Disney–ABC Television Group

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ABC, Inc.
Disney–ABC Television Group
Wholly owned subsidiary of Disney Media Networks
Industry Broadcast
Predecessor Capital Cities/ABC, Inc.
Founded September 19, 1996
Headquarters Burbank, California, U.S.
Key people
 Ben Sherwood (President)
Parent Disney Media Networks
(The Walt Disney Company)
Divisions
Subsidiaries
Website disneyabcpress.com/disneyabctv/

ABC, Inc.[1] DBA Disney–ABC Television Group[2] (a.k.a. Disney–ABC[3]) manages all of The Walt Disney Company's Disney and ABC-branded television properties. The group includes the ABC Television Network (including ABC Daytime, ABC Entertainment, and ABC News divisions), as well as Disney's 50% stake in A&E Television Networks and its 80% controlling stake in ESPN, Inc.[4] While holding the controlling stake in ESPN, Disney–ABC and ESPN operate as separate units of Disney Media Networks.[5]

History

In 1996, Disney acquired Capital Cities/ABC[6] bringing ABC Television Network Group, CC/ABC Broadcasting Group (ABC Radio Network, eight TV and 21 radio stations), ABC Cable and International Broadcast Group, CC/ABC Publishing Group and CC/ABC Multimedia Group. The Cable and International Broadcast Group contained ownership shares of ESPN, Inc. (80%) A&E Television Networks (37.5%), Lifetime Television (50%) and its international investments. These investments included Tele-München (50%, Germany; included 20% of RTL II), Hamster Productions. (33%, France) and Scandinavian Broadcasting System (23%, Luxembourg). ESPN also had international holdings: Eurosport (33.3%, England), TV Sport (10%, France; Eurosport affiliate) and The Japan Sports Channel (20%). The Publishing Group including Fairchild Publications, Chilton Publications, multiple newspapers from a dozen dailies (including the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, The Kansas City Star) and more weeklies, and dozens more publications in the fields of farm, business and law trade journals plus LA Magazine to Institutional Investor. The Multimedia Group pursued businesses in new and emerging media technologies, including the interactive television, pay-per-view, VOD, HDTV, video cassette, Optical disc, on-line services and location-based entertainment.[7]

In April 1996, due to ongoing post Disney-CC/ABC merger realignment and retirement of its president, WDTT group's division were reassigned to other groups with Walt Disney Television International (including Disney Channel International and Buena Vista Television domestic syndication and Pay TV division and GMTV and Super RTL holdings) were transferred to Capital Cities/ABC.[8] In May due to the merger, ABC ended its ABC Productions division operations while keeping its boutique production companies: Victor Television, DIC Entertainment and Greengrass Productions.[9] The international operations of Disney TV International and ABC Cable and International Broadcast Group were merged in June as Disney/ABC International Television.[10]

Disney had ABC Group sell various publishing companies in 1997. Chilton was sold to Reed Elsevier for $447 million and got $142 million from Euromoney Publications for Institutional Investor. While in April Knight Ridder purchased four newspapers including The Kansas City Star and The Fort Worth Star-Telegram for $1.65 billion. In August 1999, Fairchild Publications was sold to Conde Nast Publications.[11]

In late 1999, Walt Disney Television Studio (also called Buena Vista Television Group), including Buena Vista Television Productions, were transferred out of the Disney Studios to ABC Television Network to merge with ABC's prime-time division, ABC Entertainment, to form ABC Entertainment Television Group. Also, Walt Disney Television Studio changed its name to Touchstone Television.[12][13][14]

ABC Group chairman Robert A. Iger was named president and chief operating officer of The Walt Disney Company.[15]

In September 2002, Disney Chairman/CEO Michael Eisner outlined a proposed realignment of the ABC broadcast network day parts with the similar unit in its cable channels: ABC Saturday mornings with Disney Channels (Toon & Playhouse), ABC daytime with Soapnet and ABC prime time with ABC Family.[16] In October October 2003, ABC Family Worldwide was changed from a Disney COO directly reporting unit to being with in the ABC Cable Networks Group run by Anne Sweeney.[17]

