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Broadcasting
Nineteen ninety-six was a year of anticipation and consolidation as Capital Cities/ABC shortened its name to ABC, Inc., and became an operating unit of Disney Enterprises, Inc. The year also marked the operational transfer to ABC of three Disney Units --- The Disney Channel, Buena Vista Television and Disney Television International. ABC Television Network ABC's schedule for the new year is backed by its most extensive marketing and promotion campaign in history. Monday Night Football and Home Improvement have returned to their accustomed places among the top 10 programs, and the acclaimed new comedy series Spin City and Sabrina, The Teenage Witch have enjoyed immediate success. New strength was also shown by The Drew Carey Show.
The network has mined the rich resources of Walt Disney Television for its Saturday morning children's schedule and now features several hours of Disney-produced programming. ABC News continues to be the leading U.S. source of TV news, and the network remains strong with female viewers of daytime dramas. ABC Sports has assured itself continued prominence. It has contracted to televise the national championship college football game beginning in January 1999. ESPN By New Year's Day, ESPN was reaching nearly 70 million U.S. subscribers, making it the most widely distributed cable programming network in the country. ESPN2, after only three years of operation, is seen in 38 million U.S. homes. ESPN International is received in 105 million households in 160 countries in 21 languages. All told, ESPN operates 17 separate networks in these countries, including ESPN Dos in northern Latin America. The group's third U.S. network, ESPNews, made its debut in the fall. In addition, ESPN Asia and Star Sports have formed a joint venture for delivery of sports programming throughout most of Asia. The Disney Channel The Disney Channel's hybrid subscribership strategy is paying rich dividends. Under this plan, cable affiliates can now offer The Disney Channel as a pay service or include it in an expanded basic package. As a result, subscribership has surpassed 20 million. The channel remains commercial-free. With a redoubled emphasis on family programming, The Disney Channel expects to continue its dramatic subscriber growth in 1997. A seven-nights-a-week family movie at 7 P.M. leads the way. National and local marketing campaigns will seek to strengthen the Disney brand identity. A sharp increase in original production, including the addition of a strong lineup of monthly, first-run Disney movies, is designed to help solidify the channel's position as "first choice of families." A&E Networks A&E enters 1997 with 68 million subscribers. The History Channel has reached 22 million in less than two years of operation. This year A&E will seek more international viewership while increasing the production of original dramas and specials. The History Channel also will expand, creating international versions in several markets. Lifetime Television Lifetime, coming off the best ratings year in its history, now reaches 66 million subscribers with its original movies, specials, prime-time signature shows and unique daytime blocks. The channel will strengthen its emphasis on "television for women" in 1997,developing added programming for a female audience aged 18-34 as a foundation for a proposed second network. Disney/ABC International Television Together, Walt Disney Television International and ABC International form a powerful distribution operation. The group is now integrating the broadcast, cable and sales activities of ABC with the free and pay TV distribution, production and broadcast organization of WDTI. In 1997 it will launch The Disney Channel in France and the Middle East. Further expansion—in 1998 and beyond—is expected in Germany, Latin America and other key markets. Buena Vista Television With Ellen and its new game show, Debt, licensed to Lifetime, and Home Improvement thriving in national syndication, Buena Vista Television starts the new year with special emphasis on the Disney-Kellogg's alliance in children's animation programming. This two-hour Monday-to-Friday block will be distributed in more than 80 percent of the country. Buena Vista also will distribute Boy Meets World, a half-hour comedy, and Buena Vista III, a 105-movie package that is the largest in the history of syndication. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, a weekly one-hour comedy/adventure series, is under production for the fall season. The 22-episode series is based on the original 1989 film, which grossed more than $130 million at the domestic box office. Basketball's John Salley, one of the Detroit Pistons' original "Bad Boys" and a member of three NBA championship teams, will become late night's newest star beginning in June. That's when Buena Vista Television launches The John Salley Show, a weekly one-hour entertainment event in syndication.
Brand Spanking New Doug, the season's number one children's program on ABC Saturday morning, is produced by Jumbo Pictures, Inc., a boutique animation producer acquired by The Walt Disney Company last March. Jumbo is currently in production on a new animated series, 101 Dalmatians, which will premiere in the fall on ABC and in syndication. Buena Vista continues to syndicate the long-popular Siskel & Ebert, Disney Presents Bill Nye the Science Guy, Disney's Sing Me a Story with Belle and Live! With Regis & Kathie Lee. ABC-Owned Television Stations The television stations group--10 outlets reaching almost one-fourth of the nation's households —expects to improve its ratings in 1997 with renewed emphasis on local news and syndicated programming. Two successful talk shows, The Rosie O'Donnell Show in eight major markets and Oprah in seven, underpin the daytime schedule. Radio Operations Radio Operations entered 1997 with record revenues and profits. The stations reach more than 13 million people weekly in the 20 U.S. markets most highly valued by advertisers. Meanwhile, the radio networks now serve more than 122 million people a week over some 2,900 stations through more than 7,600 program affiliations. This year the network is exploring the start-up of a 24-hour children's service, Radio Disney. Publishing In the wake of record-setting revenues and operating income in 1996, the Publishing Group expects to continue its earnings growth and new-product development this year. In an era of declining readership nationally, ABC's daily newspapers and consumer magazines continue to increase their circulation, and results at the 50 trade publications are favorable. W magazine, one of the country's most successful fashion publications, is already exceeding records set in 1996 for advertising pages and circulation.
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