American Broadcasting Company (ABC)
The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is a prominent American television network headquartered in New York City and owned by the Walt Disney Company. Founded in 1943 as a radio company, ABC transitioned to television in 1948 and quickly became one of the major networks in the U.S. Despite facing initial challenges and struggling in its early years, ABC experienced significant success in the 1970s with innovative programming in sports and news, including the introduction of "Monday Night Football" and the influential show "Nightline." Throughout its history, ABC has produced a number of iconic television shows, including "Happy Days" and "Roots," which set records for viewership. However, since the 1980s, the network has faced competition from rivals NBC and CBS and has struggled to maintain its former dominance in ratings. As of 2023, ABC averaged approximately 3.8 million prime-time viewers, trailing behind its competitors. The network has also played a crucial role in the evolution of television news and sports programming. In recent years, ABC has faced challenges related to corporate disputes, such as a notable standoff with DirecTV in 2024 that temporarily affected its availability to viewers.
American Broadcasting Company (ABC)
Company Information
- Date Founded: 1943
- Industry: television; entertainment
- Corporate Headquarters: New York City
- Type: Public
Overview
The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American television network headquartered in New York City and owned by the Walt Disney Company. ABC was formed in the early 1940s as a radio company when it was spun off from a competitor's broadcasting empire. It turned its focus to television in 1948 and grew to become one of the major television networks in the United States. After faring poorly in its early years, ABC hit its stride in the 1970s. It dominated the prime-time ratings and changed the television landscape by becoming an innovator in sports and news programming. Since the 1980s, ABC has struggled to match the success from its heyday. While the network launched many successful shows, it has routinely finished behind its main competition in the ratings. In 1986, ABC was purchased by Capital Cities Broadcasting, and nine years later, it was acquired by the Walt Disney Company. In 2022, ABC continued to struggle to attract the number of views as other major television networks. In the fall of 2024, the parent Walt Disney Company entered into a dispute with distributor DirecTV. For several weeks the ABC channel was unavailable to several major market areas.
History
The company that would become ABC began as an offshoot of a nationwide radio network owned by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). In 1926, RCA created the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) to operate radio stations across the country. Within a year, NBC had grown so large that it was competing against itself in many of the same markets. RCA decided to divide NBC into two networks—NBC Red and NBC Blue. The radio business in the United States at the time was dominated by NBC, and its main rival was the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). In a landmark 1941 monopoly ruling, the Federal Communications Commission ordered that no single corporation could own more than one network. As a result, NBC was forced to sell NBC Blue in 1943 to businessman Edward J. Noble, the founder of the Life Savers candy company. Noble paid $8 million for NBC Blue and renamed it the American Broadcasting Company (ABC).
At the time, ABC lagged behind the competition with about one hundred radio stations and no major stars in its fold. By the late 1940s, the major radio networks began making the transition to television. ABC was granted TV licenses in five major cities and began broadcasting on April 19, 1948. As the smallest of the three major networks, ABC struggled to keep up with the better-resourced NBC and CBS. Facing bankruptcy, Noble sold ABC in 1953 to United Paramount Theaters for $25 million. The merger created a company of more than seven hundred theaters, radio, and TV stations in five major cities, three hundred radio affiliates, and fourteen television affiliates. The deal with United Paramount also provided ABC with connections in Hollywood that led to an effort to offer different kinds of programming than its competition. In 1954, ABC entered into an agreement with brothers Walt and Roy Disney, gaining access to Disney's extensive film library, exclusive rights to Disney programming, and a stake in the newly opened California theme park, Disneyland. The corporate marriage resulted in ABC's first top-ten show, Disneyland, which premiered in the fall of 1954. The network's next hit was the 1955 western drama Cheyenne, the first prime-time TV show produced by a major Hollywood studio.
Despite having some brief success in the 1960s with shows such as Bewitched, Batman, and My Three Sons, ABC remained behind the competition until the early 1970s when it had its first top-ranked show in Marcus Welby, M.D. By mid-decade, the network had risen to the top of the ratings, fueled by coverage of the 1976 Winter Olympics and the landmark television miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man. ABC's fortunes got a further boost when it hired executive Fred Silverman from CBS. With Silverman at the helm, the network's lineup featured popular situation comedies such as Happy Days and Three's Company and more provocative series such as Charlie's Angels and The Love Boat. The 1977 miniseries Roots was one of the most popular events in television history, with more than one hundred million people tuning in for the finale. As of 2023, the finale remained tied for the second most-watched non–Super Bowl broadcast of all time. In the 1978–1979 season, ABC had the top five highest-rated shows on television and fourteen of the top twenty overall.
ABC's success was shortlived, and the network was unable to maintain its dominance into the ensuing decades. Despite having a number of hits in the 1980s and 1990s, it was not until the 1999–2000 season that ABC topped the ratings when editions of the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? finished first, second, and third. Into the twenty-first century, NBC and CBS maintained their hold on the ratings lead, while ABC consistently trailed behind. According to the 2022 Nielsen ratings, the standard measure of audience viewership, ABC averaged about 3.8 million total prime-time viewers, about 2 million less than both CBS and NBC.
