ABC of the five major U.S. television networks

The full name of ABC TV station is "American Broadcasting Company", but everyone is not familiar with the full name of ABC.

What we often see are the three lowercase letters "abc". At that time, NBC TV station, as the first broadcasting organization in the United States, had two broadcast networks covering the whole country, one was called the Red Network, and the other was the predecessor of ABC, the Blue Network (later the broadcast network was transformed into a television network). NBC, as the largest broadcaster at the time, not only covered all regions in the United States, but also extended its coverage to Canada, Northern Mexico and other places. This was contrary to the Anti-Monopoly Law at the time. Finally, in 1943, according to the Federal Communications Commission's report on the investigation of interlocking broadcasts. Regulations that stipulate that a company cannot own

more than two broadcast networks for sale. Therefore, NBC had to break up the company. Sell ??the slightly weaker Blue Net. After changing hands several times, it was acquired by Edward John Noble in 1944 for US$10,000. Among the three major radio and television networks in the United States, ABC started the latest and was weak for a period of time. Over the years, ABC has spent a lot of money to recruit talented people in order to change its status.

Use puzzle programs to save ratings

In 1998, the British ITV TV station broadcast a new program - "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire". The rules of the program are extremely simple. Answer 15 questions correctly and you could win the ￡1 million prize. The show was a huge success as soon as it was launched, occupying a market share of up to 59%! ABC saw the huge development potential of this program, purchased the copyright, repackaged it, and invested heavily in production. The results proved that ABC made a wise choice. From 1999 to 2000, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" averaged 29 million viewers per night, setting a record for the highest ratings of any television program in American history. ABC claimed that the show was the most profitable television show in its history, with total revenue of $1 billion! However, ABC relied too much on this program and invested a lot of manpower and material resources instead of focusing on developing new program formats. In 2002, ABC broadcast the program for four hours a week, which eventually turned the audience bored and unappetizing. ABC's ratings have since dropped to fourth place, with a financial loss of US$360 million in the same year.

Just when puzzle programs are boring audiences, the emergence of reality shows has set off a new round of viewing frenzy. As early as 2000, "Survivor" launched by CBS set a new high in ratings for summer programs in the United States. It not only defeated ABC's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" but also set a new record for CBS in this time period in 13 years. viewing record. Since then, the craze of reality shows has quickly swept across the world and has become the most popular program format. NBC's "The Apprentice", FOX's "American Idol", United Paramount Network (UPN)'s "America's Next Top Model", etc., have caused huge repercussions around the world. All the programs belong to the category of "Reality-TV" (reality show).

At this time, ABC also realized the seriousness of the situation. In order to regain its declining popularity, it also turned its perspective to reality shows.

Launching a reality show that challenges the moral bottom line

In January 2003, Channel 4 launched a new reality show "Wife Swap" which attracted the attention of ABC. . The show will be staged by two families from different backgrounds and cultures. The wives of the two families will exchange their homes with each other. They will go to each other's home to live "cohabitation" with their husbands and children for 10 days. After the program was aired, the number of viewers rose from 3.9 million to 5.7 million in just two weeks. ABC showed a strong interest in this program and bought the rights to the program as quickly as possible and began broadcasting it in the United States.

Although Michael Davis, the producer of the ABC version of "Wife Swap", said that the show will never contain any pornographic elements, because when a wife enters the "new home", her duties are only It is limited to taking care of the children and doing housework as a "hostess", and does not include the obligation to sleep with the "new husband", but this program will undoubtedly be a serious test for the media's moral bottom line. ABC also made no secret of saying, "This program satisfies the audience's voyeuristic desires." Facts have also proved that it is this kind of sideline program that can attract the audience's attention to the greatest extent: in the first weekend of the program's broadcast, ABC won the ratings championship for the same period of time.

After the success of "Wife Swap", ABC realized the importance of developing new programs for channel maintenance. In an interview with Newsweek, the head of the entertainment department, Susan Lane, claimed that the company had begun to change its original business strategy. The current ABC's new slogan is "comedy, humor, and wit", which was what was pioneered that year. Jiangshan's strategy when he became the boss of the television industry, such as his flagship program "Rosni" at that time. After clarifying the development direction, ABC extended its reform tentacles to TV dramas and took its third step.

