What is the most popular TV channel in USA?
United States cable news
FOX marked its 15th year as the highest-rated cable news channel in the same demographic, posting 2.8 million average total viewers in January 2017. MSNBC beat CNN in total primetime viewers, ranking sixth among all cable networks in January. CNN beat MSNBC, but trailed first place FOX News, in total daytime viewers.
Mike McCarley
In 2011 Golf Channel started a trend of several years of growth, setting viewership records every year from 2011-14. In 2012 Golf Channel became the fastest-growing network on U.S. television among networks serving 80 million or more homes, according The Nielsen Company. Also in 2012, Golf Channel launched programming for the first time in India and other markets across South Asia, bringing its international reach to 83 countries.
United States cable news
FBN's ratings were initially too low to be registered beyond Nielsen's margin of error; its highest viewership was estimated to be 202,000 viewers, during the 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time hour of "Imus in the Morning's" debut broadcast on the network in 2009. By October 2016, FBN had surpassed CNBC, as roughly a third of CNBC's viewership migrated to FBN over the course of a year, with both netting approximately 170,000 viewers. Bloomberg also does not subscribe to Nielsen and its ratings are assumed to be very low (however, its viewership was higher than CNBC's when Bloomberg's programming was simulcast on E! in the early morning hours, an arrangement that began in 2004 after USA Network ended its simulcast of the channel after ten years, and was discontinued altogether under E! in 2007). Currently, CNBC usually has between 200,000-400,000 viewers during the day. In 2000, CNBC had higher ratings than CNN during market hours. The viewership of business newscasts may be underestimated in part because much of its viewership comes from communal areas, most of which cannot be accurately measured by Nielsen and are thus not counted; for this reason, CNBC dropped its subscription to Nielsen in 2015. RFD-TV's average viewership, including for its financial market coverage as well as its non-news programming, is approximately 136,000 viewers.
American Idol
The enormous success of the show and the revenue it generated was transformative for the Fox Broadcasting Company. "American Idol" and fellow competing shows "Survivor" and "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" were altogether credited for expanding reality television programming in the United States in the 1990s and 2000s, and "Idol" became the most watched non-scripted primetime television series for almost a decade, from 2003 to 2012, breaking records on U.S. television (dominated by drama shows and sitcoms in the preceding decades).
Fox News controversies
A poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports during September 2004 found that Fox News was seen as second to CBS as the most politically biased network in the public view. 37% of respondents thought CBS, in the wake of the Memogate scandal, was trying to help elect John Kerry, while 34% of respondents said they believed that Fox's goal was to "help elect Bush." However, a poll conducted by Public Policy Polling in January 2010 found Fox News to be the only US television news network to receive a positive rating by the public for trustworthiness with results strongly split depending on the political affiliation of the respondents 
A survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press showed "a striking rise in the politicization of cable TV news audiences ... This pattern is most apparent with the fast-growing Fox News Channel." Another Pew survey of news consumption found that Fox News has not suffered a decline in credibility with its audience, with one in four (25%) saying they believe all or most of what they see on Fox News Channel, virtually unchanged since Fox was first tested in 2000.
U.S. television science fiction
U.S. television science fiction is a popular genre of television in the United States that has produced many of the best-known and most popular science fiction shows in the world. Most famous of all, and one of the most influential science-fiction series in history, is the iconic "" and its various spin-off shows, which comprise the Star Trek franchise. Other hugely influential programs have included the 1960s anthology series "The Twilight Zone," the internationally successful "The X-Files," and a wide variety of television movies and continuing series for more than half a century.
Disney Channel
The channel's original programming efforts of the 2000s also led to a marketing effort to cross over the stars of its series into music through record deals with sister music label Hollywood Records, beginning with Hilary Duff, who became the channel's first teen idol through the 2001–04 sitcom "Lizzie McGuire". The success of the 2003 original television film "The Cheetah Girls" led to other music-themed original programs being developed, including the 2006 hit original movie "High School Musical" and sitcom "Hannah Montana" (which launched the career of its star Miley Cyrus). The August 17, 2007 premiere of "High School Musical 2" became the highest-rated non-sports program in the history of basic-tier TV and the highest-rated made-for-cable movie premiere on record (as well as the highest-rated television program – either free-to-air or subscription-based– of Summer 2007) with 17.2 million viewers. In 2012, Disney Channel ended Nickelodeon's 17-year run as the highest-rated cable channel in the United States, placing its first ever win in total-day viewership among all cable networks as measured by ACNielsen.
United States
The four major broadcasters in the U.S. are the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), American Broadcasting Company (ABC), and Fox Broadcasting Company (FOX). The four major broadcast television networks are all commercial entities. Cable television offers hundreds of channels catering to a variety of niches. Americans listen to radio programming, also largely commercial, on average just over two-and-a-half hours a day.
