TV Network Overview
ABC (American Broadcasting Company) is an English-language commercial national
broadcast television network in the United States. It develops and distributes
national programming across entertainment, news, sports, daytime and late-night
television, and special events. Within the U.S. broadcast system, ABC operates
at the network level, supplying programming that is incorporated into the
schedules of local television stations serving individual markets across
the country.
ABC programming reaches local audiences through a combination of owned-and-operated stations and independently owned affiliated stations. These broadcasters carry portions of the national ABC schedule while also producing or selecting programming for their own communities. Local news, weather, public affairs, and other regional coverage are therefore handled at the station level. An ABC affiliate is a local television station with its own call sign, service area, and local schedule, while its network affiliation connects part of that schedule to ABC’s national programming.
ABC’s identity is also reflected in several programs with unusually long
histories on the network. General Hospital premiered in 1963 and has become
one of the longest-running programs in American daytime television. Good
Morning America began in 1975 and has had a long-standing place in ABC
News’ weekday morning schedule. Their long histories illustrate ABC’s sustained
involvement in both daytime drama and morning news alongside its broader
entertainment, news, and sports programming.
ABC developed from the former NBC Blue radio network, which was separated from NBC and sold in 1943. The American Broadcasting Company name was adopted in 1945, and ABC television network operations began in 1948. As television expanded after World War II, ABC developed into one of the long-established nationwide commercial networks associated with the “Big Three” era of American broadcasting.
Basic Information
- Genre
- General (Entertainment, News, Sports)
- Language
- English
- Country / Location
- Home > Americas > USA > National Broadcast Networks
- Headquarters
- Burbank, California, United States (TV production); New York City, New
York, United States (broadcast operations and news)
