In 2005, the ABC Owned Television Stations Group continued its long-time leadership position as one of America's most successful broadcast portfolios. All 10 ABC-owned stations enjoy high levels of popularity and competitive strength in their local markets – built upon their individual commitments to news and public affairs, community outreach, top syndicated programming and technological advancement. Together, these stations reach approximately 24% of the nation's TV households.
Six of the ABC-owned stations are located in the nation's Top 10 largest markets: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Houston. Each of these major stations ranks number one in household ratings from sign-on to sign-off.
The ABC-owned stations produce a combined total of more than 300 hours of regularly scheduled local news every week, in addition to award-winning public affairs programming and community outreach initiatives. Public service campaigns range from Love, Sex and PSA (Houston), where 5,000 men were tested for prostate cancer during that outreach period, to Kid Healthy – Steps for Healthy Living, Diabetes and Obesity Prevention (Los Angeles) involving 36,000 students in and out of the classroom. An 18-year partnership with AIDS Walk (San Francisco) has helped raise more than $53 million locally, including $3.6 million in 2005.
Viewers turn to ABC-owned stations for top-rated syndicated programs. Oprah is under contract to most ABC-owned stations until 2011, while Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy are licensed until 2010. Also airing on ABC-owned stations are Live with Regis and Kelly, produced by WABC-TV in New York, and The Tony Danza Show, produced by Disney's Buena Vista Television unit.
In addition to its traditional broadcast service, each station now offers three other channels. One channel simulcasts the station's main programming schedule and presents primetime series, special events and live sports in true high definition. Another is a digital service featuring local and network news programming. A third channel, introduced in 2005, provides regional and local weather content powered by AccuWeather. This locally branded digital service also offers news and sports headlines.
The owned TV stations expanded their content delivery in other directions as well. Together, the station group’s 10 Internet platforms grew to reach nearly four million unique users per month in 2005.
