Los Angeles
The Los Angeles metro area is the second-largest broadcast designated market area in the U.S. (after New York) with 5,431,140 homes (4.956% of the U.S.), which is served by a wide variety of local AM and FM radio and television stations. Los Angeles and New York City are the only two media markets to have seven VHF allocations assigned to them.As part of the region's aforementioned creative industry, the Big Four major broadcast television networks, ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC, all have production facilities and offices throughout various areas of Los Angeles. All four major broadcast television networks, plus major Spanish-language networks Telemundo and Univision, also own and operate stations that both serve the Los Angeles market and serve as each network's West Coast flagship station: ABC's KABC-TV (Channel 7), CBS's KCBS-TV (Channel 2), Fox's KTTV-TV (Channel 11), NBC's KNBC-TV (Channel 4), MyNetworkTV's KCOP-TV (channel 13), Telemundo's KVEA-TV (Channel 52), and Univision's KMEX-TV (Channel 34). The region also has three PBS stations, as well as KCET, the nation's largest independent public television station. KTBN (Channel 40) is the flagship station of the religious Trinity Broadcasting Network, based out of Santa Ana. A variety of independent television stations, such as KCAL-TV (Channel 9) and KTLA-TV (Channel 5), also operate in the area.
Media and teen relationships
In 2011, the average number of televisions per household in the United States was 2.5 with 31% of Americans owning four or more televisions. Research shows that the average American watches over 4 hours of television each day. Leading television networks reach approximately 60% of television viewers in the United States per week on average. A study conducted in 2005 by the Kaiser Family Foundation determined that eight- to eighteen-year-olds spend on average six and a half hours a day with media in general. American teenagers alone spend 11.2 hours watching television a week according to another market research study conducted by Teen Research Unlimited. They also found that these teens listen to FM radio 10.1 hours per week, spend 3.1 hours playing video games per week, and surf online for a total of 16.7 hours per week. MTV is the favored television channel to watch among both boys and girls in America, averaging over six hours a week viewing it. Research also shows that on any day a teenager is exposed to over 200 cable television networks, 5,500 magazines, 10,500 radio stations, over 30 million websites, and over 122,000 recently published books. Multiple forms of media can be seen throughout society in almost every facet.
HGTV
The network primarily broadcasts reality programming related to home improvement and real estate. As of February 2015, approximately 95,628,000 American households (82.2% of households with television) receive HGTV. In 2016, HGTV overtook CNN as the third most-watched cable channel in the United States, behind Fox News and ESPN.
Super Bowl commercials
The U.S. television broadcast of the Super Bowl – the championship game of the National Football League (NFL) – features many high-profile television commercials, colloquially known as Super Bowl ads. The phenomenon is a result of the game's extremely high viewership and wide demographics: Super Bowl games have frequently been among the United States' most watched television broadcasts, with Nielsen having estimated that Super Bowl XLIX in 2015 was seen by at least 114.4 million viewers in the United States, surpassing the previous year's Super Bowl as the highest-rated television broadcast in U.S. history. As such, advertisers have typically used commercials during the Super Bowl as a means of building awareness for their products and services among this wide audience, while also trying to generate buzz around the ads themselves so they may receive additional exposure, such as becoming a viral video.
Television in the United States
Public television has a far smaller role in the United States than in most other countries. The federal government, through the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), does operate NASA TV (a service focusing on the U.S. space program with some educational programming) for public consumption, but only distributes that service via satellite and the Internet and not through terrestrial outlets; the United States Department of Defense produced the Pentagon Channel (later renamed DoD News Channel), a military news outlet that operated from 2004 to 2015. In addition, Broadcasting Board of Governors content (the most well-known being Voice of America) has been available to U.S. consumers since the partial repeal of the Smith–Mundt Act in 2013; VOA and its sister outlets are likewise restricted to shortwave and Internet broadcasts.
American Broadcasting Company
On April 30, 2000, as a result of a carriage dispute with ABC, Time Warner Cable removed ABC owned-and-operated stations from the cable provider's systems in four markets (WABC-TV in New York City, KABC-TV in Los Angeles, KTRK in Houston and WTVD in Raleigh-Durham). The network had earlier reached an eleventh-hour deal to renew its carriage agreement with the provider on December 31, 1999. ABC filed an emergency petition to the Federal Communications Commission on May 1 to force TWC to restore the affected stations; the FCC ruled in favor of ABC, ordering Time Warner Cable to restore the stations, doing so on the afternoon of May 2. ABC ended the 2000–01 season as the most-watched network, ahead of NBC.
Television in the United States
Television series featuring fantasy and science fiction are also popular with American viewers, since these programs take elements of comedy, drama, adventure, or a combination of all of the above. Among the most notable fantasy series in this genre include "Touched by an Angel" (centering on angels helping humans in times of personal crisis), "Bewitched" (a sitcom centering on a witch adjusting to married life with a mortal male), "Fantasy Island" (which was set at a resort where people live out their fantasies, but at a price), "Drop Dead Diva" (focusing on a deceased model inhabiting the body of a lawyer) and "Once Upon a Time" (centering on fairytale characters that are trapped in the present day after the enactment of a curse), while "Star Trek" (which spawned four spin-off series, two in syndication – "" and "" – and two on network television – "" and "" – between 1987 and 2005), "Battlestar Galactica" and the British series "Doctor Who" rank among the most watched programs in the sci-fi genre.
