Disney–ABC Television Group

ABC, Inc.
Disney–ABC Television Group[1]
Formerly
 Capital Cities/ABC Inc. (1985–1996)
ABC Group[2]
Subsidiary
Industry Broadcast and cable television
Mass Media
Predecessor Capital Cities/ABC Inc.
Founded March 18, 1985 (1985-03-18)
Headquarters Burbank, California, United States
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
 Ben Sherwood (President)
Number of employees
 7,000+ (2016)[3]
Parent Disney Media Networks
(The Walt Disney Company)
Divisions
Subsidiaries
Website Official website Edit this at Wikidata

ABC, Inc.[4] DBA the Disney–ABC Television Group[1] (stylized as Disney|abc Television Group, simply Disney–ABC[5]), formerly known as Capital Cities/ABC Inc. and ABC Group,[2] is a subsidiary holdings company that 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 its 50% stake in A&E Television Networks and its 80% controlling stake in ESPN, Inc.[6][7] While holding the controlling stake in ESPN, Disney–ABC and ESPN operate as separate units of Disney Media Networks.[8] Post-Fox acquistion it will be renamed Walt Disney Television chaired by Peter Rice.

History

The ABC Television Group logo before merging with The Walt Disney Company.

In 1996, Disney acquired Capital Cities/ABC Inc., and re-branded the holding media conglomerate as Disney–ABC Television Group.[9] The assets acquired at the time included 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 to the fold. 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.[10]

In 1993, DiC Animation City and Capital Cities/ABC formed a joint venture called DIC Entertainment L.P.[11] 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.[12] In May due to the merger, ABC ended its ABC Productions division operations while keeping its boutique production companies: Victor Television, DIC Entertainment, ABC/Kane Productions and Greengrass Productions.[13] The international operations of Disney TV International and ABC Cable and International Broadcast Group were merged in June as Disney/ABC International Television.[14]

Under Disney, ABC Group sold various publishing companies in 1997. Chilton was sold to Reed Elsevier for $447 million and received $142 million from Euromoney Publications for Institutional Investor. 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.[15] In March 1998, Disney-ABC placed it shares of Scandinavian Broadcasting System up for sale.[16]

In late 1999, Walt Disney Television, along with other television units, were transferred again from The Walt Disney Studios to Disney–ABC Television Group and merged with ABC's primetime division, ABC Entertainment, forming ABC Entertainment Group.[17][18][19]

In March 2000, ABC formed the Disney Kids Network (DKN) advertising group via consolidation to sell ads for ABC's "TGIF" primetime programming, Disney's One Saturday Morning, the Disney's One Too syndicated programming block, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, The Wonderful World of Disney and Winnie the Pooh primetime specials. DKN was placed under senior vice president of sales at ABC, Dan Barnathan, and would also work on some ads with Radio Disney, Disney.com and the Disney Adventures magazine. DKN added Toon Disney when the channel started accepting ads in September 2000.[20][21]

ABC Group chairman Robert A. Iger was named president and chief operating officer of The Walt Disney Company in January 2000.[2] In 2000, with an investment by Bain Capital and Chase Capital Partners, Heyward re-purchased DIC Enterprises.[22]

In September 2002, Disney Chairman/CEO Michael Eisner outlined a proposed realignment of the ABC broadcast network's daytime parts with the similar unit in its cable channels: ABC Saturday mornings with Disney Channel units (Toon & Playhouse), ABC daytime with Soapnet and ABC prime time with ABC Family.[23] In October 2003, ABC Family Worldwide was changed from a unit directly reporting to the Disney COO to a unit running within the ABC Cable Networks Group under Anne Sweeney.[24]

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.[25] ABC1 channel initially launched in the United Kingdom on September 27, 2004 as the first use of the ABC brand outside the US.[26] While ABC News Now was launched that year in the US on digital subchannel of 70 ABC owned & operated and affiliates.[27]

On June 12, 2007, Disney spun off its ABC Radio Networks and merged it into Citadel Communications with Citadel Broadcasting while retaining its ESPN Radio and Radio Disney networks and stations and a 10-year news provider licensing agreement with Citadel for ABC News Radio and the networks.[28][29]

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, ESPN, and most recently, A&E Networks.[30] ABC1 in the UK was shut down on September 26, 2007.[31]

On January 22, 2009, Disney–ABC said it would merge ABC Entertainment and ABC Studios into a new unit called ABC Entertainment Group.[32][33] That April, ABC Enterprises took an ownership stake in Hulu in exchange for online distribution license and $25 million in the ABC network ad credits.[34] The Live Well Network (LWN) was launched on April 27, 2009 by ABC Owned Television Stations on the stations' subchannels.[35][36][37] Later that year, A+E Networks acquired Lifetime Entertainment Services with DATG ownership increasing to 42%.[38] In November, Disney-ABC sells GMTV to ITV for $37 million.[39]

