Disney Animation Building. The youngest of the " Big Three " American television networks, the network is sometimes referred to as the Alphabet Network , as its initialism also represents the first three letters of the English alphabet in order. It extended its operations to television in , following in the footsteps of established broadcast networks CBS and NBC , as well as the lesser-known DuMont. Leonard Goldenson , who had been the head of UPT, made the then-new television network profitable by helping to develop and green-light many successful television series.
In the s, after purchasing an 80 percent interest in cable sports channel ESPN , the network's corporate parent, American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. ABC has eight owned-and-operated and more than affiliated television stations throughout the United States and its territories.
Some ABC-affiliated stations can also be seen in Canada via pay-television providers, and certain other affiliates can also be received over-the-air in areas near the CanadaโUnited States border , although most of its prime time programming is subject to simultaneous substitution regulations for pay television providers imposed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission CRTC to protect rights held by domestically based networks.
It became an independent radio and eventually television network known as the American Broadcasting Company ABC in The company was sold to the Walt Disney Company in The ABC television network currently provides an average of 89 hours of network programming each week. It also offers 22 hours of prime-time programming to affiliated stations from p. Monday through Saturday Eastern and Pacific Time and p.
Daytime programming is also provided from a. Eastern and Pacific weekdays subtract 1 hour for all other time zones with a one-hour break at p. Late nights feature the weeknight talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! The network's three-hour Weekend morning children's programming timeslot is programmed by syndication distributor Litton Entertainment , which produces Litton's Weekend Adventure under an arrangement in which the programming block is syndicated exclusively to ABC owned-and-operated and affiliated stations, rather than being leased out directly by the network to Litton.