United Kingdom–United States relations
Both the United Kingdom and the United States have television shows which are similar, as they are either carried by the other nations' networks, or are re-created for distribution in their own nations. Some popular British television shows that were re-created for the American market in more recent years include "House of Cards", "The Office", "Pop Idol" ("American Idol"), "Strictly Come Dancing" ("Dancing with the Stars)", "Top Gear", "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", "Weakest Link" and "The X Factor". Some American television shows re-created for the British market in more recent years include "The Apprentice" and "Deal or No Deal". Popular American television shows that are currently popular in the United Kingdom include "The Big Bang Theory", "" series, "Family Guy", "Friends", "Modern Family", "Scrubs", "The Simpsons", and "South Park".
MeTV
, MeTV has current or pending affiliation agreements with 203 television stations in over 185 television markets encompassing all 50 states and the District of Columbia, covering approximately 92.54% of the United States; this makes MeTV the largest subchannel network by population reach percentage (a distinction once held by former sister network This TV), and the seventh largest commercial broadcast television network in the U.S.-based on total number of affiliates. Of these affiliates, 24 stations carry the network as a formal primary channel affiliation and two are general entertainment stations that air select MeTV programs on a tape-delayed basis. In almost all of its affiliation agreements, the network's channel slot is mandatorily required to be slotted on either a station's primary channel, or its secondary digital subchannel; in San Diego, this stipulation required the move of MeTV from CBS affiliate KFMB-TV's second subchannel, to ABC affiliate KGTV's second subchannel upon KFMB's launch of a subchannel for The CW to replace XETV-TDT's affiliation.
Pornography in the United States
American adult pay-per-view television is presently unregulated since it is not technically "broadcasting" as defined in the Federal Communications Act. Cable and satellite television networks host about six main adult-related channels. Most of them (particularly Playboy TV, Penthouse TV, and Hustler TV (there is also a "Hustler Video", a line of raunchy films created by Larry Flynt)) are maintained by three mainstream porn magazines. In 1999 Playboy Enterprises sold to Vivid Entertainment a small channel which was renamed to Hot Network. Since that Vivid launched two more channels—the Hot Zone and Vivid TV. The viewers paid close to $400 million a year to tune into Vivid's hardcore content and the company soon overtook Playboy as operator of the world's largest adult-TV network. However, after passing the 2000 "United States v. Playboy Entertainment Group" case Playboy bought all three networks from Vivid in 2001 and folded them into "Playboy's Spice" brand. Operators then shunned "Playboy's Spice Platinum", a new group of channels with graphic hardcore fare.
News magazine
In the United States, television news magazines were very popular in the 1990s since they were a cheap and easy way to better use the investment in national television network Nightly News departments. Television news magazines once aired five nights a week on most television networks. However, with the success of reality shows, news magazines have largely been supplanted. Reality shows cost slightly less to produce and attain a younger and more loyal audience than the news magazines they replaced. Thus, the audience once attracted to news magazine shows have largely drifted to Cable television in the United States, where common news magazine topics such as nature, science, celebrities, and politics all have their own specialty channel.
Culture of the United States
Television is a major mass media of the United States. Household ownership of television sets in the country is 96.7%, and the majority of households have more than one set. The peak ownership percentage of households with at least one television set occurred during the 1996–97 season, with 98.4% ownership. As a whole, the television networks of the United States are the largest and most syndicated in the world.
Media in New York City
New York is also a major center for non-commercial media. The oldest public-access cable television channel in the United States is the Manhattan Neighborhood Network, founded in 1971. WNET is the city's major public television station and a primary provider of national Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) programming. WNYC, a public radio station owned by the city until 1997, has the largest public radio audience in the United States. The City of New York operates a public broadcast service, NYC Media, that produces several original New York Emmy Award-winning shows covering music and culture in city neighborhoods, as well as city government-access television (GATV).
Over-the-top media services
OTT television, usually called internet television or streaming television, remains the most popular OTT content. This signal is received over the internet or through a cell phone network, as opposed to receiving the television signal from a terrestrial broadcast or satellite. Access is controlled by the video distributor, through either an app or a separate OTT dongle or box, connected to a phone, PC or television set. By mid-2017, 58 per cent of US households would access one in a given month and advertising revenues from OTT channels exceeded those from web browser plug-ins.
Television in the United States
Daytime television has been home of many popular game shows over the years, particularly during the 1970s, such as "The Price Is Right", "Family Feud", "Match Game", "The Newlywed Game" and "Concentration". "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy!" have found their greatest success in the early-evening slot preceding primetime. However, game shows that also aired within prime time had great popularity in the 1950s and 1960s such as "What's My Line?", "I've Got a Secret" and "To Tell the Truth"; and again, intermittently, in the 2000s with "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire", "The Weakest Link" and "Deal or No Deal".
"The Price Is Right", which has aired on CBS since 1972, and "Let's Make a Deal", which was revived on that same network in October 2009, are the only daytime game shows remaining on the broadcast networks. Since the mid-1990s, game shows have been commonly found more in syndication, although the number of syndicated game shows overall has decreased during the 2000s and 2010s; the highest-rated of these are "Jeopardy!" and "Wheel of Fortune" (which are both distributed by CBS Television Distribution and Sony Pictures Television, and air together on the same station in some markets), both of which have consistently ranked among the top ten syndicated programs since they began in the early 1980s, and "Family Feud", which has run continuously in daytime syndication since 1999 but saw its viewership rise rapidly in the early 2010s after more risqué questions and new host Steve Harvey were installed.
