007–08 season affected the network in
2007–08 and 2008–09, as various ABC shows that premiered in 2007,
such as Dirty Sexy Money, Pushing Daisies,
Eli Stone

Eli Stone and Samantha
Who?, did not live to see a third season; other series such as Boston
Legal and the U.S. version of Life on Mars suffered from low
viewership, despite the former, a spin off of The Practice, being a
once-highlighted breakout series when it debuted in 2005.[158] One of
the network's strike-replacement programs during that time was the
game show Duel, which premiered in December 2007. The program would
become a minor success for the network during its initial six-episode
run, which led ABC to renew Duel as a regular series starting in April
2008. However, Duel suffered from low viewership during its run as a
regular series, and ABC canceled the program after sixteen episodes.
On August 15, 2008, Disney denied rumors started by Caris & Co.
that it would be selling the ten ABC owned-and-operated stations.[159]
In early 2009,
Disney–ABC Television Group

Disney–ABC Television Group merged ABC Entertainment
and
ABC Studios

ABC Studios into a new division,
ABC Entertainment Group, which
would be responsible for both its production and broadcasting
operations.[160][161][162][163][164] During this reorganization, the
group announced that it would lay off 5% of its workforce.[165] On
April 2, 2009,
Citadel Communications announced that it would rebrand
ABC Radio as Citadel Media;[166] however,
ABC News

ABC News continued to
provide news content for Citadel. On December 22, Disney–ABC
Television

Television Group announced a partnership with
Apple Inc.

Apple Inc. to make
individual episodes of ABC and
Disney Channel

Disney Channel programs available for
purchase on iTunes.[167]
Current state[edit]
In March 2010, reports suggested that
The Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company was
considering spinning off ABC into an independent company because "it
[did not] add a lot of value to Disney's other divisions".[168] The
company entered advanced negotiations with two private equity firms to
sell ABC; however, the planned sale was cancelled as a result of an
FBI investigation into allegations of attempted insider trading by an
ex-employee which they later denied.[169]
The network began running into some trouble in the ratings by 2010.
That year, the sixth and final season of Lost became the drama's
lowest-rated season since its debut in 2004. Ratings for the once
instant-hit
Ugly Betty

Ugly Betty collapsed dramatically after it was moved to
Fridays at the start of its fourth season in the fall of 2009; an
attempt to boost ratings by moving the dramedy to Wednesdays failed,
with its ultimate cancellation by the network eliciting negative
reaction from the public, and particularly the show's fanbase.[170]
With the network's two former hit shows now out of the picture, the
network's remaining top veteran shows
Desperate Housewives

Desperate Housewives and Grey's
Anatomy, and another hit drama Brothers & Sisters, all ended the
2009–10 season having recorded their lowest ratings ever.
Among the few bright spots during this season were the midseason crime
dramedy Castle as well as the success of two family sitcoms that
anchored the network's revamped Wednesday comedy lineup, The Middle
and Modern Family, the latter of which was both a critical and
commercial success.
Shark Tank

Shark Tank (based on the
Dragon's Den reality
format) also became a midseason sleeper hit on Sundays in the spring
of 2010; the following season, it became the tentpole of the network's
Friday night schedule, gradually helping make ABC a strong competitor
(after being paired with
20/20

20/20 and beginning with the 2012–13
season, the
Tim Allen

Tim Allen sitcom Last Man Standing) against CBS'
long-dominant drama/reality lineup on that night for the first time
since the "TGIF" lineup ended in 2000.
The network's troubles with sustaining existing series and gaining new
hits spilled over into its 2010–11 schedule: ABC's dramas during
that season continued to fail, with the midseason forensic
investigation drama
Body of Proof

Body of Proof being the only one that was renewed
for a second season.[171] The network also struggled to establish new
comedies to support the previous year's debuts, with only late-season
premiere Happy Endings earning a second season.[171] Meanwhile, the
new lows hit by Brothers & Sisters led to its cancellation, and
the previous year's only drama renewal, V, also failed to earn another
season after a low-rated midseason run.[172] Despite this and another
noticeable ratings decline, ABC would manage to outrate
NBC

NBC for third
place by a larger margin than the previous year.[173]
With relatively little buzz surrounding its 2010–11 pilots,
compounded by a sexual harassment lawsuit against him, Stephen
McPherson resigned as
ABC Entertainment Group president on July 27,
2010. Paul Lee (who previously served as the president of sister cable
channel ABC Family) was announced as his replacement that same
day.[174][175]
On April 14, 2011, ABC canceled the long-running soap operas All My
Children and
One Life to Live