On March 24, 2012, following the dissolution of the ABC Daytime division, ABC Family Worldwide Inc. began taking operational control of Soapnet until that network was slowly discontinued for Disney Junior.[40][41]

In July 2012, NBCUniversal confirmed plans to sell its 15.8% stake in A+E Networks to Disney for $3 billion (along with its previous owner Hearst Entertainment & Syndication, who became 50-50 partners in the joint venture).[42][43]

On August 21, 2013, Disney–ABC announced it will lay off 175 employees. The layoffs are expected to hit positions among technical operations as well as the unit's eight local stations.[44] On October 28, ABC News and Univision Communications launched Fusion, a cable Hispanic news and satire channel.[45]

In August 2014, A+E took a 10% stake in Vice Media for $250 million, then announced in April 2015 that H2 would be rebranded into the Vice channel with an indicated early 2016 launch.[46] Disney also directly made two $200 investments in Vice Media in November 2015, then a week later in December, they directly invested in it again for 10% to assist in funding its programming.[47] ABC Family became Freeform on January 12, 2016.[48]

On April 21, 2016, Disney–ABC sold its share in Fusion to Univision.[49] In September 2016, the group's president Ben Sherwood named Bruce Rosenblum, Television Academy chairman and former head of Warner Bros. TV Group, as president of business operations in s the newly created position, to reduce the number of direct reports from 17 to about 8. Roseblum would oversee ad sales in conjunction with channel heads, affiliate sales and marketing, engineering, digital media, global distribution, IT, research and strategy and business development. This allows Sherwood to focus on content and direct operating units that continue to directly report to him, ABC network units, cable channel units (Disney Channels Worldwide, and Freeform), ABC Studios and ABC TV Stations.[50]

Walt Disney Television

With the March 14, 2018, Disney Company reorganization, in anticipation of integrating Fox assets from a proposed acquisition, all international channels including Disney Channels have been transferred to Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International, a new segment, with US channels remaining with Disney–ABC Television Group. All global sales units and distribution units have been transfer to the Disney Direct-to-Consumer segment.[51] On October 9, 2018, Disney announced that the post-merger Disney–ABC Television Group would be renamed Walt Disney Television with Fox Networks Group executives taking over management. Ben Sherwood is schedule to leave his post co-chairman of Disney Media Networks and President with Chairman & CEO of Fox Networks Group Peter Rice replacing him in both posts. 21st Century Fox units moving into Disney Television are 20th Century Fox Television, FX Networks and FX Productions, Fox 21 Television Studios, and the National Geographic channels. Fox TV Group chairman and CEO Dana Walden is to be named Chairman, Disney Television Studios and ABC Entertainment. Within Disney Television Studios and ABC Entertainment, Walden would oversee 20th Century Fox TV and ABC Studios, plus ABC, Freeform and the ABC Owned & Operated stations. FX Networks and National Geographic Partners would transfer over as is and report to President of Walt Disney Television.[52]

Units

ABC, Inc. DBA Disney–ABC Television Group[1] (formerly Capital Cities/ABC Inc.)

Walt Disney Television and Telecommunications

Unit[10][12] Transferred to[12]
KCAL-TV Los Angeles Sold to Young[57]
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, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, and Disney Interactive.[10]

WDTT history

On August 24, 1994, with Jeffrey Katzenberg's resignation, a reorganization of Disney took place in which Richard H. Frank became head of newly formed Walt Disney Television and Telecommunications, which was split from its filmed entertainment business, Walt Disney Studios.[58] On December 5, 1994, Walt Disney Computer Software was transferred within WDTT as Disney Interactive.[59] At the end of his contract on April 30, 1995, Frank left Disney.[60] Dennis Hightower, a marketing executive, was appointed by April 9 to succeed Frank.[61]