Outdoor Channel
As of February 2015, Outdoor Channel is available to approximately 35.8 million pay television households (30.8% of households with television) in the United States. In December 2013, the Outdoor Channel was planned to relocate to Colorado from its current location of Temecula, California, supported by Colorado Economic Development Commission.
Television in the United States
As a whole, the television networks that broadcast in the United States are the largest and most distributed in the world, and programs produced specifically for U.S.-based networks are the most widely syndicated internationally. Due to a recent surge in the number and popularity of critically acclaimed television series during the 2000s and the 2010s to date, many critics have said that American television is currently undergoing a modern golden age.
Television in the United States
With the digital television transition, which was completed in two phases in February and June 2009, the use of digital multicasting has given breed to various networks created for distribution on these multiplexed feeds of new and existing stations. However, for the most part, very few of these networks have been able to gain a national reach on parity with many of the conventional commercial and non-commercial networks, in part due to the fact that many stations transmit high definition programming on their main feed in 1080i, which requires a bitrate less compartmentalized for allowing more than one multicast feed (which are generally transmitted in standard definition) without risking diminished picture quality; some alternately transmit their main feed in 720p, which favors multiplexing of more than two subchannels at a time (ATSC 3.0, which began development around the time of the 2009 transition with FCC consideration to replace the current ATSC 1.0 as the technological standard for digital television expected to occur in 2016, utilizes improved compression technology able to fit additional subchannels on a single programming stream as well as allowing for the transmission of high definition content in the 4K resolution format).
Retro Television Network was among the first networks to be produced specifically for the digital television market; Equity Broadcasting created the network in 2005, originally relying mostly on public domain series before expanding to a broader library of licensed reruns. RTN's initial success was dented by its owner's financial collapse and further difficulties pertaining to its successor, current owner Luken Communications. The most popular and widely distributed network that uses digital subchannels as its primary form of distribution is MeTV, a classic television network originally launched by station owner Weigel Broadcasting in 2003 as a programming format on one of its flagship television stations in Chicago, WFBT-CA (now WWME-CD), and evolved into a national network in November 2010; Me-TV now has affiliations with primary channels in a number of markets (WJLP in the New York City market, WDPN-TV in Philadelphia and Delaware, WBBZ-TV in Buffalo). Both MeTV and its most prominent rival, Tribune Broadcasting-owned Antenna TV, popularized the format for multicasting that relies on archived programming. This TV (also part-owned by Tribune and co-founded by Weigel with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) used a similar format, focusing on older as well as some relatively recent feature films; it helped to spawn similar movie-oriented broadcast networks such as Movies! (a joint venture between Weigel and Fox Television Stations, which relies primarily on films from the library of the latter's sister film studio, 20th Century Fox) and GetTV (which mainly airs films from the library of owner Sony Pictures Entertainment).
List of most watched television broadcasts in the United States
The following is a list of most watched television broadcasts in the United States based on average viewership of the broadcasts by Nielsen. The Super Bowl has frequently been the most watched American television broadcast of the year. Super Bowl XLIX is currently the most watched U.S. television broadcast with 114.4 million viewers.
1994 United States broadcast TV realignment
As a result of losing the National Football Conference television rights to Fox, CBSs problems accelerated as it struggled to compete in the ratings (lagging behind ABC and NBC, but placing ahead of Fox) with a slate of programming that attracted an older audience than the other networks. As a direct result of the New World-Fox alliance, only six of the new CBS affiliates were VHF stations (including KTVT (channel 11) in Dallas-Fort Worth; KSTW (channel 11) in Seattle–Tacoma and KPHO-TV (channel 5) in Phoenix, although KSTW would lose its CBS affiliation to the market's previous affiliate, KIRO-TV (channel 7), on June 30, 1997, in a deal that resulted in KSTW assuming the UPN affiliation held by KIRO since January 1995); in Atlanta, Detroit and Milwaukee, CBS found itself in the extremely undesirable situation of ending up on low-profile UHF stations with far less transmitting power and viewer recognition than their previous affiliates or even the UHF stations that CBS affiliated with in other markets, due in part to unwillingness by other local stations to agree to switch to the then-struggling network. While the former CBS affiliates in the three markets – WAGA, WJBK and WITI – were all considered to be ratings contenders, local viewership for CBS programming dropped significantly after the network moved to the lower-profile UHF stations, which had virtually no significant history as a former major network affiliate or as a first-tier independent station. The network's viewership eventually recovered, and CBS became the most-watched broadcast television network in the U.S. by 1999.
List of United States terrestrial television networks
Today, more than fifty national free-to-air networks exist. Other than the non-commercial educational (NCE) PBS, which is composed of member stations, the largest terrestrial 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 Television which feature reruns of recent popular shows with little to no original programming. Fox has just about the same household reach percentage 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 since the late 1990s. Most media outlets now include Fox in what they refer to as the "Big Four" TV networks.
