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Television of the United States |
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In the United States, for most of the history of broadcasting, there were only three or four major commercial national terrestrial networks. From 1946 to 1956, these were ABC, CBS, NBC and DuMont (though the Paramount Television Network had some limited success during these years). From 1956 to 1986, the "Big Three" national commercial networks were ABC, CBS, and NBC (with a few limited attempts to challenge them, such as National Telefilm Associates [and its NTA Film Network] and the Overmyer Network). From 1954 to 1970, National Educational Television was the national clearinghouse for public TV programming; the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) succeeded it in 1970.
Today, more than fifty national free-to-air networks exist. Other than the non-commercial educational (NCE) PBS, which is composed of member stations, the largest terrestrial television networks are the traditional Big Three television networks (ABC, CBS and NBC). Many other large networks exist, however, notably Fox and The CW which air original programming for two hours each night instead of three like the original "Big Three" do, as well as MyNetworkTV, which feature reruns of recent popular shows with little to no original programming, and Ion Television, which has had the same format since around 2007 but has started to pursue sports properties. Fox has just about the same household reach percentage as the Big Three, and is therefore often considered a peer to ABC, CBS, and NBC since it has also achieved equal or better ratings since the late 1990s; as of 2019, it also programs the equivalent amount of sports programming as the Big Three. Most media outlets now include Fox in what they refer to as the "Big Four" TV networks.
The transition to digital broadcasting in 2009 has allowed for television stations to offer additional programming options through digital subchannels, one or more supplementary programming streams to the station's primary channel that are achieved through multiplexing of a station's signal. A number of new commercial networks airing specialty programming such as movies, reruns of classic series and lifestyle programs have been created from companies like Weigel Broadcasting, Sinclair Broadcast Group and even owners of the major networks such as Fox Corporation (through the Fox Entertainment subsidiary), Paramount Global (through the CBS Media Ventures subsidiary), The Walt Disney Company (through the Walt Disney Television subsidiary) and Comcast (through the NBCUniversal subsidiary). Through the use of multicasting, there have also been a number of new Spanish-language and non-commercial public TV networks that have launched.
Free-to-air networks in the U.S. can be divided into five categories:
Each network sends its signal to many local affiliate television stations across the country. These local stations then air the "network feed", with programs broadcast by each network being viewed by up to tens of millions of households across the country. In the case of the largest networks, the signal is sent to over 200 stations. In the case of the smallest networks, the signal may be sent to just a dozen or fewer stations.
As of the 2016–17 television season, there are an estimated 118.4 million households in the U.S. with at least one TV set. [1]