One Life to Live after 41 and 43 years on the air,
respectively[176] (following backlash from fans, ABC sold the rights
to both shows to Prospect Park, which eventually revived the soaps on
Hulu

Hulu for one additional season in 2013 and with both companies suing
one another for allegations of interference with the process of
reviving the shows, failure to pay licensing fees and issues over
ABC's use of certain characters from
One Life to Live

One Life to Live on General
Hospital during the transition[177][178]). The talk/lifestyle show
that replaced One Life to Live, The Revolution, failed to generate
satisfactory ratings and was in turn canceled after only seven months.
The 2011–12 season saw ABC drop to fourth place in the 18–49
demographic despite renewing a handful of new shows (including
freshmen dramas Scandal, Revenge and Once Upon a Time) for second
seasons.[179]
In 2012,
ABC News

ABC News and
Univision Communications

Univision Communications announced a partnership
to launch an English-language cable news channel primarily aimed at
younger English-speaking Hispanics; the new network, Fusion, launched
on October 28, 2013.[180][181][182] 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.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Resurrection, all of
which were renewed; however, that season saw the cancellations of
holdovers The Neighbors (which languished in its new Friday time slot
despite being bookended by Last Man Standing and Shark Tank) and
Suburgatory. NBC, which had lagged behind ABC for eight years,
finished the season in first place in the 18–49 demographic for the
first time since 2004, and in second place in total viewership behind
long-dominant CBS. ABC itself would finish the season in third place
as Fox crashed to fourth in both demographics.
The 2014–15 season saw moderate hits in
Black-ish

Black-ish (the first series
on the four major U.S. networks to feature a predominately
African-American cast since 2006) and major successes in How to Get
Away with Murder (which, alongside
Grey's Anatomy

Grey's Anatomy and Scandal, became
one of the centerpieces of a new Thursday drama lineup, "TGIT",
composed of dramas executive produced by Shonda Rhimes). New hits came
in with fellow new comedy Fresh Off the Boat, a new drama Secrets and
Lies and a low rated but critically acclaimed show American Crime, all
of which were renewed. However, that season saw cancellations of
Resurrection and Revenge.
By November 2015, ABC was creating a digital slate called internal
ABC3 for its WatchABC video streaming app.[183] The ABC3 slate of 7
comedy and lifestyle short series debuted under the ABCd banner along
with 38 older series under a revamped and renamed ABC app on July 13,
2016.[184]
The 2015–16 season saw breakout hits such as Quantico, The Real
O'Neals, The Catch, and Dr. Ken. On April 18, 2016, ABC and ABC
Productions announced that Stana Katic and Tamala Jones would not
return for Castle's ninth season, should it be renewed.[185] Despite
several other cast members having signed on for a ninth season, on May
12, 2016, it was announced that the show would be cancelled instead;
the final episode aired on May 16, 2016.[186]
The 2016-17 season saw a successful expansion of the network's Tuesday
night comedy line-up by an extra hour, with long-time Wednesday staple
The Middle leading the night, along with the returning Fresh Off the
Boat and The Real O'Neals, and new series American Housewife,
Imaginary Mary, and Downward Dog. Wednesday's comedy block, with The
Goldbergs leading the night in place of The Middle, introduced
Speechless. Both
American Housewife

American Housewife and Speechless were renewed for
second seasons. This season also saw the cancellation of long-running
sitcom Last Man Standing and Dr. Ken. The former stirred controversy
due to allegations that Last Man Standing was cancelled due to the
star Tim Allen's and the show's right-leaning viewpoints.[187] ABC
also saw the success of freshman series Designated Survivor. However,
the previous season's breakout hit Quantico saw its ratings decline
during its sophomore year.[188]
The 2017-18 season saw ABC acquire a breakout hit with The Good
Doctor, which lead to the series getting an early full-season
pickup.[189] Additionally, ABC has revived former FOX series American
Idol to premiere during the mid-season. As a result, veteran dramas
Once Upon a Time and Marvel
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. were displaced to
Friday nights, while
Shark Tank

Shark Tank was moved to Sunday nights in order to
accommodate a time slot for American Idol.[190] Former ABC sitcom
Roseanne, which originally ran from 1988 to 1997, is also scheduled to
return for mid-season.
Programming[edit]
Main articles: List of programs broadcast by American Broadcasting
Company, ABC News, and
ESPN

