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Traditionally, TV networks in the United

States have been broadcast free to the

public through antennas by hundreds of

local affiliate stations throughout the

country. The big four networks, as they

are called, that stand out above the

others are the National Broadcasting

Company, Colombia Broadcasting System,

the American Broadcasting Company, and

Fox. Obviously, Fox is named a little

differently from the others. There's no

acronym or anything and you will see

that Fox is kind of the standout in many

other ways as well. These networks

essentially created the television

industry and have had a massive impact

in shaping all of traditional media. So,

in this video, I think it would be

interesting to take a look back at how

all of this happened. Now, I want to be

clear that network television is a wide

subject that could be discussed

endlessly depending on how deep you want

to get into it. But for today, my

intention is to give a brief overview of

how these networks started, how they

evolved, and how they have competed with

each other in a few key categories. I

mean, three of these four networks go so

far back that they started out over the

radio before television had any kind of

popularity. NBC's first broadcast was on

November 15th, 1926, dating back almost

a century. The company was started by

RCA, who at the time was the world's

number one maker of radio receivers. A

part of the reason they started the

network was to give the public more

reason to buy their radios. NBC was

considered the first and well only

nationwide radio network at the time. So

the following year, Arthur Judson, the

man in charge of the Philadelphia

Orchestra in the New York Filermonic,

tried to convince NBC to broadcast some

of their performances over the radio.

You know, trying to get some more

exposure. And when NBC turned him down,

he was able to put together his own

small network of radio stations to air

the performances called United

Independent Broadcasters. That name was

quickly changed, however, to Colombia

Broadcasting System after the parent

company of Columbia Records briefly

invested money in it. So, from the

beginning, you can see how NBC and CBS

were positioned as rivals with CBS

starting out as the underdog against the

much bigger and already more established

national network. Ironically, throughout

the 1930s, CBS was able to attract

listeners by shifting their focus toward

news coverage, while NBC continued to

air mostly music and comedy shows. In

fact, early on, NBC was growing so

quickly that they were gaining multiple

affiliates within the same cities to a

point where it made sense to split their

programming into what they called the

Blue Network and what turned out to be

the much more profitable Red Network

that focus mostly on comedy. I know some

of this can get tricky, but those comedy

shows were really popular on the radio

back then and believe it or not, sort of

helped shape everything. See, in 1941,

the FCC made a rule that said each

company could only own one network,

which, as you could imagine was

troubling news for NBC. They ultimately

chose to sell their less profitable blue

network to a man named Edward Noble, who

up until that point was known as the

person who popularized Lifesavers

candies. He had bought that company 30

years earlier for $2,900 and turned it

into a national brand. Shortly after

taking control of the Blue Network, he

renamed it ABC, which as you could

imagine, started out at a distant third

place behind NBC, who had always been

number one, and CBS, who was slowly

gaining ground. In the late 1940s, CBS

started aggressively seeking out NBC's

comedic talent using some kind of legal

setup where they would buy the

celebrities naming rights and then that

would allow them to be paid at a

different tax rate. Yeah, it's tricky.

But in short, CBS was offering much more

attractive contracts, and they were able

to win over many of NBC's top comedians,

most notably Jack Benny, who had been

with NBC for 23 years. By the end of

that decade, those two networks were

practically competing neck andneck with

each other with ABC still at a distant

third, simply unable to pay for the same

level of programming as those other two.

For ABC, I would say that the

involvement of the film studios may have

been the biggest single factor in

legitimizing the brand and closing that

gap. In 1948, the Supreme Court ruled on

United States versus Paramount Pictures

in a decision that ultimately said that

the studio that makes the movies can no

longer own the theater that exhibits the

movies. Otherwise, it would be too much

of a vertical monopoly. It caused

Paramount to spin off their chain of

over 700 theaters into its own company.

And that company went on to buy ABC for

$25 million in 1953. The deal meant that

ABC was now more stable and had access

to more money that could be invested.

Well, the following year, those extra

funds allowed ABC to make a deal with

Walt Disney where they helped secure

funding for the construction of

Disneyland. ABC came out of it with 35%

ownership of Disneyland and a deal where

Disney would produce a show to be aired

on their network. And then that helped

lead to a production deal with Warner

Brothers. So, all of this helped get the

ball rolling for ABC. For the next 30

plus years, these were recognized as the

big three networks, responsible for

airing most television programming

throughout that time. In 1985, Rupert

Murdoch, known for taking over his

father's Australian newspaper company

and expanding it into a global media

business, acquired the film studio 20th

Century Fox and then made a deal to

acquire seven television stations in

major US markets. These markets included

New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and

Dallas. And within a year, he utilized

all of it to launch a new television

network simply called Fox. Now,

obviously, trying to establish a new

broadcast network like this was a

difficult task that most people at the

time thought would be nearly impossible.

I mean, just consider that everybody had

been tuning into those same three

networks for as long as they owned a

television. Fox's big plan was to

broadcast edgier content that would

hopefully attract a younger audience.

Within its first few years, Fox debuted

the sitcom Married with Children, the

true crime series America's Most Wanted,

the teen drama Beverly Hills 90210, and

maybe most notably, the cartoon comedy

The Simpsons. I would say that was a

solid lineup with a much more youthful

identity compared to the top shows on

the other networks like Cheers on NBC,

60 Minutes on CBS, and Roseanne on ABC.

Fox also made a $2.5 billion deal to

acquire New World Communications in

1996, making it the biggest owner of TV

stations in the country. And then in the

2000s, their biggest show was American

Idol. That further cemented them as the

newest major network. I want to

recognize that when the Fox Network was

established as part of the 20th Century

Fox film studio, that was the only case

of a film studio owning a network. It

had never happened before and it has

since happened with every other network.

