 | |
| Company type | Division |
|---|---|
| Industry | TV broadcasting |
| Founded | 1948; 77 years ago (1948) |
| Headquarters | , United States |
Number of locations | 8 |
Key people | Chad Matthews (president) |
| Parent | Disney Entertainment Television |
| Divisions | Localish |
| Website | abcotvpress |
ABC Owned Television Stations is a sub-division of theDisney Entertainment Television division of theDisney Entertainment business segment ofthe Walt Disney Company that oversees theowned-and-operated stations of theAmerican Broadcasting Company (ABC) and operates theLocalish network.
TheAmerican Broadcasting Company's first TV station signed on August 10, 1948, asWJZ-TV[1] (not to be confused with current CBS-ownedWJZ-TV Baltimore), the first of three television stations signed on by ABC during that same year, withWENR-TV inChicago andWXYZ-TV inDetroit being the other two.[2]KGO-TV in San Francisco andKECA in Los Angeles, signed on during the next 13 months after WJZ.[citation needed]
In February 1953, ABC merged withUnited Paramount Theatres (UPT), the former theater division ofParamount Pictures. UPT subsidiaryBalaban and Katz owned WBKB (which shared aCBS affiliation with WGN-TV). The newly mergedAmerican Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres, as the company was known then, could not keep both stations because ofFederal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations then enforced that forbade thecommon ownership of two television stations licensed to the samemarket. As a result, WBKB's channel 4 license was sold to CBS, which subsequently changed that station's call letters toWBBM-TV; that outlet would move toVHF channel 2 several months later on July 5, 1953. The old WBKB's on-air and behind-the-scenes staff stayed at the new WBBM-TV, while the WBKB call letters and management moved to channel 7 (from 1965 to 1968, a "-TV" suffix was included in the station's calls, modifying it to WBKB-TV).[3]
On March 19, 1985, Capital Cities announced that it would purchaseABC for $3.5 billion, which shocked the media industry, as ABC was some four times bigger than Capital Cities was at the time.[4][5]
The newly merged company,Capital Cities/ABC Inc., was forced to sell off some stations due toFCC ownership rules. Between them, ABC and Capital Cities owned more television stations than FCC rules allowed at the time.[6] Of the former Capital Cities television stations, the merged company opted to keepKTRK-TV inHouston,WTVD-TV inDurham, andKFSN-TV inFresno. FCC rules could have also forced a sale of Capital Cities'WPVI-TV inPhiladelphia as well due to a large signal overlap with WABC-TV, but the merged company successfully received a permanent waiver from the FCC after citingCBS' ownership of television stations in New York City (WCBS-TV) and Philadelphia (at the timeWCAU-TV) undergrandfathered status. Capital Cities'WFTS-TV inTampa and ABC'sWXYZ-TV inDetroit were divested as a pair to theE. W. Scripps Company's broadcasting division (then known as Scripps-Howard Broadcasting). Capital Cities'WTNH-TV inNew Haven andWKBW-TV inBuffalo were sold separately to minority-owned companies[7] (Scripps would eventually buy WKBW in 2014).[8]
In 1994,New World Communications signed an affiliation deal withFox Broadcasting Company, resulting in most of New World's stations switching affiliation to Fox. This set off the1994–1996 United States broadcast television realignment, a chain of affiliation changes across the country and other multi-station affiliation deals for the next couple of years. To avoid being consigned to the lower-signal-qualityUHF after losing its affiliations to New World'sWJBK in Detroit andWJW-TV in Cleveland,CBS heavily wooed bothE. W. Scripps Company'sWXYZ-TV andWEWS-TV. Scripps then told ABC that unless it agreed to affiliate with the other Scripps-owned stations, it would switch both Detroit and Cleveland stations to CBS.[9] A fourth Scripps station was included in a separate deal, that of the Cincinnati station in 1995.[10][11] As a contingency, ABC boughtWJRT-TV inFlint, Michigan andWTVG inToledo, Ohio fromSJL Broadcasting in 1995.[12] ABC also had a partner deal withAllbritton Communications to convert most of these affiliates to ABC, also in 1996.[13][14] In response of the deal stemming from NBC's trade of KCNC and KUTV, in 1994, ABC also had a group deal withMcGraw Hill to convert the Denver and Bakersfield stations from CBS to ABC, while renewing affiliation agreements in San Diego and Indianapolis.[15]
The ABC Owned TV Stations (ABCOTS) were paired withABC Radio Network and eight TV stations in CC/ABC Broadcasting Group inCapital Cities/ABC (CC/ABC) when CC/ABC was purchased byThe Walt Disney Company in 1996.[16][17] In June, ABC's top marketing officer announced that theowned-and-operated (O&O) stations would adopt a "one-channel" marketing strategy; the stations would, for promotional purposes, de-emphasize referring to themselves by their call letters, and instead refer to themselves using "ABC" and the station's channel number ("ABC Seven," for example), as the marketer had adopted this practice atNBC before.[18]
In June 1998, ABC parentThe Walt Disney Company entered into negotiations to purchase the eight Allbritton stations and itslocal marketing agreements involving fellow ABC affiliates WJSU-TV (nowWGWW) inAnniston, Alabama andWJXX inJacksonville, Florida, for a reported offer totaling more than $1 billion; the latter two stations had been involved in an affiliation deal between Allbritton and ABC that was reached in response to the May 1994affiliation deal betweenNew World Communications andFox that affectedWBRC inBirmingham, Alabama.[19][20] Negotiations between Disney and Allbritton broke down when the former dropped out of discussions to buy the stations the following month.[21]
