- This article is about the American news organization. For the Australian news organisation by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, see ABC News (Australia). For other uses see ABC News (disambiguation).
ABC News is a division of American television network ABC, owned by The Walt Disney Company. Its current president is David Westin.
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Current programs
- America This Morning
- Good Morning America
- Good Morning America Weekend Edition
- This Week with George Stephanopoulos
- ABC World News with Charles Gibson
- ABC World News Saturday & Sunday
- 20/20
- Nightline
- ABC World News Now
- ABC News Brief
- Primetime
ABC News Radio distributes, through Citadel Media, newscasts on the hour, live feeds and specialty news programming to some 2,000 local affiliates.
ABC NewsOne is ABC News's affiliate news service. It gathers and feeds regional, national and international news material to ABC affiliates around the country and foreign networks.
ABC News Now is the ABC's 24/7 news channel available online and other sources such as mobile phones.
A 30 second "ABC News Brief" is broadcast weekdays at 2:58pm ET, between One Life to Live and General Hospital. ABC News Briefs formerly appeared during many programs, and had sponsorships (similar to NBC News Update).
A news brief containing information relevant to college students is shown every hour on MtvU, and ABC News segments are packaged or customized for broadcast over Wal-Mart's in-store television network.
ESPN, also owned by Disney, provides sports bulletins and video for some of ABC's newscasts, especially the overnight programs.
ABC News shows Primetime during the summer months.
Specials
- ABC 2000 Today
- Peter Jennings Reporting
- The Century
- Give Me a Break (20/20 spinoff)
ABCNews.com
International broadcasts
ABC News programming is shown daily on the 24 hour news network Orbit News in Europe and the Middle East. This includes several shows from ABC News. It's also available online at ABC News Now.
ABC's World News appears regularly at 1.30am local time on BBC News Channel in the UK, which itself may be simulcast on BBC One or Two during the overnight period. Commercials are removed as the BBC's UK services are financed by a license fee. ABC and the BBC also share video and reporters as needed in producing their newscasts.
In Australia, ABC World News airs at 10:30am daily and Nightline airs at 1:30am daily on Sky News Australia. Primetime airs at 2pm Saturdays (Extended Edition) and 1.30pm Thursdays. The 20/20 program airs at 2pm Sundays (Extended Edition) and Wednesdays at 1.30pm. In New Zealand ABC World News airs daily at 5.10pm and 11.35pm as with BBC News in the UK this is shown without ads (comercials) on TVNZ's 7.
History
ABC began news broadcasts early in its independent existence as a radio network after the FCC ordered the former NBC Blue Network to be spun off as an independent company in 1943. Regular television news broadcasts began soon after ABC opened its New York flagship TV station and production center in the late summer of 1948. They have continued from that time until today but have not always had the same degree of success they enjoy now. Throughout the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s, ABC News consistently ranked third in audience behind CBS News and NBC News. Until the 1970s, the network had fewer affiliate stations and a weaker prime time programming lineup to support its news effort than the two largest networks, each of which had established radio news operations during the 1930s and had begun regular television service in the months before the U.S. entered World War II.
It wasn't until Roone Arledge became the President of ABC News in 1977, at a time when the network's prime time entertainment shows were achieving ratings and financial success and bringing more profits to the corporation overall, that the network was finally able to invest the resources to make it a major player in news. Arledge, known for experimenting with the broadcast "model," created many of ABC News' most popular and enduring programs, including 20/20, World News Tonight, This Week, Nightline, and Primetime Live.
ABC News gained respect in the early 1980s by covering the Iran hostage crisis and, later, for covering the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area live.
Arledge turned ABC News into a broadcasting titan, regularly defeating rivals NBC and CBS. ABC would remain dominant for over two decades while the late Peter Jennings was principal anchor. The network remains a strong competitor today, running close to and sometimes surpassing the audience levels of rival NBC both in the crucial morning time slot and in the evening newscast race.
ABC News' slogan, More Americans get their news from ABC News than from any other source, refers to the number of people who watch, listen, and read ABC News programming on television, radio, and the Internet.[1]
See also
References
External links
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