All of the networks listed below operate a number of terrestrial TV stations. In addition, several of these networks are also aired on pay television services.
Name | Owner (subsidiary) | Launch date | % of U.S. households reached | # of households viewable | # of full-power affiliates | # of low-power/class-A affiliates | Language | Description | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
NBC | Comcast | 1939 [2] | 97% | 114,848,000 | 226 | ~338 | English | Major commercial network | |
CBS | National Amusements | 1941 [2] | 215 | ~299 | |||||
ABC | The Walt Disney Company | 1948 [2] | 229 | ~266 | |||||
Fox | Fox Corporation | 1986 [3] | 223 | ~202 | |||||
The CW | Nexstar Media Group (75%) National Amusements (Paramount Global) & Warner Bros. Discovery (12.5% each) | 2006 [4] | 204 | ~11 | |||||
PBS | Corporation for Public Broadcasting (main steward, not owner, of service) | 1969 [5] | 96% | 113,664,000 | 349 | ~342 | Public | Non-Commercial | |
MyNetworkTV | Fox Corporation | 2006 [4] | 97% [6] | 100,640,000 | 151 | ~30 | Commercial/syndication service | ||
Scripps News | E. W. Scripps Company | 2021 | 86.22% | 113,240,745 | General news | ||||
MeTV | Weigel Broadcasting | 2010 | 84% | 99,456,000 | 176 | 29 | Classic series | ||
MeTV+ | 2021 | ||||||||
Story Television | 2022 | Classic historic and documentary series | |||||||
PBS Kids | PBS | 2017 [7] | 83% | 98,272,000 | 269 | 0 | Children's programming | Non-Commercial | |
Court TV | E. W. Scripps Company | 2019 | 80.49% | 95,300,160 | True crime/court news | ||||
Antenna TV | Nexstar Media Group | 2011 | 80% | 94,720,000 | 114 | 27 | Classic series | ||
Rewind TV | Nexstar Media Group | 2021 | |||||||
Dabl | Paramount Global | 2019 | 77.70% | 91,996,800 | Lifestyle | ||||
True Crime Network | Tegna Inc. | 2014 | 76% | 92,936,000 | 62 | 10 | True Crime/Investigation | Launched as Justice Network | |
Ion Mystery | E. W. Scripps Company | 75% | 88,800,000 | 124 | 25 | Suspense; drama; women's interest | Launched as Escape, later rebranded as Court TV Mystery | ||
Grit | 120 | 16 | Action; westerns; men's interest | ||||||
Create | American Public Television, WGBH-TV, & WNET | 2006 | 86% | 87,616,000 | 238 | 1 | Public TV; instructional | Non-Commercial | |
Laff | E. W. Scripps Company (Laff Media, LLC) | 2015 | 74% | 111 | 22 | Comedy | |||
This TV | Entertainment Studios | 2008 | 89 | 29 | Classic series and films | ||||
Bounce TV | E. W. Scripps Company | 2011 | 73% | 86,432,000 | 112 | 11 | Black-centered programming | ||
Ion Television | 1998 (as Pax TV) | 72% (OTA only) | 85,248,000 | 109 | 25 | Mainly recent procedural drama repeats | |||
Comet | Sinclair Broadcast Group (operator: MGM Television) | 2015 | 66% | 78,144,000 | 100 | 17 | Science fiction | ||
GetTV | Sony Pictures Television | 2014 | 66 | 20 | Classic series and films | ||||
Heroes & Icons | Weigel Broadcasting | 2014 | 58% | 68,672,000 | 57 | 30 | Classic action and sci-fi series; men's interest | ||
World Channel | American Public Television, WNET, WGBH Educational Foundation, & National Educational Telecommunications Association | 2007 | 59% | 68,617,000 | 160 | 0 | News and documentaries, and PBS NewsHour repeats | Non-Commercial | |
QVC | Qurate Retail Group | 1986 | 68,204,000 | 48 | 13 | Shopping | |||
HSN | 1985 [8] | 41 | 46 | ||||||
Catchy Comedy | Weigel Broadcasting | 2015 | 57% | 67,488,000 | 53 | 6 | Classic sitcoms | ||
Movies! | Fox Television Stations (both owning 50%) | 2013 | 52 | 18 | Feature films | ||||