In April 1996, due to ongoing post-Disney-CC/ABC merger realignment and the retirement of Hightower as president, WDTT's divisions were reassigned to other groups, with most of them transferred to either The Walt Disney Studios or CC/ABC.[12] KCAL was sold to Young Broadcasting in May 1996 due to CC/ABC ownership of KABC-TV.[57]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Reynolds, Matt (May 11, 2012). "ABC Show Is a 'Big Brother' Ripoff, CBS Says". Courthouse News.com. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 Weinraub, Bernard (January 25, 2000). "Disney Names New President In Reshuffling". The New York Times. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
  3. ↑ Guthrie, Marisa (September 14, 2016). "Disney/ABC TV's Ben Sherwood on a 'Star Wars' Series, "Mistakes" in Michael Strahan's 'Live' Exit and Bob Iger's Future". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
  4. ↑ "ABC, INC. Entity Information". Corporation and Business Entity Database. New York Department of State's Division of Corporations, State Records and Uniform Commercial Code. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
  5. ↑ "Disney-ABC Television Group". disneyabcpress.com. Disney-ABC Television Group. Retrieved July 17, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Walt Disney Company, Form 10-K, Annual Report, Filing Date Nov 22, 2017". secdatabase.com. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
  7. ↑ Our Divisions - ESPN Careers Archived February 2, 2014, at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ↑ "Our Businesses". The Walt Disney Company. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
  9. ↑ Geraldine Fabrikant. "THE MEDIA BUSINESS;Disney and ABC Shareholders Solidly Approve Merger Deal". New York Times. Retrieved July 8, 2013.
  10. 1 2 3 "Fact Sheet: The Walt Disney Company". Press Release. The Walt Disney Company. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
  11. ↑ Brian Lowry (July 26, 1993). "DIC Ent. formed for kids TV fare". Variety. Retrieved January 27, 2016.
  12. 1 2 3 4 "Roth, Iger Assume Expanded Responsibilities at the Walt Disney Company". PRNewswire. April 16, 1996. Retrieved March 11, 2013.
  13. ↑ Littleton, Cynthia. (May 27, 1996) ABC folds in-house arm. (TV series production unit). Broadcasting & Cable. Access on November 13, 2013.
  14. ↑ Johnson, Debra (July 1, 1996). "Granath takes top slot at Disney/ABC International". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved May 16, 2014.
  15. ↑ Kuczynski, Alex (August 20, 1999). "Merger Planned for 2 Giants of Fashion Publishing". New York Times. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  16. ↑ "Disney to sell SBS stake" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. March 2, 1998. p. 34. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
  17. ↑ Hofmeister, Sallie (July 8, 1999). "Disney Plans to Consolidate Two of Its Television Groups". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  18. ↑ Hofmeister, Sallie (July 9, 1999). "Disney Combining Network TV Operations Into One ABC Unit". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 5, 2013.
  19. ↑ Schlosser, Joe (November 29, 1999). "A Mouse in-house". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved July 8, 2013.
  20. ↑ Hettrick, Scott (February 25, 2000). "Stay Toon-ed For Ads On Disney Spinoff Channel". All Business. The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on March 21, 2009. Retrieved April 12, 2014.
  21. ↑ Haman, Andrea (February 1, 2001). "Disney Kids Network looks for cross-promo opps". Kid Screen. Brunico Communications Ltd. Retrieved May 27, 2016.
  22. ↑ Charles Lyons (November 19, 2000). "DIC plays new toon". Variety. Retrieved January 27, 2016.
  23. ↑ McClellan, Steve; Trigoboff, Dan (October 7, 2002). "Eisner touts 'national' duops: disney chief's turnaround plan couples ABC, cable networks by daypart". Broadcasting & Cable. Highbeam.com. Retrieved July 8, 2013.
  24. ↑ Romano, Allison (October 20, 2003). "Sweeney is family's new parent figure". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
  25. ↑ "ABC Networks Get Major Executive Overhaul". The Futon Critic.
  26. ↑ Deans, Jason (August 5, 2004). "ABC spells out plans for Freeview channel". The Guardian. Retrieved February 19, 2014.
  27. ↑ Jesdanun, Anick (September 4, 2004). "ABC News banks on digital, despite small audiences today". USA Today. AP. Retrieved May 29, 2014.
  28. ↑ Rosenthal, Phil (February 7, 2006). "Disney in deal to merge ABC Radio with Citadel". Chicago Tribune. Tribune Publishing. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
  29. ↑ "Disney and Citadel Announce Completion of ABC Radio Merger" (Press release). The Walt Disney Company & Citadel Broadcasting Corporation. Business Wire. June 12, 2007. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
  30. ↑ Fixmer, Fixmer (April 25, 2007). "Disney to Drop Buena Vista Brand Name, People Say (Update1)". bloomberg.com. Retrieved November 28, 2012.
  31. ↑ "Disney pulls plug on ABC1". Digital Spy. September 26, 2007. Retrieved September 26, 2007.
