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In the United States, for most of the history of broadcasting, there were only three or four major commercial national broadcast networks. From 1946 to 1956 these were ABC, CBS, NBC, and DuMont (though the Paramount Television Network had some limited success during these years). From 1956 to 1986, the national commercial networks were ABC, CBS, and NBC (with a few limited attempts to challenge them, such as National Telefilm Associates [and its NTA Film Network] and the Overmyer Network). From 1954 to 1970, National Educational Television was the national clearinghouse for public broadcasting programming; PBS succeeded it in 1970.
Today, more than 50 nationwide broadcasting networks exist. Other than the non-commercial educational (NCE) Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which is composed of member stations, the largest broadcast television networks are the traditional Big Three television networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC). Many other large networks exist, however, notably Fox and The CW which air original programming for two hours each night instead of three like the original "Big Three" do, as well as syndication services like MyNetworkTV and ION which feature reruns of recent popular shows with little or no original programs. Fox has just about the same percentage of households reached as the Big Three, and is therefore often considered a peer to ABC, NBC, and CBS since it has also achieved equal or better ratings over the last decade. Most media outlets now include Fox in what they refer to as the "Big Four" television networks.
The transition to digital broadcasting in 2009 has allowed for television stations to offer more programming options through digital subchannels. A number of new commercial networks airing specialty programming such as movies, reruns of classic shows and lifestyle programs have been created from companies like Weigel Broadcasting, Luken Communications and the major networks. There have also been a number of new Spanish-language networks that have launched as well as some new non-commercial public television channels.
Broadcast networks in the United States can be divided into four categories:
Each network sends its signal to many local affiliate television stations across the country. These local stations then air the "network feed," and millions of households across the country tune in. In the case of the largest networks, the signal is sent to over 200 stations. In the case of the smallest networks, the signal may be sent to just a dozen or fewer stations.
There are an estimated 116.3 million television households in the United States as of the 2014-2015 TV season. [1]
All of the networks listed below operate a number of terrestrial television stations. In addition, several of these networks are also aired on cable and satellite services.
Additionally, several of the cable-oriented theme channels (e.g. music or shopping channels) have obtained broadcast clearances, usually on low-power stations, in many markets. Among these are Home Shopping Network, and ShopHQ.
Several of the religious broadcasting networks have out-of-pattern clearance arrangement with their broadcast affiliates, notably FamilyNet, Trinity Broadcasting Network, Three Angels Broadcasting Network, Hope Channel and World Harvest Television. And, of course, the Public Broadcasting Service also allows its member stations to run their programs out of pattern.
Nicknames of major American networks (most established by the industry publication Daily Variety as "slanguage") are as follows:
Additionally, both The WB and UPN were referred to as weblets by Variety because of their smaller audiences and fewer programs. CW and MyNet have more often been called netlets, which has the same definition.
Additionally, Televisa, which distributes programming to Univision in the United States, operates in Mexico, but their networks (Canal de las Estrellas, Canal 5, and Galavisión) have certain stations which can be seen in areas of the U.S. along and near the Mexican border, and likewise with the American networks in border cities towards Mexico.
Some Mexican border stations (such as Tijuana's XETV-TV) are affiliates of American networks and target their American border city more than their Mexican metropolitan area, broadcasting in English or Spanish, depending on network.
All Spanish-language broadcast networks operate a national feed carried on cable and satellite systems where an affiliate is not present. Univision has a larger cable-only distribution than the other commercial Spanish-language networks and therefore may be carried in more homes than the amount listed in the above table. Spanish-language independent stations also exist, though they are mainly limited to large markets.
The Spanish-language networks have a smaller amount of affiliates than "The Big Three" English-language networks (NBC, ABC and CBS) and PBS, though they still occupy a large share of the country and with a growing Latino population, the number of Spanish-language network affiliates in the United States has increased.
Unlike the English-language broadcast networks, Univision, Telemundo, Azteca America and UniMás do not rely on their affiliate stations to program the majority of the broadcast day as the networks themselves are wholly responsible for handling programming for its affiliates. However, affiliates are allowed to break away from the network feed to offer some locally produced programming (mainly consisting of local newscasts or lifestyle programming).
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