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The history of ABC and NBC start out the same. A joint effort of three “pioneers in mass communications” (2013, Erickson). The original network was actually split in two: Red and Blue. The Blue Network was responsible for news but it was less-lucrative. “In 1939, it was sold to Edward J. Noble, the millionaire maker of Life Savers Candy” (n.d.a., Erickson). Here it was given a new name: American Broadcasting System, which was later changed to American Broadcasting Company. However, things weren’t smooth sailing. In the 1940’s their revenue started to decline. “In 1951, Leonard Goldenson and united Paramount Theaters bought ABC for $25 million” (n.d.a, U.S. Networks). “ABC was the smallest of the major radio networks and distinguished itself by hiring popular singer Bing Crosby to perform on a weekly variety series.  Crosby required that he be allowed to prerecord the program for later broadcast; as a result, ABC became a pioneer in the field of magnetic recording” (n.d.a., Erickson ). A year later, ABC made news again. “This time, as the first network to hire a woman as its evening anchor, bringing the network an avalanche of publicity” (n.d.a, U.S. Network). A couple of years later, in 1989, “Capital Cities Communication engineered the first television network takeover since Leonard Goldenson's merger of United Paramount Theaters and ABC (n.d.a., Erickson).

 

 

Who owns them?

During 1995 the Walt Disney Company acquired ABC for $19 billion. Los Angeles Times described it as a "Merger of Top TV Network and Media Giant with Premier Movie Producer to Create One-Of-A-Kind Global Powerhouse" (U.S. Network).

 

How many are owned by the same parent company? Independently owned?

Walt Disney is one of, if not, the biggest media conglomerate in the world today. They own so many different things now and continue to accumulate more each year. They own ESPN, Disney Channels, ABC Family, A&E, History Channel, Radio Disney, Marvel Entertainment, Pixar, and the list goes on and on (Free Press).

 

What is their annual revenue and where do they get it from?

Owning so many different venues allow Disney to have one of the largest annual revenues in comparison to the other six media conglomerates. According to Walt Disney Company’s annual report, their revenue for 2012 was 42.2 million (Disney Annual Report). The report also says that their revenue comes from Media Networks (19.4 million), Parks and Resorts (12.9 million), Studio Entertainment (5.8 million), and Consumer and Interactive Products (4.0 million) (Annual Report).

 

What’s their reader/viewer share?

Many news ratings are dropping as the years go on. In the last few years a slight but steady decrease can be seen. According to a recent survey taken by Pew Research, Nightline’s viewership dipped and it’s shared dropped 3%, to an average of 6.1 (n.d., Guskin, Jurkowitz, & Mitchell).

 

Is there a particular story that “made” this news venue particular popular?

Nightline’s first episode aired on November 29, in 1979. It “developed out of a temporary evening broadcast devoted to coverage of the Iran hostage crisis” (2009, ABC). “ABC News president Roone Arledge felt the best way to compete against NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was to update Americans on the latest news from Iran” (n.d., Archive of American Television). By the end of the hostage crisis, Nightline had “entrenched itself on the ABC programming schedule, and made Koppel a national figure” (n.d., Archive of American Television).

 

Was there a story that this news venue is particular well known for scooping?

Nightline is infamous for having several technological “firsts”. In 1982, Nightline broadcast the first ever live shot of Mt. Everest (2009, ABC). It took five different satellites to transmit the pictures to Kathmandu, Nepal. Later in 1992, Michael Guillen “was the first correspondent in television history to broadcast live to the United States from Antarctica” (1996, Guillen).

 

How does the news site frame itself? How is it perceived (conservative/liberal/moderate/completely unreliable/well-respected for fairness/etc)?

ABC News’ slogan is “Everyday More Americans Choose ABC News, America's #1 News Source”. However, that is not necessarily true. Yes, ABC is one of the top news stations is isn’t necessarily the “number one” news source. According to a Pew Research Survey, both CBS and ABC currently have the same amount of viewers. (n.d., Guskin, Jurkowitz, & Mitchell). ABC draws a large audience, and according to Pew Research 37% of respondents watch Nightline. The ideologies of the audience are balanced in the middle, tending to lean to a certain side depending on the issue (2014, Engel). According to the Washington Post, ABC has a “more middle of the road audience than other mainstream media outlets” (October, Blake). However, Richard Grenell, from the Daily Caller, says, “The planning meetings at ABC News have little political diversity. Everyone is left of center and at ease with their liberal ideals. The other viewpoint is rarely raised and never fully represented” (n.d., Grenell).

Day 1: November 17, 2014

Stories:

 

  1. Bill Cosby

  2. Kendall Jenner

  3. Bridesmaids

Day 2: November 18, 2014

Stories:

 

  1. Body Cameras for Cops

  2. Recalled Airbags

  3. Sexiest Man Alive

  4. Sophia Loren

Day 3: November 19, 2014

Stories:

 

  1. Luxury Bunkers for Doomsday Comfort

  2. New Orleans

  3. Horrible Bosses

  4. Jason Bateman

GRADE: 80.9% B

GRADE: 85% B

GRADE: 60% D

NBC and CBS both scored fairly low on the scorecards but NBC scored just enough to earn the lowest grade overall. Although NBC covers a variety of stories, both peripheral and core pieces, a lot of their stories don’t convey a controversy, at least one that is evident. When there is a controversy though, many stories only cover one side or give an unfair amount to one side versus another. This is taking the easy way out, by just covering one part of the story. It is easy to focus on one angel, but it takes thought and time to look at it from a different perspective. It is this other perspective that a lot of the stories on NBC are lacking.

 

Another thing they don’t have a lot of is diversity. Not a lot of stations do very well with this topic. It is hard to be both gender and ethnically diverse in different sources. During one of the stories, the Cosby Accusations, a lot of women, some of diverse ethnicities, were interviewed and quoted. However, in the rest of the stories not many women were used. It made sense though that the women they interviewed and quoted were used because they were directly related to the case. However, Bill Cosby’s voice was left out of the story, which could have added to the diversity of the piece. Because of the problems they have with diversity and controversy, their numbers are much lower.

 

It was surprising that although NBC had the most core stories every single day, it ultimately had the lowest scores. This must be where the diversity and controversy issues came into place. However, it was also interesting to see that, over all the news stations but especially NBC, the average ratio of Core stories to Peripheral stories tended to be three to one. This shows that the news stations understand the importance of reporting information that is of greater importance, but they also understand the pull of more “fluff” stories. Most of the Core stories appeared at the beginning of the segment and the Peripheral stories towards the end. With one or two thrown in the middle. This may be used as a tactic to keep the viewer watching and anticipating the more trivial and happy things they might have more of an interest in.

Overall, NBC’s Nightly News failed—every day as well as overall. This is a slight disappointment because NBC is one of the Big Three Sister News Networks, and if it is failing a third of the population is getting failing news.

 

Analysis

(ABC News, 2014)

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