Disney General Entertainment Content
Disney General Entertainment Content (DGEC),[a] formerly ABC Group,[5] Disney–ABC Television Group and the second incarnation of Walt Disney Television,[b] is part of Disney Entertainment, a division of The Walt Disney Company that oversees its owned-and-operated television content, assets and sub-divisions.[6]
"Disney–ABC" redirects here. For the home entertainment and domestic TV distribution and syndication arm also using the Disney–ABC title/name, see Disney–ABC Domestic Television.Formerly
- ABC Group (1996–2004)
- Disney–ABC Television Group (2004–2019)
- Walt Disney Television (2019–2021)
- American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres (1949–1985)
- Capital Cities/ABC (1985–1996)
- November 15, 1949 (as American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres)
- March 18, 1985 (as Capital Cities/ABC)
- September 5, 1996 (as ABC Group)
Worldwide, but mainly United States
7,000+ (2016)
Following the full acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney on March 20, 2019, the division was given the unification name Walt Disney Television and rebranded two years later as Disney General Entertainment Content. Sub-divisions of DGEC include the American Broadcasting Company, ABC News, Disney Branded Television, Disney Television Studios, ABC Signature, ABC Family Worldwide, Hulu Original Content Teams as well as assets acquired from 21st Century Fox and then fully integrated, i.e. FX Networks, FX Productions, 20th Television and 20th Television Animation.
History[edit]
ABC Group[edit]
Media conglomerate Capital Cities/ABC Inc. merged into The Walt Disney Company in 1996 and was initially re-branded as ABC Group. Acquired assets from the merged company included ABC Television Network Group, CC/ABC Broadcasting Group (ABC Radio Network, 8 TV and 21 radio stations), ABC Cable and International Broadcast Group, CC/ABC Publishing Group and CC/ABC Multimedia Group to the fold. The Cable and International Broadcast Group contained ownership shares of ESPN Inc. (80%), A&E Television Networks (37.5%), DIC Productions, L.P. (Limited Partnership stake), Lifetime Television (50%) and its international investments. These investments included Telephone-München (50%, Germany; included 20% of RTL II), Hamster Productions. (33%, France) and Scandinavian Broadcasting System (23%, Luxembourg). ESPN also had international holdings: Eurosport (33.3%, England), TV Sport (10%, France; Eurosport affiliate) and The Japan Sports Channel (20%). The Publishing Group including Fairchild Publications, Chilton Publications, multiple newspapers from a dozen dailies (including the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, The Kansas City Star) and more weeklies, and dozens more publications in the fields of farm, business and law trade journals plus LA Magazine to Institutional Investor. ABC Group pursued businesses in new and emerging media technologies, including the interactive television, pay-per-view, VOD, HDTV, video cassette, Optical disc, on-line services and location-based entertainment.[7]
In April 1996, due to the ongoing post Disney-CC/ABC merger realignment and retirement of its president, the Walt Disney Television and Telecommunications group's division was reassigned to other groups with Walt Disney Television International (including Disney Channels International and Buena Vista Television domestic syndication and pay-TV divisions, GMTV and Super RTL holdings) were transferred to Capital Cities/ABC.[8] In May due to the merger, ABC ended its ABC Productions division operations while keeping its boutique production companies: Victor Television, DIC Productions, L.P., ABC/Kane Productions and Greengrass Productions.[9] The international operations of Disney TV International and ABC Cable and International Broadcast Group were merged in June as Disney/ABC International Television.[10]
Under Disney, ABC Group sold various publishing companies in 1997. Chilton was sold to Reed Elsevier for $447 million and received $142 million from Euromoney Publications for Institutional Investor. In April, Knight Ridder purchased four newspapers including The Kansas City Star and The Fort Worth Star-Telegram for $1.65 billion. In August 1999, Fairchild Publications was sold to Conde Nast Publications for $650 million.[11] In March 1998, ABC placed it shares of Scandinavian Broadcasting System up for sale.[12]
In late 1999, Walt Disney Television, along with other television units, were transferred again from The Walt Disney Studios to Disney–ABC Television Group and merged with ABC's primetime division, ABC Entertainment, forming ABC Entertainment Group.[13][14][15] Robert A. Iger was promoted from president and chief operating officer in February 1999 to chairman of ABC Group and president of Walt Disney International.[16]
In March 2000, ABC formed the Disney Kids Network (DKN) advertising group via consolidation to sell ads for ABC's "TGIF" primetime programming, Disney's One Saturday Morning, the Disney's One Too syndicated programming block, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, The Wonderful World of Disney, Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh primetime specials. DKN was placed under senior vice president of sales at ABC, Dan Barnathan, and would also work on some ads with Radio Disney, Disney.com and the Disney Adventures magazine. DKN added Toon Disney when the channel started accepting ads in September 2000.[17][18]
Iger was named president and chief operating officer of The Walt Disney Company in January 2000.[19] In 2000, with an investment by Bain Capital and Chase Capital Partners, Heyward re-purchased DIC Entertainment, L.P. from Disney, making the company re-independent[20]
In September 2002, then-Disney Chairman/CEO Michael Eisner outlined a proposed realignment of the ABC broadcast network's daytime parts with the similar unit in its cable channels: ABC Saturday mornings with Disney Channel units (Toon Disney & Playhouse Disney), ABC daytime with Soapnet and ABC prime time with ABC Family.[21] In October 2003, ABC Family Worldwide was changed from a unit directly reporting to the Disney COO to a unit running within the ABC Cable Networks Group under Anne Sweeney.[22]
