By Brianne Sabino

Disney/ABC Television Group Logo[1]

Disney/ABC Television Group

500 South Buena Vista Street

Burbank, CA 91521

818-560-1000

www.disneyabctv. com

[2]

Walt Disney Company Logo [33]

About The Company:

The Disney/ABC Television Group is made up of the Walt Disney Company’s television properties. Included in the group are ABC Television Networks (ABC News, ABC entertainment group, and ABC Daytime), ABC Family, Disney Channels Worldwide, and SOAPnet. Disney/ABC Television Group has an 80% stake in ESPN, a 24 hour sports station. The other 20% belongs to the Hearst Corporation which also has a joint ownership of the A+E Television Network. Disney/ABC Television group produces content worldwide reaching hundreds of millions of people the United States and internationally with content on multiple platforms. [3]

Brief History

On April 18, 1983, the Disney Channel started broadcasting 18 hours of programming a day under Walt Disney Television. In 1996, Disney bought Capital Cities/ABC which included ABC Television Network Group, ESPN, A&E, Lifetime Television. In 1999, Walt Disney Television studio merged with ABC Entertainment group, renamed Touchstone Television. It was given its current name of Disney/ABC Television Group in May of 2007. [10]

ABC News:

ABC News Logo
[4]

ABC News delivers news to more people than any of their competitors. This group is responsible for providing programming to the Disney/ABC owned television, radio, and internet platforms. Their 2,400 affiliate stations reach about 180 million people globally per month. In addition, the ABC Owned television stations group includes 8 stations in the major markets. [5]

ABC Entertainment:

ABC Entertainment Logo
[6]

ABC Entertainment programming includes ABC Family, ABC Daytime, and SOAPnet. The ABC Entertainment Group includes ABC Studios which produces shows for ABC owned stations, as well as for national syndication. ABC Daytime includes popular shows like Katie and The View. ABC Family caters to a younger audience with more scripted drama shows like Pretty Little Liars. [7]

Children’s Programming:

Disney Channel Logo [27]

Disney/ABC Television Group includes very successful children’s programming through Disney Channels Worldwide, Disney XD, and Disney Junior. This section of the group focuses on multi-platform strategies for children. Disney Channel, their 24 hour per day station composed of children’s programming, was ranked #1 for children ages 2-11 and boasts about 560 million viewers worldwide. During the daytime, a block of time called Disney Junior is aired for younger audiences aged 2-7. [8]

Management

Anne Sweeney- President, Disney | ABC Television Group.
[9]

Rebecca Campbell- President, ABC Owned Television Stations Group
[9]

Kevin Brockman-Executive Vice President, Global Communications
[9]

Albert Cheng- Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer, Digital Media
[9]

Financials

On August 21, Disney/ABC was forced to lay off 175 workers, mostly from its operations department and its cable networks. The Disney CFO said in July that the group had seen a 7% decrease in advertising revenue in Q2 2013. However, by the fourth quarter, revenue was back towards a slight increase at 1% on the broadcast side and 2% on cable, thanks to higher ratings and a bump in online advertising rates. The group’s prime time shows are still under performing and ESPN’s numbers are trending downwards as rates to broadcast the NFL and college football are rising. [32]

Earlier This Fall…

Earlier this fall, Disney/ABC’s new Marvel show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, a spinoff from The Avengers, premiered to nearly 12 million viewers. The ratings have been fallen 53% since the premiere with the last episode viewed by about 6.6 million people. Other new prime time shows were The Goldbergs, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland and Lucky 7, which was cancelled due to producing the lowest ratings of a fall premiere in ABC history. ABC Family Pretty Little Liars Spinoff Ravenswood which is about mid-way through its season right now had the biggest cable premiere in three years to a 2.1 million audience. [24] [25] [26]

Right Here, Right now

Sheriff Callie’s Wild West

Sheriff Callie’s Wild West
[12]

Recently, Disney announced that it’s new Disney Junior show Sheriff Callie’s Wild West will not premiere on Television, but on a Disney Junior App. Recent studies have shown that preschool aged children are primarily getting their media from mobile devices, especially tablets. In an effort to reach their target demographic, the show will be released on the Disney Junior App on November 24. Sheriff Callie’s Wild West will air on Disney Channel and Disney Junior television stations early next year. [11]

SOAPnet

[14]

On December 31, 2013 Disney/ABC Television Group announced that it will no longer provide SOAPnet to cable operators. They will be getting rid of SOAPnet to expand Disney Junior which is more relevant with current technology. The channel was created in 2000 and featured fresh content as well as re-runs of classic soap operas like General Hospital and All my Children. Its highest revenue year was 2010, when it brought in $111 million. Disney expects to bring in over $1.8 billion through Disney Junior in 2013. [13]

Netflix Deal

Marvel and Netflix have struck a deal.[16]

Disney is creating more content with their acquisition of Marvel. The television group announced that it had come to an agreement with Netflix to develop four new television series, as well as a miniseries that will stream on Netflix instead of traditional television. Disney will create four, thirteen episode Marvel shows: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and Luke Cage which will all debut in 2015 on the online streaming site. [15]

Fusion

ABC and Univision Fusion Logo[19]

A few weeks ago, ABC News and Univision launched Fusion: a new English language cable channel targeted at young Latinos. The new channel is a 50-50 joint venture between ABC and Univision, targeting Latinos between the ages of 18-34 by having a lot of humorous content. It started with a limited release of about 20 million homes. Fusion plans to have a mobile app up and running by 2014. Although it launched a few weeks ago, the channel is not generating much buzz online so far. [17] [18]

Disney Vs. Dish Dispute

Dish Logo
[21]

Disney has been having a dispute with Dish Network since September about the future of the two companies. Disney wants Dish to get rid of its program “Hopper”, a digital recording system that allows viewers to skip through commercials. Dish wants Disney to give it permission to stream their content in new ways. So far the companies have avoided a blackout of Disney owned companies like ESPN and Disney Channel for Dish subscribers, and they are expected to come to an agreement for a deal in the near future. [20]

Selling Local TV Stations

Disney-ABC Television [23]

Disney is considering selling its 8 owned and operated stations for billions of dollars. Disney considered selling the stations once before in 2010, and now is toying with the idea again since they are worth even more. Cable retransmission fees are higher than they have ever been, but other sections of the television group have been more successful. The broadcast stations brought in a revenue of $5.82 billion last year. [22]

Roku

Roku Logo
[29]

On November 12, Disney announced that it had struck a deal with Roku, a media streaming platform, to allow live programming and Disney/ABC events to stream over Roku. Roku device users will now be able to access WATCH ESPN, WATCH Disney Channel, WATCH Disney Junior and WATCH Disney XD on their devices. Roku is a subscription based service for users and provides services to over 5 million users. [28]

New Shows

Resurrection Logo [31]

Mind Games Logo [31]

ABC Primetime has four new shows scheduled to premiere later in the year. Resurrection in March, and Mixology, Mind Games, and Killer Women for next season. [30] For a complete schedule of ABC’s mid-season changes, click here: ABC Television Midseason Changes