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- The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network owned by The Walt Disney Company through the ABC Entertainment Group. Along with NBC and CBS, ABC is one of the traditional "Big Three" American television networks. ABC was founded as a radio network in 1943 as the successor to the NBC Blue Network. It extended its operations to television in 1948, following in the footsteps of established broadcast networks CBS, NBC, and the lesser-known DuMont. In the mid-1950s, ABC merged with United Paramount Theatres (UPT), a chain of movie theaters that formerly operated as a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures. In the 1980s, after purchasing an 80 percent interest in cable sports channel ESPN, the network's corporate parent, American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., merged with Capital Cities Communications, owner of several print publications, television, and radio stations. Most of Capital Cities/ABC's assets were purchased by Disney in 1995. (en)
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