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
Divisions Live Well Network
Subsidiaries ABC National Television Sales
Website ABC Owned Television Stations Group

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 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]

The Live Well Network was launched on April 27, 2009 in high definition by ABC's owned-and-operated stations on the stations' subchannels.[7][8]

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.[9] The sale was completed on April 1, 2011.[10]

Disney, as of October 2013, is considering shopping the station group given the current wave of consolidation between station holding companies that has increased station values since 2010.[11]

Units

List of ABC owned-and-operated stations

All station 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
10. 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
Detroit WXYZ-TV 7 / 41 1948-1986 E.W. Scripps Company
Flint - Saginaw - Bay City, MI WJRT-TV[12] 12 / 12 1995-2011 SJL Broadcasting
Toledo, Ohio WTVG[12] 13 / 13 1995-2011 SJL Broadcasting
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 O&Os Launch Digital Network, Broadcasting & Cable, April 27, 2009
  8. ↑ ABC Multicasts Live Well HD Channel, Mediaweek, October 25, 2009
  9. ↑ Grego, Melissa (November 3, 2010). "Exclusive: Disney to Sell Two Stations". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved 21 September 2012.
  10. ↑ Exclusive: New GMs For Former ABC O&Os in Flint, Toledo Broadcasting & Cable. March 31, 2011.
  11. ↑ Atkinson, Claire. (October 17, 2013) Disney once again considering sale of local TV stations. NY Post. Accessed on October 18, 2013.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 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