Impact
While ABC has historically lagged behind its competition in prime-time ratings, the network has had a significant influence on the television news and sports landscape. In the 1960s, ABC introduced a weekly anthology sports program called Wide World of Sports, one of the first national shows to showcase events such as figure skating and NASCAR races. In 1970, the network signed a deal with the National Football League (NFL) to televise one prime-time game a week on Monday night. Monday Night Football debuted on September 21, 1970, and was notable for its use of multiple cameras, instant replay, and a focus on the personalities of the broadcasters. In the early 1980s, ABC turned its coverage of the ongoing Iranian hostage crisis into a nightly news program called Nightline. The show featured interviews with newsmakers and a discussion of the top events of the day, common elements found in many modern news programs. In 2023, ABC continued to air the most-watched nightly news program.
The network's corporate dealings have also made news. In 1984, ABC acquired the cable sports network ESPN, which eventually took over carrying much of ABC's sports programming. Two years later, ABC itself was bought by media conglomerate Capital Cities Communications. The marriage lasted until 1995, when Capital Cities/ABC was purchased by the Walt Disney Company for $19 billion. At the time, it was the largest media merger in US history though it was quickly eclipsed by several media mergers in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Because of the wide footprint of these media conglomerates now casting, impacts on one branch of a network could have profound ramifications to other parts of the enterprise. One example was a 2024 contractual dispute between the parent Walt Disney Corporation and the DirecTV distributor. In the fall of 2024, Disney entered into a dispute with streaming and satellite TV distributor DirecTV. For several weeks, seventeen Disney-affiliated channels were made unavailable by DirecTV including Hulu, the Entertainment and Sports Channel Programming Network (ESPN), and ABC itself. The impasse affected 11 million DirectTV subscribers in major market areas such as New York City. The timing of the dispute was particularly impactful to viewers of popular college and professional football programming. After fourteen days, new terms were agreed upon by both parties, ahead of an anticipated Monday Night Football regular season game.
Bibliography
"ABC News." SAGE Publications, 2022, us.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-assets/121567‗book‗item‗121567.pdf. Accessed 23 Oct. 2024.
"ABC Television Network." Disney|ABC Television Group, www.disneyabcpress.com/disneyabctv/about-us/abc. Accessed 8 Feb. 2017.
"American Broadcasting Companies, Inc." Harvard Business School Baker Library, www.library.hbs.edu/hc/lehman/chrono.html?company=american‗broadcasting‗companies‗inc. Accessed 8 Feb. 2017.
Edgerton, Gary. The Columbia History of American Television. Columbia University Press, 2007.
Jackson, Barry. "DirecTV and Disney Strike a Deal, Restoring ESPN to Millions of Homes." Miami Herald, 14 Sept. 2024, www.miamiherald.com/sports/article292467904.html. Accessed 23 Oct. 2024.
James, Meg. "ESPN, ABC, and Other Disney Channels Dropped from DirecTV in Contract Dispute." Los Angeles Times, 1 Sept. 2024,www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-09-01/directv-espn-abc-disney-blackout. Accessed 23 Oct. 2024.
"The Five Biggest Media Mergers of All Time." Fox Business, 3 Dec. 2018, www.foxbusiness.com/features/the-five-biggest-media-mergers-of-all-time. Accessed 7 May 2023.
Hyatt, Wesley. Kicking Off the Week: A History of Monday Night Football on ABC Television, 1970–2005. McFarland & Company, 2014.
Katz, AJ. “Here Are Evening News Ratings for 2021-'22 TV Season and Q3 2022.” Adweek, 20 Sept. 2022, www.adweek.com/tvnewser/here-are-evening-news-ratings-for-2021-22-season-and-q3-2022/514702. Accessed 7 May 2023.
Maranzani, Barbara. "Remembering 'Roots.'" History.com, 11 Feb. 2016, www.history.com/news/remembering-roots. Accessed 8 Feb. 2017.
Meyers, Kate. "ABC's 'Wide World of Sports' 30-Year Anniversary." Entertainment Weekly, 26 April 1991, ew.com/article/1991/04/26/abcs-wide-world-sports-30-year-anniversary. Accessed 8 Feb. 2017.
Noyes, Gayle. "American Broadcasting Company." Museum of Broadcast Communications, www.museum.tv/eotv/americanbroa.htm. Accessed 8 Feb. 2017.
Schneider, Michael. "Most-Watched Television Networks: Ranking 2016's Winners and Losers." IndieWire, 27 Dec. 2016, www.indiewire.com/2016/12/cnn-fox-news-msnbc-nbc-ratings-2016-winners-losers-1201762864. Accessed 8 Feb. 2017.
Schneider, Michael, and Andrew Wallenstein. “Most Watched Channels of 2022: TV Network Ratings Winners & Losers.” Variety, 29 Dec. 2022, variety.com/2022/tv/news/most-watched-channels-2022-tv-network-ratings-1235475170. Accessed 7 May 2023.