ABC Owned Television Stations

ABC Owned Television Stations
Subsidiary
Industry TV broadcasting
Predecessor CC/ABC Broadcasting Group
Founded 1948
Headquarters New York, New York, USA
Number of locations
 8
Key people
 Rebecca Campbell, President
Services Advertising
Parent Disney–ABC Television Group
(Disney Media Networks)
Divisions Live Well Network
Subsidiaries ABC National Television Sales
Website abcotvs.com

ABC Owned Television Stations is a division of Disney–ABC Television Group that oversees the owned-and-operated stations of the American Broadcasting Company, a division of The Walt Disney Company. The division consists of eight stations plus ABC National Television Sales and the Live Well Network.

History

ABC Network

The ABC Network's first TV station signed on August 10, 1948 as WJZ-TV,[1] the first of three television stations signed on by ABC during that same year, with WENR-TV in Chicago and WXYZ-TV in Detroit being the other two. KGO-TV in San Francisco and KECA in Los Angeles, signed on during the next 13 months after WJZ.

Capital Cities/ABC

Main article: Capital Cities/ABC

Capital Cities' announced $3.5 billion purchase of ABC on March 18, 1985, stunned the media industry, as ABC was some four times bigger than Capital Cities was at the time.[2][3]

Disney/ABC division

The ABC Owned TV Stations (ABCOTS) were paired with ABC Radio Network and eight TV stations in CC/ABC Broadcasting Group in Capital Cities/ABC (CC/ABC) when CC/ABC was purchased by The Walt Disney Company in 1996.[4][5] In June, ABC top marketing officer announced the O&O stations would adopt a "one-channel" marketing strategy where the stations would for promotional purposes drop call letter for ABC and channel number as the marketer had this adopted at NBC before.[6]

ABC News Now was launched in 2004 in the US on digital subchannel of 70 ABC owned & operated and affiliates.[7] The Live Well Network (LWN) was launched on April 27, 2009 in high definition by ABC's owned-and-operated stations on the stations' subchannels.[8][9]

On November 3, 2010, Broadcasting & Cable magazine announced that SJL Broadcasting, now owned by the principal owners of Lilly Broadcasting, made an agreement with Disney to buy back WJRT-TV and WTVG, the two smallest stations in ABC's O&O portfolio.[10] The sale was completed on April 1, 2011.[11] On October 17, 2013, the New York Post reported that Disney considered sell the station group given the current wave of consolidation between station holding companies that has increased station values since 2010.[12] On October 25, the Triangle Business Journal reported that multiple Disney spokespeople denied that information.[13]

On June 9, 2014, LWN vice president Peggy Allen and ABC Owned Television Stations president Rebecca Campbell jointly announced to Live Well Network's staff that they planned to shut down the network in January 2015. Campbell and Allen stated that despite the success of the network, the division wanted to prioritize "local content" and its "core local news brands".[14][15] Many of the shows from ABC's stations are expected to end production with a possibility to be picked up by fyi cable network, a DATG partial owned A&E Networks cable channel.[16][17] On January 15, 2015, ABCOTS announced a pickup of Katz Broadcasting's new subchannel Laff, including the DT3 subchannels of the ABC O&O stations, as of April 15, 2015; within that announcement, ABCOTS stated that Live Well Network would continue on their eight stations on their DT2 subchannels in HD, but no longer be distributed outside of ABC O&O stations.[18] ABCOTS also indicated that its stations' 3rd subchannel would affiliated with Laff network upon launch April 15, 2015, but until then LWN would run on both subchannels.[19]

Units

List of stations

Only 8 stations are affiliated with the ABC TV network and the Live Well Network.

