ABC, Inc.

ABC, Inc., New York City-based American communications corporation, whose holdings include the ABC Television Network, television and radio stations, and print publications. The company became a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company in 1996. The ABC Television Network airs news, entertainment, and sports programs over about 220 affiliated stations. The company is also an 80 percent owner of the ESPN and ESPN2 cable television networks, and a partial owner of the A&E Television Networks, and Lifetime cable programming service. There are nearly 2900 radio stations associated with the company, as well as a sizable publishing group that produces newspapers, periodicals, and books. ABC also operates The Disney Channel, which offers family-oriented programming to cable-television subscribers, and Buena Vista Television, a producer and distributor of television programming.

American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres (AB-PT) was created in 1953 when a merger was approved between United Paramount Theatres and ABC, an offshoot broadcasting company of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). The new company expanded rapidly with the popularity of television. Early milestones included the first showing of ABC's “Wide World of Sports” in 1961 and the advent of color television in 1962. In 1965 AB-PT changed its corporate name to American Broadcasting Companies, Incorporated, and by 1966 all its prime-time programming was broadcast in color. In 1986 the company merged with media company Capital Cities Communications and changed its name to Capital Cities/ABC. The Walt Disney Company acquired Capital Cities/ABC in 1996 and changed its name to ABC, Inc.