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What if Disney launched its own broadcast network?

AnonusAnonus
in General
Instead of buying ABC?

They owned KCAL in Los Angeles, and could have bought more major-market stations to serve as their network's pilot stations...
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  • Princess AlicePrincess Alice
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    What would this network be called?
  • lee4hmzlee4hmz
    ⚠ THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    I have to wonder now if The Disney Afternoon was a feeler for exactly this.
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    Probably some clunky-ass name like the Buena Vista Television Service

    I figure it ought to be called the Hyperion Broadcasting System, or the Buena Vista Broadcasting System

    Or, let's just call it EBC. Elias Broadcasting Company.
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    lee4hmz said:

    I have to wonder now if The Disney Afternoon was a feeler for exactly this.

    As was their ownership of KCAL!

    I think they tried to buy WWOR too.
  • lee4hmzlee4hmz
    ⚠ THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    I think the only reason they didn't (and bought ABC instead) was that the WB and UPN got there first, along with all the CBS-to-Fox swaps. They didn't leave much to pick from.
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    yeah the New World stuff meant the Big Four locked up all their affiliates into the middle of the next decade
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    Eisner and Katz weren't fast enough, they could have partnered with Chris-Craft or somebody

    it also seems pretty EKW to poach Big Three affiliates with the power of the DISNEY brand
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    http://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/09/business/company-news-pinelands-owner-of-wwor-tv-agrees-to-be-acquired.html

    this is the WWOR thing

    the owner of WWOR agreed to sell to Chris-Craft, instead of buying KCAL in exchange for 45% of the company
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    (This would have reunited [W]WOR and KHJ/KCAL after their brief, RKO-corruption-induced separation)
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    I have a bunch of names for it in mind:
    • Touchstone Broadcasting Company (TBC)
    • Hyperion Broadcasting Company (HBC)
    • Hyperion Broadcasting System (HBS)
    • Steamboat Broadcasting System (SBS)
    • Steamboat Broadcasting Company (SBC)
    • MouseLink
    • Kingdom Broadcasting Company (KBC)
    • Kingdom Broadcasting System (KBS)
    • Hollywood Broadcasting Company (HBC)
    • Hollywood Broadcasting System (HBS)
    • Buena Vista Broadcasting System (BBS)
    • Union Broadcasting Company (UBC)
    • Disney Broadcasting Company (DBC)
    • Disney Broadcasting System (DBS)
    • Atlantic-Pacific Television (APT, or AtPac)
  • Princess AlicePrincess Alice
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    I like MouseLink, if only because it sounds like some 1990s internet service
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    I want something that sounds less totally radical
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    I know what it should be called!

    Spotlight!
  • Princess AlicePrincess Alice
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    Ooh, yeah!
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    I just wonder what stations Disney could have bought or signed other than their own KCAL

    WWOR in New York is the obvious choice, but they could have gone after stations in other major markets like San Francisco-Oakland (KTVU, a Fox affiliate), Detroit (its sister WKBD, also a Fox affiliate), Boston (WLVI, another independent), or the Combined Broadcasting stations in Chicago (WGBO), Philadelphia (WGBS), and Miami (WBFS)
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    They could, theoretically, have bought Big Three affiliates, but they would have cost too much for the budget-conscious Eisner.
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    Disney was too cautious to sink this much money into an idea that was aping Fox. They preferred to invest heavily in alternative strategies.
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    Disney could have partnered with Chris-Craft or Tribune, but Disney had a station in LA, as both companies did, and Disney likely would have insisted on making KCAL the network's Los Angeles outlet.

    Tribune's ownership of New York's WPIX might have played a role in Disney's decision whether or not to go after WWOR. I imagine Tribune would have wanted the affiliation in New York as a condition of keeping KTLA independent. Tribune owned stations in two other critical markets, Chicago and Philadelphia.
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    Disney and Tribune were already partners; Tribune stations carried the Disney Afternoon block.
  • Princess AlicePrincess Alice
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    What year did Spotlight launch?
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    1994 or 1995. It would have had to knock either The WB or UPN out of existence.
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    I do wonder if Spotlight's initial programming would have been any good

    They could have had the obvious "family" niche, and tapped into the Touchstone Television infrastructure (which was already producing Home Improvement and Boy Meets World for ABC)

    But building Spotlight would have been more work than just buying ABC, despite ABC's $19 billion price tag. The network's affiliate roster and programming would have to be built from scratch. And snatching away stations already affiliated with one of the four existing networks may have been impossible. How would you convince a CBS affiliate to dump that network and its programming for the much smaller, unproven Spotlight schedule?
  • Princess AlicePrincess Alice
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    That's a good question...
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    "We're Disney" wouldn't be enough, would it
  • Princess AlicePrincess Alice
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    In the modern era it would be, maybe not back then though
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    Central Avenue said:

    In the modern era it would be, maybe not back then though

    Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, the parks, the money-spinner Touchstone...
  • Princess AlicePrincess Alice
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    Well, ok, maybe back then.
  • AnonusAnonus
    edited 2017-02-27 09:17:15
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    Also, you know Michael Eisner would have worked the shit out of his underlings to make Spotlight successful. Of all the Big Media CEOs who weren't Murdoch, he would have been the only one with the moxie to make something like this work. Fox might have covered a lot of the bases better (the NFL contract, poaching key affiliates of other networks) but you know Disney would have put up a better fight than WB or Paramount.
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    I can't imagine Eisner would have been afraid to open Disney's wallet to bolster Spotlight's standing. He probably would have tried to outbid ABC for Monday Night Football or something. He definitely would have had several Disney-branded blocks of movies, cartoons, and such.
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    @lee4hmz Who would have been the likely Spotlight affiliate in DC? The best options are WDCA, depending on what Paramount does in this timeline or, no fooling, WUSA, if Disney can figure out a way to unshackle it from Gannett and/or CBS.
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    WTTG would have been perfect except, you know.
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    Disney would have had more freedom to acquire stations than Time Warner, which deliberately abstained due to its ownership of Time Warner Cable prohibiting them from owning TV stations in markets where they had cablesystems.
  • lee4hmzlee4hmz
    ⚠ THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    I would have gone with WDCA myself, since I think they were running The Disney Afternoon in DC.

    Incidentally, I think Afternoon lost a lot of stations after Fox Kids launched, since they had network daytime.
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    I'm pretty sure the reason Fox Kids was launched was because Barry Diller was mad about Disney moving DuckTales from KTTV to KCAL
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