Cozi TV | Comcast | 56% | 66,304,000 | 66 | 31 | Classic series and NBC Mystery Movie series | |||
Fave TV | Paramount Global | 2020 | 36.56% | 44,091,360 | 14 | 0 | ViacomCBS reality series repeats | ||
Quest | Tegna Inc. | 2018 | 65% | 78,200,000 | 29 | TBD | Adventure programming | ||
Start TV | CBS Television Stations & Weigel Broadcasting | 46% | 54,464,000 | 25 | 6 | procedural dramas/women's interest | |||
Buzzr | Fremantle & RTL Group | 2015 | 45% | 53,280,000 | 20 | 37 | Game shows | ||
Charge! | Sinclair Broadcast Group | 2017 | 43% | 50,912,000 | 52 | 4 | Action series and films | ||
Defy TV | Katz Broadcasting, LLC | 2021 | Reality television | ||||||
Rev'n | Get After It Media (Henry Luken III) | 2014 | 42% | 49,728,000 | 1 | 44 | Automotive | ||
Retro TV | 2005 | 34% | 40,256,000 | 15 | 83 | Commercial, reruns | |||
TheGrio | Entertainment Studios | 2021 | 33% | 39,072,000 | 14 | 0 | Black-centric programming | ||
QVC2 | Qurate Retail Group | 2013 | 31% | 36,704,000 | 5 | 34 | Shopping | ||
NewsNet | Bridge Media Networks (Bridge News, LLC) | 2019 | 26.62% | 34,249,693 | 4 | 53 | Headline news | ||
Localish | ABC Owned Television Stations (Walt Disney Television) | 2009 | 25% | 29,600,000 | 8 | 0 | Health/lifestyle | ||
TBD | Sinclair Television Group (Sinclair Broadcast Group)(operated by Jukin Media) | 2017 | 50 | 5 | Talk/lifestyle | ||||
Heartland | Get After It Media | 2012 | 22.51% | 23,342,140 | 2 | 44 | Country music/lifestyle | ||
Jewelry Television | Multimedia Commerce Group, Inc. | 1993 | 22% | 26,048,000 | 16 | 114 | Shopping | ||
NHK World-Japan | NHK | 1998 | 18% | 20,934,000 | 15 | 0 | Japanese news and information | Non-Commercial | |
The Action Channel | Get After It Media | 2016 | 21,312,000 | 2 | 38 | Men's Interest | |||
Biz Television | Center Post Media, Inc. | 2009 | 17% | 19,788,000 | 5 | 34 | Business and financial information | ||
WeatherNation TV | WeatherNation, Inc (Performance One Media) | 2011 | 20 | 7 | Weather | ||||
The Country Network | TCN Country, LLC | 2009 | 20,128,000 | 7 | 33 | Country music videos | |||
Soul of the South Television | SSN Media Group, LP | 2013 | 4 | 7 | African-American programming | ||||
Stadium | Sinclair Television Group, Inc. (Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.) & Silver Chalice | 2017 | 15% | 17,760,000 | 38 | 24 | Sports | ||
First Nations Experience | San Bernardino Community College District | 2011 | 12% | 14,208,000 | 22 | 7 | Native American programming | Non-Commercial | |
Sports News Highlights | Bridge Media Networks (Bridge News, LLC) | 2022 | 10.46% | 13,071,175 | 0 | 10 | Rolling sports news | ||
ShopHQ | iMedia Brands Inc. (Comcast [12.5%]) | 1991 | 11% | 13,024,000 | 5 | 6 | Shopping | ||
France 24 | France Médias Monde (French Government) | 2006 | 10% | 11,640,000 | 4 | International news | Non-Commercial | ||
Shop LC | Vaibhav Global | 2007 | 8% | 9,472,000 | 0 | 42 | Shopping | ||
AccuWeather Channel | AccuWeather | 2006 | 7% | 8,148,000 | 13 | 4 | Weather | ||
YTA TV | Center Post Media | 1985 | 33% | 34,984,000 | 1 | 34 | Sports/lifestyle | ||
Classic Arts Showcase | The Lloyd E. Rigler – Lawrence E. Deutsch Foundation | 1994 | 6,978,000 | 3 | 3 | Non-commercial performance art video clips | Non-Commercial | ||
The Family Channel | ValCom & Get After It Media | 2008 [9] | 5% | 5,920,000 | 4 | 21 | Classic series and films | Called My Family TV until 2014. | |
QVC3 | Qurate Retail Group | 2016 | 0 | 5 | Shopping | ||||