Pretty Much Dead Already
"Pretty Much Dead Already" was initially broadcast in November 27, 2011 in the United States on AMC. Upon airing, it garnered 6.62 million viewers and a 3.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic, according to Nielsen ratings. The episode became the highest-rated cable program of the day, obtaining significantly higher ratings than "Kourtney and Kim Take New York" on E! and "Real Housewives of Atlanta" on Bravo. "Pretty Much Dead Already" received the show's highest ratings since "Bloodletting", which obtained 6.7 million viewers and a 3.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic. In addition, the episode became the fourth highest-rated cable telecast of the week, and the highest-rated non sport cable telecast of the week dated November 27. Total viewership and ratings for the episode significantly increased from the preceding installment, "Secrets", which garnered 6.08 million viewers and a 3.1 rating amongst adults in the 18-49 demographic. In the United Kingdom, "Pretty Much Dead Already" received 666,000 viewers, subsequently becoming the most-watched cable program on FX of the week dated December 4.
CBS
CBS became the most watched American broadcast television network once again in the 2005–06 season, an achievement that the network proclaimed in on-air promotions as being "America's Most Watched Network" (a term it would use again in the 2011–12 season). This lasted until the 2007–08 season, when Fox overtook CBS for first, becoming the first non-Big Three network to earn the title as the most watched network overall in the United States; despite CBS's continued strong lineup, Fox's first-place finish that season was primarily due to its reliance on "American Idol" (the longest reigning #1 prime time U.S. television program from 2004 to 2011) and the effects of the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike. CBS retook its place as the top-rated network in the 2008–09 season, where it has remained every season since. Fox and CBS, both having ranked as the highest rated of the major broadcast networks during the 2000s, tend to nearly equal one another in the 18–34, 18–49 and 25–54 demographics, with either network alternating in placing first in either of these groups by very close margins. "NCIS", which has been the flagship of CBS's Tuesday lineup for much of its run, became the network's highest-rated drama by the 2007–08 season.
La fea más bella
Also achieved ratings success in the United States, constantly won the WB and UPN stations, displayed on the Spanish channel but seen in the country, Univision (3 million viewers), which at the time managed to defeat the CBS, NBC and ABC respectively, with the exception of Fox and the "America's Got Talent" on NBC. Came to get 21.3 points (4.6 million) and then 25.3 points. With 7.4 million viewers an episode, was the 15th most watched program in the country, in addition to achieving 4th position nationwide audience, then the 2nd, becoming the most watched soap opera in the Nielsen rankings. Univision broadcast 2 hour episodes of "La Fea Más Bella" weekday at 12md/11c from September 13, 2010, to April 15, 2011 .
The Ski Channel
As of May 1, 2010, The Ski Channel is in 26 million US television households and in every market in America. The channel has distribution partnerships with Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, Dish Network, Cablevision, AT&T, Verizon, RCN, Cox, Frontier Cable and programming partnerships with Warren Miller, Greg Stump and the US Freeski Tour.
Social media and television
In 2014, the new app Snapchat became more popular than Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and television. On January 26, 2015 24.79 million people watched a series of videos on their phones, called "Snapchat Stories" about the blizzard of 2015. This beat FOX's Sunday Night Football which had 21 million views, and AMC's "The Walking Dead" mid-season finale which had 14.8 million views. This statistic shows leading U.S. television series on Twitter ranked by average unique audience in 2015, sorted by the number of average tweets. During this period of time, ABC's "Pretty Little Liars" generated an average of 222,000 tweets per episode airing. ABC's "Scandal" was ranked first with an online buzz volume of 559,000 tweets per telecast.
Suffolk, Virginia
Suffolk is also served by several television stations. The Hampton Roads designated market area (DMA) is the 42nd largest in the U.S. with 712,790 homes (0.64% of the total U.S.). The major network television affiliates are WTKR-TV 3 (CBS), WAVY 10 (NBC), WVEC-TV 13 (ABC), WGNT 27 (CW), WTVZ 33 (MyNetworkTV), WVBT 43 (FOX), and WPXV 49 (ION Television). The Public Broadcasting Service station is WHRO-TV 15. Suffolk residents also can receive independent stations, such as WSKY broadcasting on channel 4 from the Outer Banks of North Carolina and WGBS-LD broadcasting on channel 11 from Hampton. Suffolk is served by Charter Communications. The City of Suffolk Media & Community Relations Department operates Municipal Channel 8 on the local Charter Cable television system. Programming includes television coverage of many City activities and events, including live Government-access television (GATV) broadcasts of all regular City Council meetings, and special features including "On The Scene", "Suffolk Seniorcize", and "Suffolk Business Today". DirecTV and Dish Network are also popular as an alternative to cable television in Suffolk.
Channel 11 branded TV stations in the United States
The following television stations in the United States brand as channel 11 (though neither using virtual channel 11 nor broadcasting on physical RF channel 11):
Mixed martial arts in the United States
The UFC is the most popular MMA organization in the United States and is broadcast on Fox. Its major rival for viewers is Bellator which is broadcast on Paramount Network.
Soccer in the United States
U.S. television coverage and viewership of club and international soccer are at an all-time high. Mainstream sports networks ESPN, Fox Sports, and NBC Sports Network regularly provide coverage of soccer, as do several popular Spanish-language channels such as Telemundo, UniMás, and Galavisión. Additionally, the U.S. has several networks devoted mostly or completely to the sport, including Gol TV and beIN Sport USA.