Trust me, a lot of this can get

needlessly confusing, but to keep it

simple, in 1995, ABC was acquired by

Disney in a $19 billion deal that

actually qualified as the second largest

corporate takeover ever. They had

started a relationship with that

Disneyland deal over 40 years earlier,

so it was a logical pairing. And then

more recently when it comes to

streaming, the top platform for this

company as of 2019 would be Disney Plus.

In the year 2000, CBS was acquired for

about $40 billion by Viacom, who had

acquired Paramount 6 years earlier. I

recommend watching one of my previous

videos if you want to hear more about

that complicated relationship. But as I

make this, Paramount and CBS are yet

again part of the same company and the

owners of Paramount Plus. And finally,

in 2004, NBC was brought together with

Universal through another series of

complex deals and are currently the

company behind the streaming platform

Peacock. I also want to mention here

that Hulu was started as a venture

between NBC and Fox, meant to be a place

where you could watch the shows that

were originally aired on their networks

on the internet. But Disney and ABC have

since taken full control of it. Disney

has also acquired 20th Century Fox the

film studio but not the Fox TV network.

So even though Fox was the first one to

be paired with a major film studio,

today they are the only one that is

independent. I also want to take a few

minutes to compare some of the bigger

programming categories. And I have to

say that for most of it, NBC has been

the most consistent. Meet the Press is

considered to be the longest running

show on American television. That show

has been on consistently since 1947,

even starting as an NBC radio show 2

years earlier. I'm going to start off a

list here. When it comes to morning

shows, NBC started today back in 1952

that is still on every morning.

Meanwhile, ABC's Good Morning America

has been running since 1975, while the

other two networks do not have anything

nearly as consistent or highly rated in

this category. When it comes to late

night shows, NBC started the Tonight

Show in 1954. That was most notably

hosted by Johnny Carson for 30 years

starting in 1962. And I'm sure you

already know that it is currently hosted

by Jimmy Fallon as of 2014. Also, it is

worth mentioning in this category that

Fox's first ever broadcast in 1986 was

of a short-lived late night talk show

hosted by Joan Rivers. Overall, Fox has

easily been the weakest of the four when

it comes to late night shows. But I

think it is interesting that in 1993,

right when David Letterman was moving

his show from NBC to CBS and Conan

O'Brien was starting his show to replace

him on NBC, Fox tried getting into the

mix by starting another short-lived late

night show hosted by comedian Chvy

Chase. And then for ABC, I feel like I

have to mention that their only major

late night talk show has been Jimmy

Kimmel Alive starting in 2003 and still

ongoing. Another category on the list

would be kids shows. NBC debuted the

Howdy Duty Show in 1947 that is

recognized as the first major American

children's show. In the 1950s, CBS

responded by airing Captain Kangaroo

that lasted for almost 30 years. In

1990, Fox started their highly rated

Saturday morning programming block that

became known as Fox Kids that aired

shows like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

and Bobby's World, one of my personal

favorites back then. And then ABC

started one Saturday morning to compete

with Fox Kids. Another category would be

sketch comedy. And yet again, NBC would

be the earliest and most consistent with

Saturday Night Live airing consistently

since 1975. And I would not say that

anything from any of the other networks

has truly compared to it. However, Fox

did make some aggressive attempts early

on with In Living Color starting in 1990

and Mad TV starting in 1995. In fact,

The Simpsons originated from an early

sketch comedy program on Fox called The

Tracy Olman Show. And finally, when it

comes to the category of sports, just a

few notable moments would be all the way

back in 1927. The first ever coast to

coast radio broadcast happened when NBC

aired their coverage of the Rose Bowl.

ABC became known for their sports

broadcast starting in the 1960s and even

acquired ESPN in the 1980s. And for Fox,

a $ 1.5 billion contract to broadcast

NFL games that was won against CBS is

considered to be one of the big moments

where people started respecting Fox as a

serious contender against the others.

They went on to sign similar contracts

with the NHL and the MLB in the

following years. To summarize all of

this, and there is a lot to summarize,

network broadcasting as we know it truly

started with NBC. And every time there

was a new contender to challenge the

existing leaders, it seemed almost

impossible. Practically anybody

knowledgeable about the subject at the

time would have likely bet against them

succeeding. But in all three cases, they

found a way to stand out from the

others, attract an audience, and scale

their operation. For many reasons, you

have to admit that this is an impressive

story that I think really helps explain

the development of the communications,

media, and the entertainment in this

country. Let me know in the comments

what are your thoughts about these

networks. What are your favorite shows

to come from them? And do you have any

loyalty to one over the others? Like

what I mean is, are you more likely to

watch a show if it is on CBS, for

example? Or maybe you don't pay much

attention to who is broadcasting [music]

it. I think we all know that streaming

has attracted a lot of viewers away from

the traditional system, specifically

over the past decade. So, what do you

think that means for the future of these

networks? Again, one last time, I want

to make sure that I emphasize that this

is an impossibly large subject. So, this

video was only meant to be a high-level

overview. So, please feel free to

comment about anything that I failed to

mention and any other thoughts you have

about NBC, CBS, ABC, or Fox, leave them

in the comments. I'd like to hear what

you have to say. Thank you for watching.

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