AMGTV | Access Media Group | 2006 | 4.39% | 1 | 22 [10] | General Entertainment | |||
DW-TV | Deutsche Welle | 1953 | 2% | 2,326,000 | 5 | 1 | Multicultural | Non-Commercial | |
Minnesota Channel | Twin Cities Public Television | 2005 | 17 | 0 | Educational television, public affairs, ethnic and local programming | ||||
Untamed Sports TV | None | 2008 | 1.29% | 4,021,177 | Sports/outdoors | ||||
Pursuit Channel | Pursuit Media LLC | 0.23% | 716,644 | Sports and recreation | |||||
Univision | Univision Communications | 1986 [11] | 49% | 94,100,000 [12] | 62 | 26 | Spanish | Spanish commercial | |
Estrella TV | Estrella Media | 2009 | 46% | 64,232,000 | 38 | 29 | |||
Telemundo | Comcast | 1984 [13] | 61.60% | 92,476,422 | 54 | 46 | |||
UniMás | Univision Communications | 2002 [14] | 43% | 59,600,000 [15] | 35 | 24 | |||
LATV | LATV Networks, LLC | 2007 | 16 | Bilingual (English/Spanish) entertainment | |||||
TeleXitos | NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises (NBCUniversal Filmed and Entertainment) | 2012 | 42.46% | 32,661,468 | 25 | 1 | |||
Mega TV | Spanish Broadcasting System | 2006 | 6% | 6,984,000 | 5 | ||||
TeLe-Romántica | Dreamhouse Entertainment, LLC (managed by TeVe-Romance) | 2012 | 0.46% | 1,425,200 | Telenovelas/lifestyle | ||||
Multimedios | Grupo Multimedios | 1968 | 2.22% | 6,942,039 | Spanish commercial | ||||
Daystar | Word of God Fellowship | 1982 | 56% | 64,736,000 | 20 | 80 | English | Religious | |
SonLife Broadcasting Network | 2010 | 44% | 52,096,000 | 22 | 77 | ||||
Enlace [16] | 2002 | 41% | 48,554,000 | 37 | 9 | Spanish | Spanish-language religious programming | ||
TBN | 1973 | 40% | 47,360,000 | 39 | 10 | English | Religious | ||
Smile [16] | Trinity Broadcasting Network | 2005 | 35 | 12 | Religious children's programming | ||||
Positiv [16] [17] | 2003 | 36 | 10 | Christian and Family-oriented movies | |||||
TBN Inspire [16] | Hillsong Church & Trinity Broadcasting Network | 2002 | 35 | 9 | Religious | ||||
3ABN | Three Angels Broadcasting Network | 1984 | 27% | 31,968,000 | 2 | 133 | |||
3ABN Latino | 2003 | 20% | 23,680,000 | 0 | 124 | Spanish | Spanish religious | ||
Peace TV | 2006 | 15% | 17,760,000 | 7 | English | Religious (Islamic) | |||
Dare to Dream Network | Three Angels Broadcasting Network | 2010 | 13% | 15,392,000 | 101 | Religious | |||
3ABN Proclaim! | 109 | ||||||||
Almavision | Almavision Hispanic Network | 2002 | 8% | 9,472,000 | 9 | Spanish | Spanish religious | ||
TCT | 1977 | 9% | 27,992,924 | 8 | English | Religious | |||
Cornerstone Television [18] | 1979 [19] | 7.94% | 24,796,415 | 2 | 12 | ||||
Hope Channel | Seventh-day Adventist Church | 2003 | 6.74% | 21,058,587 | 0 | 15 | |||
The Walk TV | 2010 | 7.52% | 23,506,549 | 3 | 12 | ||||
CTN | 1979 | 5% | 5,780,000 | 11 | 5 | ||||
God TV | 1995 | 2 | |||||||
WHT | Family Broadcasting Corporation | 1985 [20] | 7 | 4 | |||||
EWTN | 1981 | 3.50% | 10,928,781 | 1 | 7 | Religious (Catholic) | |||
The Word Network | 2000 | 1.5% | 1,734,000 | 2 | Religious | ||||
TLN | 1973 | 1% | 1,156,000 | 1 | 0 | ||||
Tvida Vision | 2005 | 0.7% | 809,200 | 0 | 2 | Spanish | Spanish religious | ||
Tele Vida Abundante | 1985 | 0.32% | 1,004,355 | 3 | Spanish | Spanish religious (Jewish) | |||
GLC | 1982 | 0.25% | 289,000 | 5 | 0 | English | Religious |
Additionally, several of the cable-oriented theme channels (e.g. music or shopping channels) have obtained broadcast clearances, usually on low-power stations, in many markets.