Television in the United States
Unlike broadcast networks, most cable networks air the same programming nationwide. Top cable networks include USA Network (which maintains a general entertainment format), ESPN and FS1 (which focus on sports programming), MTV (which originally focused on music videos when it launched in April 1981, but now largely features music-related, original scripted and reality television programming), CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel (which are dedicated news channels with some opinion and other feature-driven programming), A&E (a network created through the 1984 merger of arts-and-culture-oriented channels ARTS and The Entertainment Channel, which now focuses on non-fiction programs and reality docuseries), Syfy (which focuses on science fiction and fantasy programming), Disney Channel, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network (which focus on children's programming, although the latter two run nighttime blocks aimed at a teen and adult audience, Nick at Nite and Adult Swim), Discovery Channel and Animal Planet (which focus on reality and documentary programs), AMC (which originally began as a classic film-focused movie channel in October 1984, and now focuses on a mix of feature films and original series), Turner Classic Movies (which focuses on older theatrical feature films), E! (which originally focused on the entertainment industry, but now largely focuses on pop culture shows, films and reality series), Bravo (which began in 1982 as a premium channel focusing on international films and arts programming, but now focuses mostly on reality series and mainstream films), TNT and FX (also general entertainment networks, with some focus on drama) and Lifetime (which targets at a female audience, with a mix of television films, and original and acquired comedy, reality and drama series).
African immigration to the United States
Many local cable channels are now purchasing programming channels operated by various African communities. For example, Channel Africa is now available in some TV networks in the US. The channel is a showcase for outstanding travel, lifestyle and cultural series, specials and documentaries. These programs feature people of African descent and their stories. The network's premiere on September 1, 2005, marked a milestone in U.S. television history. For the first time, American audiences were able to experience the successes, celebrations and challenges of people living throughout Africa and the Diaspora, all via a general entertainment network. The network is broadcast in the U.S. through national distribution deals with the largest cable MSOs in the country, including Comcast, Time Warner, and Cox.
Television in the United States
Although most networks make viewers pay a fee to receive their programming, some networks broadcast using unencrypted feeds. After broadcast television switched to a digital infrastructure, new channels became available on unencrypted satellites to bring more free television to Americans; some of these are available as a digital subchannel to local broadcasters, this reason may be for the expensive costs of the DVB-S equipment. NASA TV, Pentagon Channel, Antenna TV, This TV, TheCoolTV and the Retro Television Network (through its affiliates) are examples, international news channels like NHK World, France 24, i24news and Al Jazeera English until the launch of Al Jazeera America are commonly watched this way as a result to the lack of availability on cable, DBS and IPTV.
Media of the United States
DirecTV and Dish Network are the major satellite television providers, with 20 and 14 million customers respectively as of February 2014. Meanwhile, the major cable television providers are Comcast with 22 million customers, Time Warner Cable with 11 million, and Cox Communications, Charter Communications, AT&T U-verse and Verizon FiOS with 5–6 million each.
The Amazing Race (U.S. TV series)
The United States version of "The Amazing Race" is rebroadcast in several countries around the world. Airings in both Canada and Australia are very popular. The Canadian showing on CTV is commonly one of the top ten most watched shows each week, according to BBM Canada, Australian broadcasts of the episodes on the Seven Network often fall into the top 20 programs for the week. Episodes of "The Amazing Race" also air in several other countries shortly after the American broadcast, including Israel, Latin America, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.
AXN Asia broadcasts "The Amazing Race" across southeast Asia; the popularity of the show through the service led to CBS allowing for the option of creating international versions of the show in October 2005. "The Amazing Race Asia" was one of the first versions created, following essentially the same format as the United States version.
Multichannel television in the United States
Initially serving as a means to provide local television stations to customers who could not receive them over-the-air, the deployments of communications satellites made it financially feasible for broadcasters to distribute channels of national interest to cable, and later satellite television providers, such as superstations and premium television services. By 1980, 15 million of the approximately 80 million television-owning households in the U.S. subscribed to a multichannel television service. In the 1990s, digital multichannel services, such as direct-broadcast satellite and digital cable, experienced a surge in popularity due to their increased channel capacity.
Television in the United States
While the majority of programs broadcast on American television are produced domestically, some programs carried in syndication, on public television or on cable are imported from other countries – most commonly, from the primarily English-speaking countries of Canada and the United Kingdom. PBS in particular, is commonly known for its broadcasts of British sitcoms (such as "Monty Python's Flying Circus", "Fawlty Towers", "Keeping Up Appearances" and "Are You Being Served?"), which typically air on its member stations on weekend evenings (although their scheduling is at the discretion of the station as these programs are primarily syndicated on the behalf of outside distributors); PBS was also responsible for bringing the hit period drama "Downton Abbey" to the U.S. and for initially popularizing the long-running science-fiction series "Doctor Who" in the country (the latter show now airs first-run episodes on BBC America, an outlet launched in 1998 that was specifically designed to bring BBC programming direct to the United States, although it continues to be syndicated to public television stations and is also syndicated to commercial digital multicast networks such as the Retro Television Network).
