ABC (American Broadcasting Company) is a television and radio network in the United States. Today, it is owned by The Walt Disney Company, and the company name is ABC, Inc.
History
Creation of ABC
In the 1930s, radio in the United States was dominated by just a few companies. Among these were Mutual Broadcasting, Columbia
Broadcasting, and RCA's National Broadcasting Company, or NBC.
RCA actually owned two networks, each of which operated separate radio stations and a few experimental television stations.
RCA's networks were named NBC Red and NBC Blue.
In 1940 the Federal Communications Commission issued the "Report on Chain Broadcasting". The report
proposed "divorcement", or the selling of either NBC Red or NBC Blue by RCA. NBC Red was the
dominant NBC radio network. The report said RCA used NBC Blue to suppress
competition against NBC Red. See Monopoly. At the time, the NBC networks controlled
the overwhelming majority of high-powered stations. From 1935 to 1941 the Federal Communications Commission, under chairman
James Fly, conducted hearings on chain
broadcasting, from which the report was issued. On the point of dividing NBC, the Federal Communications Commission could not
regulate networks directly, only indirectly through stations, thus the Federal Communications Commission ordered: "No license
shall be issued to a standard broadcast station affiliated with a network which maintains more than one network." As a result NBC
would have to be divested of one network to keep the other. NBC argued this indirect style of regulation was illegal and appealed
the decision. The Federal Communications Commission was upheld and The Blue Network had to be sold.
The task of selling of NBC Blue was given to Mark Woods. During 1942 and 1943 NBC Red and NBC Blue divided their
assets. Edward Noble, the owner of Lifesaver candy, and owner of WMCA in New York, was thought to be interested, but his initial bid was too low.
Woods then talked to the investment bank Dillon, Read and Company. Woods received an offer of $7,500,000 and called his boss,
David Sarnoff, who had been talking to Noble and had just sold him the
network for $8,000,000. The transaction involved the sale of three stations from RCA to Noble, Noble also had to sell his radio
station, so Federal Communications Commission hearings were necessary. Noble as chairman and Woods as president of the new
company were both questioned. Fly asked Woods if the new network would sell time to the American Federation of Labor; Woods responded no.
Fly questioned Noble on similar subjects; Noble responded by hiding behind the National Association of Broadcasters Code. Fly then threw his papers down and
advised Noble to do some rethinking. Noble rethought and on October 12, 1943 the sale was approved. The Blue Network Company Inc.
was sold to American Broadcasting System Inc. The new network was renamed the American Broadcasting Company, ABC, and its parent
the American Broadcasting Companies Inc. The new network sold time to organized labor.
Merger with United Paramount Theatres
ABC was in a poor competitive position as the television era began, as there were not enough VHF stations to put three
stations on the air in most major cities, much less four (the others being CBS, NBC, and the Dumont Television Network). Once the
movie theatres were divested from the studios in the early 1950s, money rich United
Paramount Theatres, or UPT, proceeded to merge with ABC. The Federal Communications Commission had questions about this merger, as it was unsure
whether Paramount and the theatres were truly separate. If the Commission had ruled they were not separate, that would mean
Paramount was controlling two networks (it also had a minority stake in the DuMont Network) and ten stations, both of which were against Commission policy. However, the
merger was allowed since Paramount had divested itself fully of the theater group. Before ABC merged with UPT it had considered
merging with International
Telephone and Telegraph, CBS (which needed several of ABC's stations), and General Tire
and Rubber. Either of the latter two deals would have divided its assets, however.
The 1960s
After the merger with United Paramount Theaters, ABC was able to get their TV network off the ground. However, by 1965,
color television was becoming commonplace, ABC needed more
affiliates to stay afloat, and the network was 3rd in the ratings. Knowing that the network needed money to grow, ABC president
Leonard Goldenson spoke
to several large corporations of the time (including GE, Litton Industries and GTE), but eventually found ITT calling again.
ABC and ITT finally agreed to a merger in late 1965. This second merger attempt was very nearly successful; however, concerns
were raised by the Federal
Communications Commission and the US Department of
Justice about ITT's foreign ownership influencing ABC's autonomy and journalistic integrity. ITT's management promised the
authorities that ABC's autonomy would be preserved, and the merger was initially approved by the FCC, but in the end, the Justice
Department was not convinced. The merger was called off on January 1, 1968.
Despite its small size and the coporate maneuvering during the time, ABC began having modest success with television programs
aimed at the emerging youth "Baby Boomer" culture. Many of the shows ABC broadcast during this time were later regarded as
classics, such as The Addams Family, Batman, The Flintstones, and Leave It to
Beaver (a fact later played up in ABC's 1977 Still The One ads).
Also, producer Roone Arledge helped ABC's fortunes with his innovations
in sports programming; he used his techniques on NCAA football games at first, adding cutting-edge camera work and changing the
presentation to better capture the "feel" of the game. He also created Wide World of Sports and Monday Night Football. In the process, he helped to change sports worldwide into a multi-billion
dollar industry, and eventually was promoted to President of ABC News and Sports.