ESPN on ABC
The ABC television network provides 89 hours of regularly scheduled
network programming each week. The network provides 22 hours of prime
time programming to affiliated stations from 8:00–11:00 p.m.
Monday through Saturday (all times Eastern and Pacific Time) and
7:00–11:00 p.m. on Sundays.
Daytime programming is also provided from 11:00 a.m. to
3:00 p.m. weekdays (with a one-hour break at 12:00 p.m.
Eastern/Pacific for stations to air newscasts, other locally produced
programming such as talk shows, or syndicated programs) featuring the
talk/lifestyle shows The View and
The Chew

The Chew and the soap opera General
Hospital.
ABC News

ABC News programming includes
Good Morning America

Good Morning America from 7:00
to 9:00 a.m. weekdays (along with one-hour weekend editions);
nightly editions of
ABC World News Tonight

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

America This Morning and the late night newsmagazine
Nightline. Late nights feature the weeknight talk show Jimmy Kimmel
Live!.
The network's three-hour Saturday morning children's programming
timeslot is programmed by syndication distributor Litton
Entertainment, which produces
Litton's Weekend Adventure

Litton's Weekend Adventure under an
arrangement in which the programming block is syndicated exclusively
to ABC owned-and-operated and affiliated 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 12:00 to 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time (9:00 a.m. to
3:00 p.m. Pacific) and, during college football season, during
prime time on Saturday nights as part of the Saturday Night Football
package. Due to the erratic and (outside of college football season)
highly inconsistent scheduling of sports programming on weekend
afternoons since
ESPN

ESPN took over responsibilities for ABC's sports
division in 2006, ABC carries the
ESPN

ESPN Sports Saturday block on
Saturday late afternoons (featuring various ESPN-produced
documentaries), and on Sundays either encores of primetime reality
series, cancelled series being burned off that had no room on the
primetime schedule, occasional theatrical films which were acquired by
the network in the early to mid-2000s that no longer have a primetime
slot to air in or more recently, figure skating and gymnastics
specials supplied by Disson Skating, when no sports telecasts are
scheduled, usually airing between 4:00 and 6:00 p.m. Eastern and
Pacific Time. During the summer, ABC airs ESPN-produced highlight
compilation programs for
The Open Championship

The Open Championship golf and The Wimbledon
tennis tournaments to provide some presence for both events on
American broadcast television. ABC also carries various X Games
weekend events not broadcast by ESPN. ABC airs NBA games on Sundays,
normally starting in January as "NBA Sunday Showcase" during the
regular season, and shows Christmas Day games, regularly between 2–7
PM ET, and NBA playoff games during the weekends, and exclusive rights
to the NBA Finals.
Daytime[edit]
Main article: ABC Daytime
ABC's daytime schedule currently features talk shows The View and The
Chew, and the soap opera General Hospital, the latter of which is the
longest-running entertainment program in the history of the ABC
television network, having aired since 1963. ABC also broadcasts the
morning news program
Good Morning America

Good Morning America and has done so since 1975,
though that program is not considered to be part of the ABC Daytime
block. In addition to the long-running
All My Children

All My Children (1970–2011)
and
One Life to Live

One Life to Live (1968–2012), notable past soap operas seen on
the daytime lineup include Ryan's Hope, Dark Shadows, Loving, The City
and Port Charles. ABC also aired the last nine years of the Procter
& Gamble-produced soap The Edge of Night, following its
cancellation by
CBS

CBS in 1975.
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

All-Star Blitz and Hot Streak.
Specials[edit]
ABC currently holds the broadcast rights to the Academy Awards, Emmy
Awards (which are rotated across all four major networks on a
year-to-year basis), 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

Peanuts television specials, having
acquired the broadcast rights from CBS, which originated the specials
in 1965 with the debut of
A Charlie Brown Christmas

A Charlie Brown Christmas (other Peanuts
specials broadcast annually by ABC, including A Charlie Brown
Christmas, include
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and A Charlie
Brown Thanksgiving).
Since 1974, ABC has generally aired Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin'
Eve on
New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve (hosted first by its creator Dick Clark, and
later by his successor Ryan Seacrest); the only exception was in 1999,
when ABC put it on a one-year hiatus to provide coverage of the
international millennium festivities, though Clark's traditional
countdown from
Times Square

Times Square was still featured within the coverage.
ABC has also aired the
Miss America