Disney–ABC Television Group

On April 21, 2004, Disney announced a restructuring of its Disney Media Networks division with Sweeney being named president of ABC parent Disney–ABC, and ESPN president George Bodenheimer becoming co-CEO of the division with Sweeney, as well as president of ABC Sports. This move added ABC TV Network within Disney-ABC.[18] ABC1 channel initially launched in the United Kingdom on September 27, 2004 as the first use of the ABC brand outside the US.[19] While ABC News Now was launched that year in the US on digital subchannel of 70 ABC owned & operated and affiliates.[20]

In February 2007, Touchstone Television was renamed ABC Television Studio as part of Disney's push to drop secondary brands like Buena Vista for Disney, ABC and ESPN.[21] ABC1 in the UK was shut down on September 26, 2007.[22]

On January 22, 2009, Disney–ABC said it would merge ABC Entertainment and ABC Studios into a new unit called ABC Entertainment Group.[23][24] That April, ABC Enterprises took an ownership stake in Hulu in exchange for online distribution license and $25 million in ABC network ad credits.[25] The Live Well Network (LWN) was launched on April 27, 2009 by ABC Owned Television Stations on the stations' subchannels[26][27][28] Late that year, A+E Networks acquired Lifetime Entertainment Services with DATG ownership increasing to 42%.[29] In November, Disney-ABC sells GMTV to ITV for $37 million.[30]

In July 2012, NBCUniversal confirmed plans to sell its 15.8% stake in A+E Networks to Disney and Hearst Entertainment & Syndication, who became 50-50 partners in the joint venture.[31]

On August 21, 2013, Disney–ABC announced it will layoff 175 employees. The layoffs are expected to hit positions among technical operations as well as the unit's eight local stations.[32] On October 28, ABC News and Univision launched Fusion, a Hispanic news and satire shows cable channel.[33]

Units

ABC, Inc. DBA Disney–ABC Television Group[34]

Walt Disney Television and Telecommunications

Unit[7][8] transferred to[8]
KCAL-TV Los Angeles sold to Young[37]
Walt Disney Television Disney Studios
Disney Television Animation
Touchstone Television
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Walt Disney Television International CC/ABC
Disney Channel International
Buena Vista Television
GMTV
Super RTL
Disney Interactive
Disney TeleVentures, Inc. Disney corporate

Walt Disney Television and Telecommunications (WDTT) was a division of The Walt Disney Company. At the time Disney and Capital Cities/ABC merged, WDTT's divisions were The Disney Channel, KCAL-TV Los Angeles, Walt Disney Television, Touchstone Television and Buena Vista Home Video International, and Disney Interactive.[7]

WDTT history

On August 24, 1994 with Jeffrey Katzenberg's resignation a reorganization of Disney Company took place in which Richard Frank became head of newly formed Walt Disney Television and Telecommunications, which was split off from its filmed entertainment business, Walt Disney Motion Pictures.[38] Walt Disney Computer Software was transferred with in WDTT on December 5, 1994 as Disney Interactive.[39] In April 1996 due to ongoing post Disney-CC/ABC merger realignment and retirement of its president, WDTT group's division were reassigned to other groups with most transferred to The Walt Disney Studios or CC/ABC.[8] KCAL was sold to Young Broadcasting in May 1996 due to CC/ABC ownership of another TV station in the market.[37]

References

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External links

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  4. ↑ Our Divisions - ESPN Careers
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Fabrikant, Geraldine. The Media Business;Disney and ABC Shareholders Solidly Approve Merger Deal January 05, 1996. The New York Times. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Littleton, Cynthia. (May 27, 1996) ABC folds in-house arm. (TV series production unit). Broadcasting & Cable. Access on November 13, 2013.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  24. ↑ Disney Combines ABC's Programming, Production Units, Bloomberg.com, January 23, 2009
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ ABC O&Os Launch Digital Network, Broadcasting & Cable, April 27, 2009
  28. ↑ ABC Multicasts Live Well HD Channel, Mediaweek, October 25, 2009
  29. ↑ A&E Acquires Lifetime. Variety.com. August 27, 2009.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  39. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. sources:
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