  32. ↑ James, Meg; Chmielewski, Dawn (January 23, 2009). "ABC Combines TV Network, Production Units". Los Angeles Times.
  33. ↑ Disney Combines ABC's Programming, Production Units, Bloomberg.com, January 23, 2009
  34. ↑ Stone, Brad; Brian Stelter (April 30, 2009). "ABC to Add Its Shows to Videos on Hulu". New York Times. Retrieved January 28, 2014.
  35. ↑ "ABC O&Os Launch Digital Network". Broadcasting & Cable. April 27, 2009. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  36. ↑ ABC O&Os Launch Digital Network, Broadcasting & Cable, April 27, 2009
  37. ↑ ABC Multicasts Live Well HD Channel, Mediaweek, October 25, 2009
  38. ↑ A&E Acquires Lifetime. Variety.com. August 27, 2009.
  39. ↑ "Disney sells stake in U.K.'s GMTV". Variety. November 26, 2009. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
  40. ↑ Eades, Chris (March 1, 2012). "ABC Family Is Taking Over SOAPnet... For Now!". Soaps in Depth. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
  41. ↑ Giddens, Jamey (February 29, 2012). "BREAKING NEWS: Kate Nelson OUT at SOAPnet; Day-to-Day Operations Now Under ABC Family Until Channel Goes Dark". Daytime Confidential. Confidential Media, Inc. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
  42. ↑ "Walt Disney Company, Form 10-Q, Quarterly Report, Filing Date Aug 7, 2012" (PDF). secdatabase.com. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
  43. ↑ Goldsmith, Jill (July 10, 2012). "Comcast to sell A&E stake for $3 billion: A&E to redeem the 15.8% stake". Variety. Retrieved July 11, 2012.
  44. ↑ Steinberg, Brian (August 21, 2013). "Disney To Eliminate 175 Jobs At ABC Television Group". Variety. Retrieved September 6, 2013.
  45. ↑ James, Meg (August 1, 2013). "ABC-Univision cable network, Fusion, to launch Oct. 28". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 2, 2013.
  46. ↑ Atkinson, Claire (April 28, 2015). "Vice to get TV channel, replacing H2 on A&E Networks' roster". NY Post. NYP Holdings, Inc. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
  47. ↑ Ember, Sydney (December 8, 2015). "Disney Invests $200 Million More in Vice Media to Support New Programming". New York Times. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  48. ↑ Petski, Denise (December 10, 2015). "ABC Family Name-Change To Coincide With 'Pretty Little Liars' & 'Shadowhunters' Premieres". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  49. ↑ James, Meg. "Walt Disney Co.'s ABC sells its Fusion stake to Univision, exits joint venture". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 21, 2016.
  50. ↑ Littleton, Cynthia (September 16, 2016). "Bruce Rosenblum Joins Disney/ABC TV as President of Business Operations". Variety. Retrieved September 20, 2016.
  51. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Wang, Christine (March 14, 2018). "Disney announces strategic reorganization, effective immediately". CNBC. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  52. ↑ Andreeva, Nellie (October 8, 2018). "Disney Unveils Top TV Executive Structure Post Fox Acquisition: Peter Rice, Dana Walden, John Landgraf, Gary Knell Joining". Deadline. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  53. ↑ "Entity Information: American Broadcasting Companies, Inc". 6. New York State Division of Corporations. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  54. ↑ "ABC Owned TV Stations". Corporate & Press Information. Disney | ABC Television Group. Archived from the original on June 14, 2012. Retrieved May 25, 2012.
  55. ↑ "Annual Report" (PDF). thewaltdisneycompany.com. The Walt Disney Company. September 28, 2013. p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 7, 2014. Retrieved July 7, 2014. Disney Channels Worldwide includes over 100 channels available in 34 languages and 166 countries/territories. Branded channels include Disney Channel, Disney Junior , Disney XD, Disney Cinemagic, Hungama and DLife.
  56. 1 2 Briel, Robert (November 16, 2012). "KEK okays Disney's takeover of Das Vierte". Broadband TV News. Retrieved December 27, 2016.
  57. 1 2 "New York Firm to Buy KCAL-TV for $385 Million". Los Angeles Times. May 14, 1996. Retrieved May 11, 2013.
  58. ↑ Weinraub, Bernard (August 25, 1994). "Chairman of Disney Studios Resigns". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  59. ↑ Polsson, Ken. "July to December 1994". Chronology of the Walt Disney Company. Ken Polsson. Retrieved December 6, 2012. sources:
    *Fisher, Maxine (1988). Walt Disney. pp. A8.
    *The New York Times. December 6, 1994. pp. D5. Missing or empty |title= (help)
    *CD-ROM Today. 3 (2): 26. February 1995. Missing or empty |title= (help)
    *Windows Magazine. 6 (3): 42. March 1995. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  60. ↑ Weinraub, Bernard (7 March 1995). "THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Top Disney TV Official May Leave". The New York Times. Retrieved December 27, 2016.
  61. ↑ Weinraub, Bernard (April 9, 1995). "Clouds Over Disneyland". The New York Times. Retrieved March 30, 2017.
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