Miss America pageant from 1954 to 1956, 1997 to
2005 (with the television rights being assumed by cable channel TLC in
2006, when the pageant moved from its longtime homebase in Atlantic
City to Las Vegas, before returning to Atlantic City in 2013) and
since 2011. Under its current contract with the Miss America
Organization, ABC will continue to broadcast the pageant through
2016.[191]
In 2015, ABC began airing the
ESPY Awards
_logo.svg/360px-ESPY_Award_(The_Espys)_logo.svg.png)
ESPY Awards show, which normally aired
on
ESPN

ESPN before 2015. In the ABC debut of the ESPY's, Caitlyn Jenner
was awarded the Arthur Ash Award for courage, after she announced in a
20/20

20/20 interview, that she was becoming transgender.
Programming library[edit]
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

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

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

Worldvision Enterprises as a syndication
distributor, and
ABC Circle Films as a production company. 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

Television acquired it in 1999, and has most
recently been absorbed into
CBS

CBS
Television

Television Distribution, a unit of CBS
Corporation. Nonetheless, Worldvision sold portions of its catalog,
including the
Ruby-Spears and
Hanna-Barbera

Hanna-Barbera libraries, to Turner
Broadcasting System in 1991. 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

ABC Studios in 2007.[156]
Also part of the library are most films in the David O. Selznick
library, the Cinerama Productions/Palomar theatrical library (with the
exception of those films produced in Cinerama which are now under the
control of
Pacific Theatres

Pacific Theatres and Flicker Alley), 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, Grey's Anatomy, General Hospital, and
ABC News

ABC News productions),
although Disney–ABC Domestic
Television

Television (formerly known as Buena
Vista Television) handles domestic television distribution, while
Disney–ABC International
Television

Television (formerly known as Buena Vista
International Television) handles international television
distribution.
Stations[edit]
Main articles: List of ABC television affiliates (by U.S. state), List
of ABC television affiliates (table), and ABC Owned Television
Stations
Since its inception, ABC has had many affiliated stations, which
include
WABC-TV

WABC-TV and WPVI-TV, the first two stations to carry the
network's programming. As of November 2017[update], ABC has eight
owned-and-operated stations, and current and pending affiliation
agreements with 236 additional television stations encompassing 49
states, the District of Columbia, four U.S. possessions, Bermuda and
Saba;[192][193] this makes ABC the largest U.S. broadcast television
network by total number of affiliates. The network has an estimated
national reach of 97.76% of all households in the United States (or
305,477,424 Americans with at least one television set).
Currently, New Jersey,
Rhode Island

Rhode Island and
Delaware

Delaware are the only U.S.
states where ABC does not have a locally licensed affiliate (New
Jersey is served by
New York City

New York City O&O
WABC-TV

WABC-TV and Philadelphia
O&O WPVI-TV;
Rhode Island

Rhode Island is served by New Bedford,
Massachusetts-licensed WLNE, though outside of the transmitter, all
other operations for the station are based in Providence; and Delaware
is served by WPVI and
Salisbury, Maryland

Salisbury, Maryland affiliate WMDT). ABC
maintains affiliations with low-power stations (broadcasting either in
analog or digital) in a few markets, such as Birmingham, Alabama
(WBMA-LD),
Lima, Ohio

Lima, Ohio (WLQP-LP) and
South Bend, Indiana

South Bend, Indiana (WBND-LD). In
some markets, including the former two mentioned, these stations also
maintain digital simulcasts on a subchannel of a co-owned/co-managed
full-power television station.
The network has the unusual distinction of having separately owned and
operated affiliates which serve the same market in Tampa, Florida
(
WFTS-TV

WFTS-TV and WWSB),
Lincoln, Nebraska
.jpg/500px-Skyline_of_Downtown_Lincoln,_Nebraska,_U.S._(2015).jpg)
Lincoln, Nebraska (
KLKN-TV

KLKN-TV and KHGI-TV), and Grand
Rapids, Michigan (
WZZM

WZZM and WOTV), with an analogous situation arising
in
Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri (
KMBC-TV

KMBC-TV and KQTV).
KQTV

KQTV is licensed to St.
Joseph, Missouri, which is designated by Nielsen as a separate market
from Kansas City despite being located within 55 miles (89 km) of
one another (though in the 2010s through digital subchannels, KQTV's
competitor in the market, News-Press & Gazette Company, has
established locally-based affiliates of the other four major networks
and
Telemundo

