Times Square Ball - Broadcasting

Broadcasting

Coverage of the Ball Drop is broadcast annually on both television and the internet; the Times Square Alliance estimated in 2007 that over a billion viewers watch the event yearly. Beginning in 2009-10, the event's organizers began producing its own official webcast from Times Square, broadcast via the video streaming service Livestream.

In the United States, the Ball Drop is televised as a part of New Year's Eve specials on several major television networks. By far the most notable of these are ABC's New Year's Rockin' Eve. Created, produced, and originally hosted by Dick Clark until his death in 2012, and hosted by media personality and American Idol host Ryan Seacrest since 2005-06, the program first aired on NBC in 1972 and '73 before moving to ABC where it has been broadcast ever since. In recent years, it has consistently been one of the most-watched New Year's specials, peaking at 22.6 million viewers for its 40th anniversary in 2012. Following the death of Dick Clark in April 2012, a crystal engraved with his name was added to the 2013 ball in tribute.

Competing broadcasts on the major networks include NBC's New Year's Eve with Carson Daly (hosted by Last Call and The Voice host Carson Daly), and Fox's New Year's Eve Live (which has used various hosts and formats—in 2012, its coverage was co-branded with the American Country Awards to become the country music-focused American Country New Year's Eve Live, hosted by Rodney Carrington)

CNN also carries coverage of the festivities, as part of a more nationwide perspective on New Year celebrations. CNN's coverage, also named New Year's Eve Live, has most recently been hosted by Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin. Fox News Channel also broadcasts its own coverage from Times Square, All American New Year, anchored by Bill Hemmer and Megyn Kelly.

From 1956 to 1976, CBS was well known for its television coverage of festivities hosted by bandleader Guy Lombardo from the ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, which featured his band's now famous rendition of "Auld Lang Syne" at midnight. After Lombardo's death in 1977, CBS and the Royal Canadians (now led by Victor Lombardo) attempted to continue the special, but Lombardo's absence and the growing popularity of ABC's competing New Year’s Rockin’ Eve prompted CBS to drop the band entirely in favor of a new special, Happy New Year, America, which was first hosted by Paul Anka and ran in various formats until 1996.

MTV also offers coverage originating from the network's studios at One Astor Plaza, a building that is located directly in Times Square. For 2011, MTV also held its own ball drop in Seaside Heights, New Jersey, the setting of its popular reality series Jersey Shore, featuring cast member Snooki lowered inside a giant "hamster ball". Originally, MTV planned to hold the drop within its studio in Times Square, however, MTV was asked by city officials to conduct the drop elsewhere.