Additionally, Televisa, which distributes programming to Univision in the United States, operates in Mexico, but the company's networks (Canal de las Estrellas, Canal 5 and Nueve) have certain stations which can be received in parts of the U.S. located along and near the Mexican border, and likewise with the American networks have affiliates located or receivable in Mexican border cities. Some Mexican border stations (such as the former English-language ABC/Fox/CW affiliate XETV-TDT in Tijuana) who formerly maintained affiliations with U.S.-based English or Spanish networks, but mainly targeted their programming at their American border city (more than the Mexican metropolitan area that they are based in or merely licensed to).
Although the English-language programming model in the U.S. traditionally relies on the network and its stations handling programming responsibilities, Spanish language networks handle most of the responsibility for programming, while affiliates are limited to breakaways from the network feed to provide local news, public affairs and/or entertainment programming as well as local advertising. As such, all Spanish language networks primarily available on broadcast TV operate national feeds that are distributed to cable and satellite providers in markets without a local affiliate. Spanish-language independent stations also exist, although (particularly with the launch of Estrella TV), these are very limited and they mainly exist in markets with a large Hispanic and Latino American population.
Several religious networks allow their broadcast affiliates to carry their programming out-of-pattern through clearance arrangements, notably TBN, 3ABN, Hope Channel and World Harvest Television.
This article needs to be updated.(November 2010) |
Ion Television is an American broadcast television network owned by the Scripps Networks subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August 31, 1998, as Pax TV, focusing primarily on family-oriented entertainment programming. It rebranded as i: Independent Television on July 1, 2005, converting into a general entertainment network featuring recent and older acquired programs. The network adopted its identity as Ion Television on January 29, 2007, and airs programming in daily binge blocks of one program, usually acquired procedural dramas. The network also carries some holiday specials and films before Christmas.
Television is one of the major mass media outlets in the United States. In 2011, 96.7% of households owned television sets; about 114,200,000 American households owned at least one television set each in August 2013. Most households have more than one set. The percentage of households owning at least one television set peaked at 98.4%, in the 1996–1997 season. In 1948, 1 percent of U.S. households owned at least one television; in 1955, 75 percent did. In 1992, 60 percent of all U.S. households had cable television subscriptions.
WTTE is a television station in Columbus, Ohio, United States, airing programming from the digital multicast network TBD. It is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of ABC/MyNetworkTV/Fox affiliate WSYX, for the provision of certain services. However, Sinclair effectively owns WTTE as the majority of Cunningham's stock is owned by the family of deceased group founder Julian Smith. Sinclair also operates Chillicothe-licensed CW affiliate WWHO under a separate LMA with Manhan Media. The three stations share studios on Dublin Road in Grandview Heights ; WTTE's transmitter is located in the Franklinton section of Columbus.
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In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compression techniques to reduce the size of each individual program stream, and multiplexing to combine them into a single signal. The practice is sometimes called "multicasting".
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WMYT-TV is a television station licensed to Rock Hill, South Carolina, United States, serving the Charlotte, North Carolina area as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. It is the only major commercial television station in the Charlotte market to be licensed to a community in South Carolina. WMYT-TV is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Belmont, North Carolina–licensed Fox affiliate WJZY. Both outlets share studios on Performance Road in unincorporated northwestern Mecklenburg County ; through a channel sharing agreement, the stations transmit using WJZY's spectrum from an antenna near Dallas, North Carolina, along the Catawba River.
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Bounce TV is an American digital multicast television network owned by Scripps Networks, a subsidiary of E. W. Scripps Company. Promoted as "the first 24/7 digital multicast broadcast network created to target African Americans", the channel features a mix of original and acquired programming geared toward African Americans between 25 and 54 years of age. The network is network affiliate with terrestrial television and television station in many media markets through digital subchannel. It is also available on the digital cable tiers of select cable providers at the discretion of local affiliates, as well as on Dish Network, DirecTV and Frndly TV.
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WCZU-LD is a low-power television station in Bowling Green, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with The365. The station is owned by Innovate Corp. and licensed to its subsidiary DTV America Corporation. WCZU-LD's transmitter is located near Wingfield, in unincorporated southwestern Edmonson County along KY 1749.
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Quest is an American digital multicast television network owned by Tegna Inc. The network specializes in travel, historical, science, and adventure-focused documentary and reality series aimed at adults between the ages of 25 and 54.