List of most-watched television broadcasts
U.S. television programming remains one of the most popular forms of entertainment worldwide. This trend was initiated by U.S.-made broadcast network soap operas and sitcoms such as "Dallas", "M*A*S*H", "The Cosby Show", "Seinfeld", "Friends" and "The Big Bang Theory" by the mid-2000s, and then in the late 2000s and 2010s by U.S. medical dramas and police procedurals such as "House", and the "" and "NCIS" franchises. All of these are currently syndicated in more than 100 countries, and rank among the most-watched television series in the world, extending their dominance to a three-decade span.
Univision Canada
Univision Canada airs programming from Univision, the most popular Spanish-language television network in the United States. It also airs programming from UniMás and Univision Deportes Network. Unlike Univision in the United States, Univision Canada does not air programming from Televisa. Televisa competes with Univision Canada with its own cable channel, Las Estrellas.
Multichannel television
Digital multichannel television platforms have bandwidth than analog cable services, meaning that there is channel capacity for more specialty channels catering to particular television market demographics or interests. In Canada and the United States, the term "basic cable" is used to refer to specialty channels with high carriage because they are common in lower service tiers, and usually date back to the era of analog cable television (in contrast to the channels launched primarily on digital cable and satellite only, due to their expanded capacity). In the U.S., this typically includes general entertainment services such as Freeform, TBS and USA Network, factual networks such as Discovery Channel and HGTV, along with national news services such as CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News Channel, as well as sports channels such as ESPN.
Cartoon Network
A challenge for Cartoon Network was to overcome its low penetration of existing cable systems. When launched on October 1, 1992, the channel was only carried by 233 cable systems. However, it benefited from package deals. New subscribers to sister channels TNT and TBS could also get access to Cartoon Network through such deals. The high ratings of Cartoon Network over the following couple of years led to more cable systems including it. By the end of 1994, Cartoon Network had become "the fifth most popular cable channel in the United States".
Olympics on United States television
The Olympic Games (Summer and Winter) have been televised in the United States since 1960. It has become one of the most popular programs on USA television every four and then two years. The Olympics is exclusively broadcast on NBC and NBCUniversal's TV Networks in the United States. American television companies are one of the major sources of revenue for the IOC.
Multichannel television in the United States
In 1992, nearly all MVPD customers had cable television service. In 1994, PrimeStar, DirecTV and USSB began offering digital satellite service. With one million subscribers in 18 months, digital direct broadcast satellite set a record for the quickest acceptance of a new technology; by comparison, it took four years before the VCR sold one million units. EchoStar and AlphaStar debuted in 1996. 2.2 million people subscribed to C-band service requiring 6-foot dishes costing as much as $1,500; this number remained steady, while digital satellite service with 18-inch dishes experienced phenomenal growth, reaching 4.5 million subscribers by the end of 1996, up by about two million subscribers in a year. Cable television services had 65 million subscribers, but were already starting to see customers switch to satellite. Satellite television offered more channels than cable did at the time due to limited headend capacity, although broadcast networks were not allowed if their affiliates could be received with an antenna. DirecTV and USSB had 2.5 million subscribers, while PrimeStar, with 27-inch dishes that could be rented rather than purchased, had 1.6 million subscribers. Cable companies responded to the success of satellite by adopting digital cable services that offered more channels, and required the use of digital set-top boxes. They also owned a share of PrimeStar, because offering cable in rural areas was deemed to be too expensive.
Television in the United States
Typically, family-oriented comedy programs led in the early part of prime time, although in recent years, reality television programs (such as "Dancing with the Stars" and "American Idol"), and more adult-oriented scripted programs – both comedies and dramas – have largely replaced them. Later in the evening, drama series of various types (such as "NCIS", "" and "Grey's Anatomy") air. Sunday is the most-watched night on American television, with many of TV's most popular shows airing on that night. Viewership tends to then decline throughout the week, culminating in the lowest ratings being registered on Friday and Saturday night; most broadcast networks abandoned the programming of first-run scripted fare on Saturdays by 2004, in favor of sports, newsmagazines and burn-offs and reruns of other prime time series; however first-run scripted programming continues to air on Fridays, being mixed in with newsmagazines and/or reality series, depending on the network. Networks, however, pay special attention to Thursday night, which is the last night for advertisers of weekend purchases – such as cars, movie tickets and home video rentals – to reach large television audiences. Throughout the 1990s, NBC called its own Thursday night lineup "Must See TV", and during that decade, some of the country's most watched television shows aired on Thursday nights (several of which aired on NBC), before the re-emergence of Sunday as the top night of prime time programming in the 2000s.
St. Louis
Greater St. Louis commands the 19th-largest media market in the United States, a position roughly unchanged for over a decade. All of the major U.S. television networks have affiliates in St. Louis, including KTVI 2 (Fox), KMOV 4 (CBS), KSDK 5 (NBC), KETC 9 (PBS), KPLR-TV 11 (CW), KDNL 30 (ABC), WRBU 46 (Ion), and WPXS 51 Daystar Television Network. Among the area's most popular radio stations are KMOX (AM sports and talk, notable as the longtime flagship station for St. Louis Cardinals broadcasts), KLOU (FM oldies), WIL-FM (FM country), WARH (FM adult hits), and KSLZ (FM Top 40 mainstream). St. Louis also supports public radio's KWMU, an NPR affiliate, and community radio's KDHX. KZQZ is a popular Oldies station. All-sports stations, such as KFNS 590 AM "The Fan", WXOS "101.1 ESPN", and KSLG are also popular.