Telemundo on three low-power stations to end St. Joseph's
dependence on Kansas City), while WWSB, KHGI and
WOTV

WOTV serve areas that
do not receive an adequate signal from their market's primary ABC
affiliate (in the case of WWSB, this dates back to when
WTSP

WTSP was
Tampa's primary ABC affiliate prior to 1994, with the former being
necessitated to serve the southern part of the Tampa market including
the station's city of license, Sarasota, due to WTSP's transmitter
being short-spaced to avoid interfering with the analog signal of
Miami

Miami affiliate
WPLG

WPLG – which like WTSP, broadcast on VHF channel
10).
The
Sinclair Broadcast Group

Sinclair Broadcast Group is the largest operator of ABC stations
by numerical total, owning or providing services to 28 ABC affiliates
and two additional subchannel-only affiliates; Sinclair owns the
largest ABC subchannel affiliate by market size, WABM-DT2/WDBB-DT2 in
the Birmingham market, which serve as repeaters of
WBMA-LD

WBMA-LD (which
itself is also simulcast on a subchannel of former WBMA satellite
WGWW, owned by Sinclair partner company Howard Stirk Holdings). The E.
W. Scripps Company is the largest operator of ABC stations in terms of
overall market reach, owning 15 ABC-affiliated stations (including
affiliates in larger markets such as Cleveland, Phoenix,
Detroit

Detroit and
Denver), and through its ownership of Phoenix affiliate KNXV, Las
Vegas affiliate
KTNV-TV

KTNV-TV and Tucson affiliate KGUN-TV, the only
provider of ABC programming for the majority of
Arizona

Arizona (outside the
Yuma-El Centro market) and Southern Nevada.
Facilities and studios[edit]
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. As a result, television series were
produced by
ABC Circle Films beginning in 1962 and by Touchstone
Television

Television beginning in 1985, before Touchstone was reorganized as ABC
Studios in February 2007. Since the 1950s, ABC has had two main
production facilities: the ABC
Television

Television Center (now The Prospect
Studios) on Prospect Avenue in Hollywood, California, shared with the
operations of
KABC-TV

KABC-TV until 1999; and the ABC
Television

Television Center, East,
a set of studios located throughout the New York City.
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 (105,000 sq ft) of the 14,864 square
meters (159,990 sq ft) of the blocks they encompass. The
aforementioned set includes:
The official headquarters at 77 West 66th Street, a 22-story building
built in 1988 on a 175 feet (53 m) × 200 feet (61 m) plot,
built partially on the site of the former St. Nicholas Arena;
A pair of buildings at 147–155 Columbus Avenue (with one building
comprising 10 stories and the other seven, and both containing glass
bays connecting them to each other), constructed on a 150 feet
(46 m) × 200 feet (61 m) plot;
30 West 67th Street, a 15-story building with a facade on 67th Street
on a 100 feet (30 m) × 100 feet (30 m) plot;
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
174 feet (53 m) × 100 feet (30 m) plot;
ABC also owns 7, 17 and 47 West 66th Street, three buildings on a 375
feet (114 m) x 100 feet (30 m) plot; the first two being the
original Durland's Riding Academy buildings;
From 1983 to 2013, Disney leased 70,000 square feet (6,500 m2) at
157 Columbus Avenue, just on the other side of 67th Street.[194]
Entrance of ABC's headquarters at 77 West 66 Street
WABC-TV

WABC-TV buildings at 149–155 Columbus 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

Times Square Studios at 1500 Broadway on land in
Times Square

Times Square owned by a development fund for the 42nd Street Project;
opened in 1999,
Good Morning America

Good Morning America and
Nightline

Nightline are broadcast from
this particular facility.
ABC News

ABC News has premises a little further on
West 66th Street, in a six-story building occupying a 196 feet
(60 m) × 379 feet (116 m) plot at 121–135 West End
Avenue. The block of West 66th street between
Central Park

Central Park West and
Columbus Ave which houses the
ABC News

ABC News building was renamed Peter
Jennings Way in 2006 in honor of the recently deceased longtime ABC
News chief anchor and anchor of World News Tonight.[195]
Related services[edit]
Video-on-demand services[edit]
ABC maintains several video on demand services for delayed viewing of
the network's programming, including a traditional VOD service called
ABC on Demand, which is carried on most traditional cable and IPTV
providers.
The Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company is also a part-owner of
Hulu

Hulu (as
part of a consortium that includes, among other parties, the
respective parent companies of
NBC

