ABC News (PatrZDZ's vision)

**ABC News** is the news division of the American television network ABC, which is, in turn, a wholly owned subsidiary of Capital Cities/ABC. The news division's various operations report to the president of ABC News, Kimberly Godwin. ABC News also comprises ABC News Now, the network's 24-hour general news channel, global video news agency Worldwide Television News, as well as ABC News Radio.

Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ABC World News Tonight with David Muir; other programs include morning news-talk show Good Morning America, Nightline, Primetime, 20/20, and Sunday morning political affairs program This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

## History

### 20th-century origins

ABC began in 1943 as the NBC Blue Network, a radio network that was spun off from NBC, as ordered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1942. The reason for the order was to expand competition in radio broadcasting in the United States, specifically news and political broadcasting, and broaden the projected points of view. Only a few companies, such as NBC and CBS, dominated the radio market. NBC conducted the split voluntarily in case its appeal of the ruling was denied, and it was forced to split its two networks into separate companies.

Regular television news broadcasts on ABC began soon after the network signed on its initial owned-and-operated television station (WJZ-TV, now WABC-TV) and production center in New York City in August 1948. Broadcasts continued as the ABC network expanded nationwide. Until the early 1970s, ABC News programs and ABC in general consistently ranked third in viewership behind CBS and NBC news programs. ABC had fewer affiliate stations and a weaker prime-time programming slate to support the network's news operations compared to the two larger networks, each of which had established their radio news operations during the 1930s.

### Roone Arledge

By the 1970s, the network had effectively turned around, with its prime-time entertainment programs achieving more substantial ratings and drawing in higher advertising revenue and profits for ABC overall. With the appointment of the president of ABC Sports, Roone Arledge as president of ABC News in 1977, ABC invested the resources to make it a significant source of news content. 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' longtime slogan, "More Americans get their news from ABC News than from any other source." (introduced in the late 1980s), was a claim referring to the number of people who watch, listen to and read ABC News content on television, radio and (eventually) the Internet, and not necessarily to the telecasts alone.

### 21st century

In April 2018, it was announced that FiveThirtyEight would be transferred to ABC News from ESPN, Inc., majority owned by The Walt Disney Company. On September 10, 2018, ABC News launched a second attempt to extend its Good Morning America brand into the afternoon with GMA3: What You Need To Know.

In an October 2018 Simmons Research survey of 38 news organizations, ABC News was ranked the second most trusted news organization by Americans, behind The Wall Street Journal.

## Other services

### ABC News Now

ABC News Now is a 24-hour cable news network that launched on July 26, 2004, as a digital subchannel by ABC News, being the company's second attempt in the 24-hour cable news world after Satellite News Channel. It delivers breaking news, headline news each half hour, and a wide range of entertainment and lifestyle programming. The channel is available in the United States and Europe. It was shut down as a digital subchannel after its experimental phase ended with the Presidential inauguration in 2005, and moved to digital cable and satellite.

### ABC News Radio

ABC News Radio is the radio service of ABC News. Formerly known as ABC Radio News, ABC News Radio feeds through ABC Audio with newscasts on the hour to its affiliates. ABC News Radio is the largest commercial radio news organization in the US.

### ABCNews.com

ABCNews.com launched on May 15, 1997, by ABC News Internet Ventures, a joint venture between Starwave and ABC formed in April 1997. Starwave had owned and operated ESPNet SportsZone (later known as ESPN.com) since 1995, which licensed the ESPN brand and video clips from ABC's corporate sister ESPN Inc. Disney wanted more control of their Internet properties, which meant ABCNews.com was operated as a joint venture with ABC News having editorial control. Disney had also bought a minority stake in Starwave before the launch of ABCNews.com and would later buy the company outright.

The website initially had a dedicated staff of about 30. In addition to articles, it featured short video clips and audio from the start, delivered using RealAudio and RealVideo technology. Some content was also available via America Online.