American Television Networks

American Television Networks

In the United States, for most of the history of broadcasting, there were only three or four major commercial national broadcast networks. From 1946-1956 these were ABC, CBS, NBC, and DuMont. From 1956-1986, the national commercial networks were ABC, CBS, and NBC.

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 have been created from companies like Weigel Broadcasting and Luken Communications. 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:

• Commercial broadcasting networks (which air English-language programming to a general audience). Example: CBS
• Spanish-language broadcasting networks. Examples: Telemundo, Univision
• Educational and other non-commercial broadcasting member stations (which air English- and some foreign-language television programming, intended to be educational television or otherwise of a sort not found on commercial television). Example: PBS
• Religious broadcasting networks. Example: Daystar

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 114.2 million television households in the United States as of the 2012-2013 TV season.