NBC and Fox,
NBCUniversal

NBCUniversal and 21st
Century Fox), and has offered full-length episodes of most of ABC's
programming through the streaming service since July 6, 2009 (which
are available for viewing on Hulu's website and mobile app, and since
July 2016, through
Yahoo! View

Yahoo! View as part of Hulu's spin-off of their
free service to Yahoo),[196] as part of an agreement reached in April
that year that also allowed Disney to acquire a 27% ownership stake in
Hulu.
In May 2013, ABC launched "WATCH ABC", a revamp of its traditional
multi-platform streaming services encompassing the network's existing
streaming portal at ABC.com and a mobile app for smartphones and
tablet computers; in addition to providing full-length episodes of ABC
programs, the service allows live programming streams of local ABC
affiliates in select markets (the first such offering by a U.S.
broadcast network). Similar to sister network ESPN's Watch
ESPN

ESPN service
(which originated the "WATCH" brand used by the streaming services of
Disney's television networks), live streams of ABC stations are only
available to authenticated subscribers of participating pay television
providers in certain markets.
New York City

New York City O&O
WABC-TV

WABC-TV and
Philadelphia

Philadelphia O&O
WPVI-TV

WPVI-TV were the first stations to offer streams
of their programming on the service (with a free preview for
non-subscribers through June 2013), with the six remaining ABC
O&Os offering streams by the start of the 2013–14 season. Hearst
Television

Television also reached a deal to offer streams of its ABC affiliates
(including stations in Boston, Kansas City, Milwaukee and West Palm
Beach) on the service, though as of 2016 these stations are only
available for live-streaming for
DirecTV

DirecTV subscribers.[197][198]
The most recent episodes of the network's shows are usually made
available on WATCH ABC,
Hulu

Hulu and ABC on Demand the day after their
original broadcast. In addition, ABC on Demand (like the
video-on-demand television services provided by the other U.S.
broadcast networks) disallows fast forwarding of accessed content.
Restrictions implemented by
Disney–ABC Television Group

Disney–ABC Television Group on January
7, 2014 restrict streaming of the most recent episode of any ABC
program on
Hulu

Hulu and WATCH ABC until eight days after their initial
broadcast, in order to encourage live or same-week (via both DVR and
cable on demand) viewing, with day-after-air streaming on either
service limited to subscribers of participating pay television
providers (such as Comcast,
Verizon FiOS

Verizon FiOS and Time Warner Cable) using
an ISP account via an authenticated user login.
By November 2015, ABC was creating a digital slate called internal
ABC3 for its WatchABC video streaming app.[183] The ABC3 slate of 7
comedy and lifestyle short series debuted under the ABCd banner along
with 38 older series under a revamped and renamed ABC app on July 13,
2016.[184]
ABC HD[edit]
Logo for ABC HD.
ABC's network feeds are transmitted in
720p

720p high definition, the
native resolution format for The
Walt Disney

Walt Disney Company's U.S. television
properties. However, most of Hearst Television's 16 ABC-affiliated
stations transmit the network's programming in
1080i
.jpg)
1080i HD, while 11
other affiliates owned by various companies carry the network feed in
480i

480i standard definition[192] either due to technical considerations
for affiliates of other major networks that carry ABC programming on a
digital subchannel or because a primary feed ABC affiliate has not yet
upgraded their transmission equipment to allow content to be presented
in HD.
ABC began its conversion to high definition with the launch of its
simulcast feed, ABC HD, on September 16, 2001 at the start of the
2001–02 season, with its scripted prime time series becoming the
first shows to upgrade to the format. The network's slate of freshmen
scripted series were broadcast in HD from their debuts, while all
scripted series held over from the 2000–01 season were converted
from standard-definition to high definition beginning that season.
With the 2011 cancellation of Supernanny, Extreme Makeover: Home
Edition became the only remaining program on the network's schedule
that was broadcast in 4:3 standard definition. All of the network's
programming has been presented in HD since January 2012 (with the
exception of certain holiday specials produced prior to 2005 – such
as the
Peanuts

Peanuts specials and
Rudolph's Shiny New Year

Rudolph's Shiny New Year – which
continue to be presented in 4:3 SD), when Extreme Makeover: Home
Edition ended its run as a regular series and
One Life to Live