Launched multiple popular TV series

In the fall of 2004, ABC had the foresight to purchase a TV series called "Crazy Housewives", which triggered a viewing frenzy as soon as it was aired. , even the first lady of the United States, Laura Bush, has to rely on claiming to be a loyal audience of this show to create her own people-friendly image. In fact, Marc, the producer of "Crazy Housewives", had previously negotiated with major American television networks including ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX with the script, but unfortunately, except for ABC, all other television networks rejected it. Not even room for negotiation was given. As a result, "Housewives" performed so well that the networks that originally gave it up regretted it. The soap opera, starring five restless housewives, had the highest ratings in Nielsen's 18- to 49-year-old survey in its first season and was an office romance. The hospital drama "Grey's Anatomy" created a broadcast schedule. When the nomination list for the 57th Emmy Awards was announced on July 14, 2005, "Crazy Housewives" won 15 nominations in one fell swoop, which was the same as "Will and Will", another TV series with the most nominations in the history of the Emmy Awards. Grace” ended in a tie. In the fall of 2004, ABC also launched another new drama - "Lost". In order to create the most authentic and natural atmosphere, ABC spent heavily on filming in Hawaii. The entire storyline has ups and downs, and the actors performed vividly. It has also become one of the TV series with the highest ratings during prime time. It is precisely under the stimulation of these two TV series that ABC's total audience and the key audience of 18-49 years old have experienced double-digit growth, ranking second after Fox.

Behind the high ratings, ABC has invested a lot of money in TV dramas, unblocking channel resources, so that the programs can achieve the best broadcast effect. At the same time, ABC also seizes every opportunity to promote its programs, in addition to its own In addition to advertising heavily on TV networks, ABC has especially stepped up its POP advertising campaign. If you walk through three blocks, you will definitely see at least one "Crazy Housewives" billboard. At the same time, ABC continues to try its best to explore the value of their broadcast time slots, that is, to create their absolute advantage in a certain broadcast time slot, so that other TV networks will "stay away" from it during this broadcast time slot, thus establishing own monopoly position. One of its strategies has been to hit hard, including using "Crazy Housewives" to push Fox's "That '70s Show" off Sunday screens.

With the twin hits of "Housewives" and "Lost," ABC leapt forward and became the only network in 2005 to increase its ratings among adults (up 15). net. The network's program richness is almost to the point of excess: in addition to "Lost" and "Crazy Housewives," "Up and Coming" and "Grey's Anatomy" are also heavyweight works.

In a normal year, new shows like "Boston Legal" and "Eye" might have become standouts.

Almost every other television network has expressed affirmation of ABC's performance this season. Fox President Dana Walton said: "ABC's progress and performance have to be admired. They are now making decisive decisions and have foresight."

ABC will launch new dramas in the second half of this year, including Among those that could have a huge impact are Touchstone's "Commander in Chief," in which Geena Davis plays the president, and Warner Bros. Network's (WB) horror drama "Invasion." U.S. media buying agencies and consulting firms all predict that ABC will maintain its ratings lead among viewers aged 18-49 in the coming quarter.

In addition to exciting TV series and self-produced programs that attract the attention of viewers in the United States, live broadcasts of large-scale events or celebrations have always achieved very high ratings. Among these "big events", The Super Bowl and the Oscars are undoubtedly the two most important events.

ABC got a share of both major events, and this is its fourth move.

Holds two major live broadcast rights

Holds two major live broadcast rights-"Super Bowl" and Oscar Awards

"Super Bowl" ) is the National Football League's final game, held on a Sunday in February each year. "Super Bowl" is the name of the trophy that the two sides compete for, and it is also the name of the game. The Super Bowl has extremely high television ratings in the United States. CBS and Fox Television Network have agreed to jointly invest US$8 billion to extend the broadcast rights of NFL games for another six seasons. During that time, the two companies will each broadcast two Super Bowls, typically one of the most-watched television shows of the year. ABC obtained the remaining two broadcast rights from these two companies. This also ensures that ABC will definitely get a share of the high ratings of the "Super Bowl".

In addition to the live broadcast of the "Super Bowl" in 2006, ABC also won the right to broadcast the Oscars. The 2004 Academy Awards ceremony was also broadcast nationally by ABC. A total of 41.5 million American viewers watched the ceremony that night, although this number was higher than last year

At the Advertisers Meeting held in May 2005 At the meeting, Steve McPherson, president of the entertainment division of ABC parent company Disney Group, gave a confident but not complacent speech at the meeting, making it clear to advertisers and competitors: Disney is back. But he is not complacent, because he knows that although ABC is now the darling of the media, it still has a long way to go. There were 2 million fewer viewers when "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" won the award, but the survey showed that in the 56 most prosperous viewing markets, the ratings of the 2005 Oscar ceremony were the highest in five years. The overall viewership decline suggests that live broadcasts of the Oscars are more popular in big cities than in rural areas. The number of Oscar viewers in the 18 to 34 age group was higher than in 2004, second only to the American "Super Bowl" football game. This is also the 12th time since 1990 that the number of viewers has reached between 40 million and 46 million. According to the extended broadcast agreement signed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and ABC, ABC's broadcast rights will be extended to 2014. ABC has been responsible for broadcasting the Oscar Awards for nearly 30 years, and each live broadcast can bring it high Ratings and advertising revenue.

The above information is quoted from Wikipedia Monday

8 p.m. Dancing With the Stars

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Tuesday

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