Market Rank & City of license/Market Station Channel
TV / DT		 Owned since Owned by at merger
1. New York City WABC-TV 7 / 7 1948 ABC
2. Los Angeles KABC-TV 7 / 7 1949 ABC
3. Chicago WLS-TV 7 / 44 1948 ABC
4. Philadelphia WPVI-TV 6 / 6 1986 CCC
6. San Francisco - Oakland - San Jose KGO-TV 7 / 7 1949 ABC
8. Houston KTRK-TV 13 / 13 1986 CCC
24. Durham - Raleigh - Fayetteville WTVD 11 / 11 1986 CCC
55. Fresno, California KFSN-TV 30 / 30 1986 CCC

Former ABC-owned stations

City of license/Market Station Channel
TV / DT		 Years owned Sold to Current owner
Detroit WXYZ-TV 7 / 41 1948-1986 E.W. Scripps Company E.W. Scripps Company
Flint - Saginaw - Bay City, MI WJRT-TV[20] 12 / 12 1995-2011 SJL Broadcasting Gray Television
Toledo, Ohio WTVG[20] 13 / 13 1995-2011 SJL Broadcasting Gray Television

Evolution of ABC O&o stations

WJRT-TV KFSN-TV KTRK-TV WTVD KABC-TV KGO-TV WXYZ-TV WLS-TV WABC-TV WTVG WPVI-TV

References

  1. ↑ "WJZ-TV starts; elaborate inaugural program." Broadcasting - Telecasting, August 16, 1948, pg. 23.
  2. ↑ Kleinfield, N.R. "ABC is being sold for $3.5 billion; 1st network sale." The New York Times, March 19, 1985.
  3. ↑ "Capcities + ABC." Broadcasting, March 25, 1985, pp. 31-32.
  4. ↑ FabrWilmette, ILnt, Geraldine. The Media Business;Disney and ABC Shareholders Solidly Approve Merger Deal January 05, 1996. The New York Times. Accessed July 8, 2013.
  5. ↑ "Fact Sheet: The Walt Disney Company". Press Release. The Walt Disney Company. Retrieved 7 March 2013.
  6. ↑ McClellan, Steve and Chris McDonnell. Cohen: One channel, one network. June 10, 1996. Broadcasting & Cable.
  7. ↑ "ABC News banks on digital, despite small audiences today". USA Today. AP. September 4, 2004. Retrieved May 29, 2014.
  8. ↑ ABC O&Os Launch Digital Network, Broadcasting & Cable, April 27, 2009
  9. ↑ ABC Multicasts Live Well HD Channel, Mediaweek, October 25, 2009
  10. ↑ Grego, Melissa (November 3, 2010). "Exclusive: Disney to Sell Two Stations". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved September 21, 2012.
  11. ↑ Exclusive: New GMs For Former ABC O&Os in Flint, Toledo Broadcasting & Cable. March 31, 2011.
  12. ↑ Atkinson, Claire. (October 17, 2013) Disney once again considering sale of local TV stations. NY Post. Retrieved October 18, 2013.
  13. ↑ Ohnesorge, Lauren. (October 25, 2013) Disney denies it's selling broadcast business, WTVD. Triangle Business Journal. Retrieved November 30, 2015.
  14. ↑ Downey, Kevin (June 9, 2014). "No Life Left In Live Well Network". TV News Check. Retrieved June 9, 2014.
  15. ↑ Block, Alex (June 9, 2014). "Live Well Network's Demise Follows Advertiser Resistance, CBS Plans (Analysis)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
  16. ↑ Malone, Michael (June 9, 2014). "ABC to Discontinue Live Well Network". Broadcasting & Cable. NewBay Media, LLC. Retrieved August 1, 2014.
  17. ↑ Lazare, Lewis (June 9, 2014). "ABC to shutter Live Well Network founded in Chicago". Chicago Business Journal. American City Business Journals. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
  18. ↑ Littleton, Cynthia (18 January 2015). "ABC Sticks with Live Well Digital Channel, Adds Comedy Net". Variety. Retrieved 18 January 2015.
  19. ↑ Lafayette, Jon (January 18, 2015). "Exclusive: Comedy Multicast Net Launching on ABC, Scripps". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
  20. 1 2 On November 4, 2010 ABC announced the sale of WJRT-TV and WTVG to previous owner SJL Broadcasting. The sale was completed April 1, 2011. ()

External links

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