One Life to Live (which
had been presented in 16:9 standard definition since 2010) also ended
its ABC run. The affiliate-syndicated Saturday morning E/I block
Litton's Weekend Aventure is also broadcast in HD, and was the first
children's program block on any U.S. broadcast network to feature
programs available in the format upon its September 2011 debut.
On September 1, 2016, ABC began to use 16:9 framing for all of most
graphical imaging (primarily the network's logo bug, in-program
promotions and generic closing credit sequences as well as sports
telecasts, where the BottomLine and scoreboard elements now extend
outside the 4:3 frame), requiring its stations and pay television
providers to display its programming in a compulsory widescreen
format, either in high definition or standard definition; with the
change, some programs (such as Grey's Anatomy, The Goldbergs and
Quantico) also began positioning their main on-screen credits outside
the 4:3 aspect ratio. This leaves
CBS

CBS and
The CW

The CW as the last two major
networks to continue to prefer 4:3 framing for graphics.
Visual identity[edit]
The "ABC Circle" logo, designed by
Paul Rand

Paul Rand in 1962
The ABC logo has evolved many times since the network's creation in
1943. The network's first logo, introduced in 1946, consisted of a
television screen containing the letters "T" and "V", with a vertical
ABC microphone in the center,[199] referencing the network's roots in
radio. When the ABC-UPT merger was finalized in 1953, the network
introduced a new logo based on the seal of the Federal Communications
Commission, with the letters "ABC" enclosed in a circular shield
surmounted by the bald eagle.[199] In 1957, just before the television
network began its first color broadcasts, the ABC logo consisted of a
tiny lowercase "abc" in the center of a large lowercase letter a, a
design known as the "ABC Circle A".[199]
In 1962, graphic designer
Paul Rand

Paul Rand redesigned the ABC logo into its
best-known (and current) form, with the lowercase letters "abc"
enclosed in a single black circle. The new logo debuted on-air for
ABC's promos at the start of the 1963–64 season. The letters are
strongly reminiscent of the Bauhaus typeface designed by Herbert Bayer
in the 1920s,[200] but also share similarities with several other
fonts, such as
ITC Avant Garde

ITC Avant Garde and Horatio, and most closely
resembling Chalet. 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 graphical imaging
packages for the network which based the logo's setting mainly on
special lighting effects then under development including white, blue,
pink, rainbow neon and glittering dotted lines. Among the "ABC Circle"
logo's many variants was a 1977 ID sequence that featured a bubble on
a black background representing the circle with glossy gold letters,
and as such, was the first ABC identification card to have a
three-dimensional appearance.[199]
In 1983, for the 40th anniversary of the network's founding, ID
sequences had the logo appear in a gold CGI design on a blue
background, accompanied by the slogan "That
Special

Special Feeling" in a
script font.[199] Ten years later, in 1993, the "ABC Circle" logo
reverted 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.[199] The ABC logo first appeared as a
on-screen bug in the 1993–94 season, appearing initially only for 60
seconds at the beginning of an act or segment, before appearing
throughout programs (except during commercial breaks) beginning in the
1995–96 season; the respective iterations of the translucent logo
bug were also incorporated within program promotions until the
2011–12 season.
During the 1997-98 season, the network began using a minimalist
graphical identity, designed by Pittard Sullivan, featuring a small
black-and-white "ABC Circle" logo on a yellow background (promotions
during this time also featured a sequence of still photos of the stars
of its programs during the timeslot card as well as the schedule
sequence that began each night's prime time lineup).[199] A new
four-note theme tune was introduced alongside the package, based
around the network's "We Love TV" image campaign introduced in January
1998, creating an audio signature on par with the
NBC

NBC chimes, CBS'
various three-note soundmarks (including the current version used
since 1992) and the Fox Fanfare. The four-note signature has been
updated with every television season thereafter (though variants of it
remain in use during the production company vanity cards shown
following the closing credits of most programs).
In 2000, ABC launched a web-based promotional campaign focused around
its circle logo, also called "the dot", in which comic book character
Little Dot

