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ABC To Discontinue Saturday Morning "ABC Kids" Block?

DToTheJ said:
It is being reported that a studio is producing six new half-hour educational series, specifically for ABC affiliates:
Litton to Produce Six New E/I Shows For ABC Stations
Click to expand...

According to the article linked above, it states "ABC-owned stations and many ABC affiliates starting fall 2011. Besides the ABC-owned stations, groups signing on include Cox, McGraw-Hill, Newport and Post-Newsweek."

From what I can tell it looks like affiliate stations not owned by the groups listed above would have to either negotiate with Litton for the E/I block or acquire E/I programming from elsewhere.

It will be interesting to see how this turns out.
 
If this is true, good riddance! Not that I watch Saturday Morning TV these days, but IMO, ABC's SatAM fare has gone significantly down the tubes since Disney took over. And adding a bunch of reruns of "Disney Channel" fare have only made things worse. Aloha Oy Vey!
 
For the record, I'm only aware of what ABC airs on Saturday morning because it's one of the channels shown at my local health club usually on Saturdays.
 
DToTheJ said:
It is being reported that a studio is producing six new half-hour educational series, specifically for ABC affiliates:
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/ar...roduce_Six_New_E_I_Shows_For_ABC_Stations.php

Does this mean it will soon be curtains for the "ABC Kids" block, which currently consists mostly of recycled Disney Channel fare like "Hannah Montana" and "The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody"?
Click to expand...

That may not be the case. It could just be a matter of ABC having to acquire more children's programming to meet FCC rules. As you may know, these rules also apply to multicast channels. A station can only repeat 50% of its core children's programs on the other streams within a week's time and get credit for it.

All channels, main and subs, broadcasting 24/7 have to program a minimum of 3 hours per week of children's programming. And, of course, the programs have to meet certain educational/informational guidelines.

c5
 
IngramMess said:
If this is true, good riddance! Not that I watch Saturday Morning TV these days, but IMO, ABC's SatAM fare has gone significantly down the tubes since Disney took over. And adding a bunch of reruns of "Disney Channel" fare have only made things worse. Aloha Oy Vey!
Click to expand...

I'm with you on this one! And the new stuff might not be Schoolhouse Rock or Land of the Lost, but it'll do for now!
 
DToTheJ said:
For the record, I'm only aware of what ABC airs on Saturday morning because it's one of the channels shown at my local health club usually on Saturdays.
Click to expand...

My goodness your health club actually shows children's programming?

Seriously the Golds Gym I belong to for many years had offered not only TV Land and Nickelodeon but even Boomerang on their in-house system. I guess somebody complained about it since all of those channels are now replaced with something else. What was TV Land is now Showtime and Nickelodeon is now G4.

Not sure what Golds had replaced on the Boomerang channel but yesterday they were showing HBO's OZ ( unedited of course ) on it. I assume that "channel" is hooked up to a DVD player inside my Gold's Gym.
 
mleach said:
My goodness, your health club actually shows children's programming?
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I don't think it's intentional - believe it or not, sometimes, the local NBC station will be on another channel with their Qubo programming. Not sure if they were left on from the previous night, or just channels "everyone can agree on" that they choose...
 
DToTheJ said:
mleach said:
My goodness, your health club actually shows children's programming?
Click to expand...

I don't think it's intentional - believe it or not, sometimes, the local NBC station will be on another channel with their Qubo programming. Not sure if they were left on from the previous night, or just channels "everyone can agree on" that they choose...
Click to expand...

My health club has seven different TVs in the stationary workout area (treadmills, bikes, etc.), with service provided by DirecTV, and always in the men's locker room (at the location I frequently attend), ESPN is always on. Depending on the day, programming on the channels varies...last night for instance, I was at my gym last night, they had on Fox Sports West (Tigers at Angels), KTTV (Simpsons/Bones), TBS (Family Guy/Lopez Tonight), ESPN (NFL Draft), NFL Network (NFL Draft), TNT (Lakers at Thunder-NBA Playoffs), and CNN (Anderson Cooper)
 
JayR said:
According to the article linked above, it states "ABC-owned stations and many ABC affiliates starting fall 2011. Besides the ABC-owned stations, groups signing on include Cox, McGraw-Hill, Newport and Post-Newsweek."
Click to expand...

Would non-ABC affiliates owned by these groups be allowed to show this programming? For example Post-Newsweek only owns two ABC affiliates (WPLG/10 Miami and KSAT/12 San Antonio), along with two NBC, one CBS, and one independent.
 
It's possible that ABC affiliates will get first right of refusal. There's not a lot of incentive for CBS and NBC affiliates to want the programming as long as those two networks are still providing the 3 hours of required E/I programming. However, I guess if an ABC affiliate in a given market doesn't want the new programming for whatever reason, it could show up on an affiliate of another network or an independent station. I don't have any firsthand details, but this would seem logical.
 
DToTheJ said:
Does this mean it will soon be curtains for the "ABC Kids" block, which currently consists mostly of recycled Disney Channel fare like "Hannah Montana" and "The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody"?
Click to expand...

I doubt ABC Network is going to give up this valuable piece of real estate on these stations for local origination.
 
Is ABC really planning to end ABC Kids? If so, maybe Disney could sell it's shows to the syndication market, having been a part of it for years. Maybe they could bring back The Disney Afternoon....
 
Iowan said:
Is ABC really planning to end ABC Kids? If so, maybe Disney could sell it's shows to the syndication market, having been a part of it for years. Maybe they could bring back The Disney Afternoon....
Click to expand...

There is no evidence that ABC plans to end its Saturday morning kids block.

But even if they did, there's no way it would move back into syndication as The Disney Afternoon -- since it is virtually impossible for stations to sell the local availabilities during childrens' shows, the market for childrens' TV syndication is virtually dead except for educational shows to meet the E/I requirements and a handful of old cartoons still distributed by The Program Exchange.
 
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