ABC finally makes it big
By the early 1970s, ABC was finally catching up to CBS and NBC. The network was now in full color at all times, and ABC
started using the new technology of demographics to tweak its ad placement.
On the programming side, ABC invested heavily in shows with wide appeal, mainly sitcoms, but also made the occasional foray into something more: the big-budget, extended length miniseries. ABC ran several of these gargantuan productions (QB VII, Rich Man, Poor Man), but the
biggest one by far ran in January 1977. Roots,
a TV version of Alex Haley's novel, became one of the biggest hits in TV
history, and combined with the success of other shows like Happy Days,
ABC came out number 1 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1976–1977
season – the first time ABC had ever done so.
The 1980s and beyond
ABC's 1970s dominance lasted into the early 1980s. By 1985, however, veteran shows like The Love Boat had lost their steam, Three's Company and Happy Days had ended their runs the previous year, and a resurgent NBC was leading in the ratings. ABC decided to focus once again on comedy, greenlighting the
innovative but problematic dramedy Moonlighting that fall. The biggest successes of ABC's late 1980s programming, however, would be more
traditional fare like the buddy sitcom Perfect Strangers
(and its spinoff Family Matters), as well as the acerbic family
sitcom Roseanne and the more child-friendly Full House; Full House and Family Matters proved so popular that ABC eventually devoted
their entire Friday night lineup to family-friendly sitcoms, adding Home Improvement to the lineup in 1991.
In 1985 the company merged with media company Capital
Cities Communications and changed its name to Capital Cities/ABC.
Acquisition by Disney
In 1996, The Walt Disney Company acquired Capital
Cities/ABC, and renamed the group ABC, Inc. ABC had always had a long relationship with Disney, ever since the airing of
the Disneyland television program in 1954 was the most popular on TV.
Influences from ABC can be seen all around the Disney company, with attractions based on TV shows at Disney parks and an annual soap festival at Disney's California Adventure park. The
President of ABC, Inc., Robert Iger, became the President and COO of The Walt Disney Company in 2000 and is Michael Eisner's hand-picked successor as CEO of the company.
As the 1990s progressed, the network moved away from family favorites like Roseanne and Home Improvement,
attempting instead to appeal to the urbane Friends and Frasier audience. Entries like Sports Night and Gideon's Crossing bombed.
A short-lived news channel (ABC
Cable News) started in 1995; it was unable to compete with CNN and MSNBC, and shut down in 1997.
For the 1999–2000 season, led by the unexpected success of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, ABC became the first network to bounce in the television
ratings from third place to first place in a single season.
Two years later, Millionaire had lost its luster and only The
Practice, My Wife & Kids, NYPD Blue, The Wonderful World of Disney and the new series Alias were delivering the numbers. ABC started to experience a turnaround in the fall of 2004,
as new series Lost and
Desperate Housewives became hits; ABC also has had
success with Extreme Makeover: Home
Edition, a home-makeover reality show that was nominated for an
Emmy Award its first season out.
In 2003 it was estimated that ABC was viewable in 96.75% of all homes in the United
States, reaching 103,179,600 households. ABC has 201 VHF and UHF owned-and-operated or affiliate stations in the U.S. and U.S.
possessions.
Since the 1950s, ABC has had two main taping facilities; the ABC Television Center
West on Prospect Avenue in Hollywood (while another studio in Century City is increasingly used, the Prospect Avenue studios are best known for accomodating the
numerous sets of the soap opera General Hospital), and the ABC Television Center East, which is split up into many soundstages across
New York City (while many television shows end with a message like
"videotaped at the ABC Television Center in New York City," this is highly inaccurate as there is no one strong nucleus of
operation in New York).
In 2005, a rumor that ABC would sell its radio stations has circulated. The best way is, they could swap some stations off
some companies, and make Disney/ABC able to purchase more TV affiliates.
ABC identity
Before its early color transmissions, the ABC identity was a lowercase 'abc' inside a lower case 'A'. That logo was known as
the "ABC Circle A". The logo was modified in 1962, with the current ABC logo enclosed in
the 'A'. In the fall of 1962, ABC started using the current "ABC Circle" logo (designed in 1962 by Paul Rand) with ultra-modern (for its time) lower case 'abc'
inside. The typeface used for the famous logo is a simple geometric design inspired
by the Bauhaus school of the 1920s; its simplicity makes it easy to redraw and
duplicate, something ABC has taken advantage of many times over the years (especially before the advent of computer graphics). It doesn't correspond to a particular font; however, several common geometric typefaces (including Avant Garde and
Horatio) are
close. A recently developed typeface is inspired by the logotype.
ABC1
Launched September 27, 2004,
ABC1 is a British TV station on the Freeview
digital terrestrial service, owned and operated by Disney. Its launch
schedule is a selection of past and present American shows from 6:00am to 6:00pm. It shares the ABC logo and shows mostly old ABC
shows.
Headline text
References
- Sobel, Robert. ITT. New York: Truman Talley Books-Times Books, 1982.
- Sampson, Anthony. The Sovereign State of ITT. New York: Stein and Day, 1973.
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External links
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