ABC News Now was launched in 2004 in the US on digital subchannels of 70 ABC O&O stations andaffiliates.[22] On January 31, 2005, ABC News removed ABC News Now from owned and operated and affiliated TV stations' subchannel as the channel ended its experimental phase originally.[23] The group changed its programming on secondary channels to ABC Plus, a local news and public affairs format. ABC teamed up withAccuWeather to launch amulticast service starting on ABC stations' third subchannel beginning withWPVI-TV in September 2005 followed byKFSN-TV with the next wave of four by December 31, 2005, then the final four by March 31, 2006.[24] TheLive Well Network (LWN) was launched on April 27, 2009, inhigh definition by ABC's O&O stations on the stations'.2 subchannels.[25][26]
On November 3, 2010,Broadcasting & Cable magazine announced thatSJL Broadcasting, now owned by the principal owners ofLilly Broadcasting, made an agreement with Disney to buy backWJRT-TV andWTVG, the two smallest stations in ABC's O&O portfolio.[12] The sale was completed on April 1, 2011.[27] On October 17, 2013, theNew York Post reported that Disney considered selling the station group given the current wave of consolidation between stationholding companies that has increased station values since 2010.[28] On October 25, theTriangle Business Journal reported that multiple Disney spokespeople denied that information[29]
On June 9, 2014, ABC Owned Television Stations vice president Peggy Allen and 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".[30][31] Many of the shows from ABC's stations ended production with a possibility to be picked up by theFYI cable network, aDATG partially ownedA&E Networks cable channel.[32][33] On January 15, 2015, ABCOTS announced a pickup ofLaff, a new subchannel owned byE. W. Scripps Company subsidiaryKatz Broadcasting. Laff was added to the DT3 subchannels of the ABC O&O stations effective on April 15, 2015; within that announcement, ABCOTS stated that Live Well Network would continue on their eight stations on their .2 subchannels in HD, but no longer be distributed outside of ABC O&O stations.[34] ABCOTS also indicated that its stations' 3rd subchannel would affiliate withLaff network upon launch on April 15, 2015, but until then LWN would run on both subchannels.[35]
Campbell, president ofABC Daytime and ABC Owned Television Stations, was named President of DisneyEMEA in September 2017.[36]Wendy McMahon, the stations' senior VP of digital, was named station group president effective January 1, 2018.[37]
ABC Owned Television Stations launched itsLocalish digital media venture the week of September 20, 2018, with four shows. Localish focuses on mobile millennials with national appeal local short stories produced by the stations and released on digital and social platforms. The first series,More in Common, had already appeared viaFacebook Watch.[38] AMore in Common compilation special was broadcast on all ABC station's primary channels on November 4, 2018, with WPVI-TV (Philadelphia) also on November 3 then on their LiveWell Network subchannel (.2) from November 4 through 11, 2018.[39] On January 21, 2020, ABC Stations announced that the network would be rebranded as the Localish on February 17, 2020.[40]
At the beginning of 2021, Laff was removed from the ABC Owned Television Stations (excludingWLS-TV, which had removed Laff in 2017) and moved toIon Media stations which were acquired by Scripps around the same time.[41] Later in April,Allen Media Group announced that the ABC Owned Television Stations had picked upThis TV as a replacement for Laff.[42] Then three years later, ABC Owned Television Stations announced thatCharge!, a network owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, would replace This TV effective April 1, 2024.[43]
Stations are arranged in alphabetical order by state andcity of license.
| City of license /Market | Station | Year of affiliation | Owned since | Digital subchannels[44] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fresno, CA | KFSN-TV | 30 (30) | 1985 | 1986[a] | |
| Los Angeles, CA | KABC-TV** | 7 (7) | 1949 |
| |
| San Francisco–Oakland–San Jose, CA | KGO-TV** | 7 (12) |
| ||
| Chicago, IL | WLS-TV** | 7 (22) | 1948 |
| |
| New York City, NY | WABC-TV** | 7 (7) |
| ||
| Durham–Raleigh–Fayetteville, NC | WTVD | 11 (9) | 1985[I] | 1986[a] |
|
| Philadelphia, PA | WPVI-TV | 6 (6) | 1948[b] |
| |
| Houston, TX | KTRK-TV | 13 (13) | 1954 |
| |
| City of license / Market | Station | Channel | Years owned | Current status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detroit, MI | WXYZ-TV** | 7 | 1948–1986 | ABC affiliate owned by theE. W. Scripps Company |
| Flint, MI | WJRT-TV[45] | 12 | 1995–2011 | ABC affiliate owned byAllen Media Broadcasting |
| Toledo, OH | WTVG[45] | 13 | 1995–2011 | ABC affiliate owned byGray Television |
ABC's owned and operated stations' syndicated offerings (as of April 2023) includeThe Tamron Hall Show,Live with Kelly and Mark,Wheel of Fortune,Jeopardy!, andSmall Town Big Deal.Live is produced in-house at WABC-TV.Wheel andJeopardy! have been syndicated to ABC-owned stations since 1992, as part of a longstanding relationship with what is nowCBS Media Ventures dating to when the syndicator was still known asKing World Productions.[46] During thegraveyard slot, ABC's owned and operated stations air rebroadcasts ofTamron Hall,ABC World News Tonight, andLive with Kelly and Mark. Every ABC owned station, except forWPVI andKABC, airsDaytime Jeopardy!, a repeat broadcast given to most of its affiliates during the daytime. For the California stations,World News Now airs in place ofABC World News Tonight due to the rebroadcasts in the afternoon.
.jpg)