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.[201] The network hired the Troika Design Group to
design and produce its 2001–02 identity, which continued using the
black-and-yellow coloring of the logo and featured dots and stripes in
various promotional and identification spots.[202]
On June 16, 2007, ABC began to phase in a new imaging campaign for the
upcoming 2007–08 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, with a glossy
"ball" effect that was specifically designed for HD. On-air, the logo
was accompanied by animated water and ribbon effects. Red ribbons were
used to represent the entertainment division, while blue ribbons were
used for ABC News.[157][203]
A revised version of the ABC logo was introduced for promotions for
the 2013–14 season during the network's upfront presentation on May
14, 2013, and officially introduced on-air on May 30 (although some
affiliates implemented the new design prior to then), as part of an
overhaul of ABC's identity by design agency LoyalKaspar. The updated
logo carries a simpler gloss design than the previous version, and
contains lettering more closely resembling Paul Rand's original
version of the circle logo. The logo is displayed on-air, online and
in print advertising in four variants shading the respective color
used with the circle design's native black coloring: a gold version is
primarily used on entertainment-oriented outlets (such as ABC.com,
WATCH ABC, and by ABC Studios) and the on-screen bug; steel blue and
dark grey versions are used primarily by ABC News; a red version is
used for
ESPN

ESPN on ABC, while all four variants are used selectively in
advertising and by affiliates. A new custom typeface, "ABC Modern"
(which was inspired by the logotype), was also created for use in
advertising and other promotional materials.[204]
The Circle 7 logo, first used in 1962, identifies dozens of ABC
channel 7 stations, most notably O&Os
WABC-TV

WABC-TV (New York City),
KABC-TV

KABC-TV (Los Angeles),
KGO-TV

KGO-TV (San Francisco) and
WLS-TV

WLS-TV (Chicago).
International development[edit]
The first attempts to internationalize the ABC television network date
back to 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]
Leonard Goldenson said that ABC's first international
activity was broadcasting the coronation of
Queen Elizabeth II

Queen Elizabeth II in June
1953;
CBS

CBS and
NBC

NBC were delayed in covering the coronation due to
flight delays.[206][207] Goldenson tried international investing,
having ABC invest in stations in the Latin American market, acquiring
a 51% interest in a network covering
Central America

Central America and in 1959
established program distributor Worldvision Enterprises[208] Goldenson
also cited interest in Japan in the early 1950s,[209] acquiring a 5%
stake in two new domestic networks, the Mainichi Broadcasting System
in 1951 and Nihon Educational
Television

Television in 1957.[209] Goldenson also
invested in broadcasting properties in
Beirut

Beirut in the mid-1960s.[210]
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.[211] The
arrival of satellite television ended the need for ABC to hold
interests in other countries;[109] many governments also wanted to
increase their independence and strengthen legislation to limit
foreign ownership of broadcasting properties. As a result, ABC was
forced to sell all of its interests in international networks, mainly
in Japan and Latin America, in the 1970s.[69]
A second period of international expansion is linked to that of the
ESPN

ESPN network in the 1990s, and policies enacted in the 2000s by Disney
Media Networks (which included the expansion of several of the
company's U.S.-based cable networks including
Disney Channel

Disney Channel and its
spinoffs Toon Disney,
Playhouse Disney

Playhouse Disney and Jetix; although Disney also
sold its 33% stake in European sports channel
Eurosport

Eurosport for $155
million in June 2000[212]). 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 when on
September 27 of that year, ABC announced the launch of ABC1, a
free-to-air channel in the United Kingdom owned by the ABC Group.[213]
However, on September 8, 2007, Disney announced that it would
discontinue ABC1 citing to the channel's inability to attain
sustainable viewership.[214] With ABC1's shutdown that October, the
company's attempt to develop ABC International were discontinued.[214]
Prior to the ABC1 closure, on October 10, 2006, Disney–ABC
Television

Television Group entered into an agreement with satellite provider
Dish TV

Dish TV to carry its
ABC News

ABC News Now channel in India.[215] However,
nothing has been heard from either parties thereafter.
Canada[edit]
Most
Canadians
.svg/600px-Flag_of_Canada_(Pantone).svg.png)
Canadians have access to at least one U.S.-based ABC affiliate,
either over-the-air (in areas located within proximity to the
Canada–United States border) or through a cable, satellite or IPTV
provider, although most ABC programs are subject to simultaneous
substitution regulations imposed by the Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission that allow pay television providers to
replace an American station's signal with the feed of a Canadian
broadcaster to protect domestic programming rights and advertising
revenue.
Movies produced by ABC or its divisions[edit]
Main article: List of films produced by American Broadcasting Company
See also[edit]
New York City

New York City portal
Companies portal
Television

Television in the United States portal
Disney portal
Disney–ABC
Television

Television Group
Children's programming on the American Broadcasting Company
ABC Kids (United States)
Litton's Weekend Adventure
ABC Productions
ABC Studios
List of United States over-the-air television networks
Lists of ABC television affiliates
References[edit]
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