American Public Television
American Public Television (APT) is the largest syndicator of programming for public television stations in the United States. APT continues to distribute a wide variety of public television programs nationally, as well as administering the Create and World channels on public TV.
Geographical usage of television
In the U.S., the three traditional commercial television networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) provide prime-time programs for their affiliate stations to air from 8pm–11pm Monday-Saturday and 7pm–11pm on Sunday. (7pm to 10pm, 6pm to 10pm respectively in the Central and Mountain time zones). Most stations procure other programming, often syndicated, off prime time. The FOX Network does not provide programming for the last hour of prime time; as a result, many FOX affiliates air a local news program at that time. Three newer broadcasting networks, The CW, ION Television, and MyNetworkTV also do not provide the same amount of network programming as so-called traditional networks. Sinclair Broadcast Group operates the largest network of local television stations, reaching about 24% of U.S. households. Trinity Broadcast Network, or TBN, runs the world's largest Christian television network, and owns twenty-three U.S. full-power television stations as well as 252 low-power stations serving smaller cities and rural areas. PBS is the U.S.'s public broadcaster.
List of Spanish-language television networks in the United States
The following is a list of Spanish-language television networks in the United States. As of 2016 the largest Hispanic/Latino television audiences in the U.S. are in California (Los Angeles, San Francisco area), New York, Florida (Miami area), Texas (Houston, Dallas, Ft. Worth, San Antonio), Illinois (Chicago), and Arizona (Phoenix).
I Love Lucy
"I Love Lucy" continues to be held in high esteem by television critics, and remains perennially popular. For instance, it was one of the first American programs seen on British television — which became more open to commerce with the September 1955 launch of ITV, a commercial network that aired the series; in 1982, the launch of a second terrestrial TV station devoted to advertising funded broadcasting (Channel 4) saw the show introduced to a new generation of fans in the UK, with the "Channel 4" network repeating the program several times between 1983 and 1994. As of January 2015, meanwhile, it remains the longest-running program to air continuously in the Los Angeles area, almost 60 years after production ended. However, the series is currently aired on KTTV on weekends and now KCOP on weekdays because both stations are a duopoly. Ironically, KTTV was the original CBS affiliated station in Los Angeles until 1951, just before "I Love Lucy" premiered on KNXT Channel 2 (now KCBS-TV) when CBS bought that station the same year. In the US, reruns have aired nationally on TBS (1980s–1990s), Nick at Nite (1994–2001) and TV Land (2001–2008) in addition to local channels. TV Land ended its run of the series by giving viewers the opportunity to vote on the show's top 25 greatest episodes on December 31, 2008 through the network's website. This is particularly notable because, unlike some shows to which a cable channel is given exclusive rights to maximize ratings, "Lucy" has been consistently — and successfully — broadcast on multiple channels simultaneously. Hallmark Channel is now the home for "I Love Lucy" in the United States, with the show having moved to the network on January 2, 2009, while the national version of Weigel Broadcasting's MeTV digital subchannel network has carried the program since its debut in December 15, 2010, depending on the market (in markets where another station holds the rights, "The Lucy Show" is substituted). The show is seen on Fox Classics in Australia.
WJZ-TV
WJZ-TV nearly lost its ABC affiliation in 1977, when the network briefly pursued WBAL-TV just as ABC became the most-watched broadcast network (in primetime) in the United States for the first time. However, WBAL-TV declined the ABC affiliation offer due to ABC's last-place network evening newscast offerings of the time (a situation that would improve in ensuing years), keeping ABC on channel 13.
ITV (TV channel)
ITV is the biggest and most popular commercial television channel in the United Kingdom. ITV and its predecessor channels have contended with BBC One for the status of the UK's most watched television channel since the 1950s. However, in line with other terrestrial channels, ITV's audience share has fallen in the era of multi-channel television.
Multichannel television in the United States
Multichannel television in the United States has been available since at least 1948. The United States is served by multichannel television through cable television systems, direct-broadcast satellite providers, and various other wireline video providers; among the largest television providers in the U.S. are AT&T (through its DirecTV and U-verse divisions), Altice USA, Charter Communications (through its Spectrum division, which includes the former Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks systems), Comcast (through its Xfinity division), Dish Network, and Verizon Communications (through its FiOS division). The Telecommunications Act of 1996 defines a multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) as "a person such as, but not limited to, a cable operator, a multichannel multipoint distribution service, a direct broadcast satellite service, or a television receive-only satellite program distributor, who makes available for purchase, by subscribers or customers, multiple channels of video programming", where a channel is defined as a "signaling path provided by a cable television system."
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American pay television television network and flagship channel owned by Discovery, Inc., a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channel is the third most widely distributed subscription channel in the United States, behind TBS and The Weather Channel; it is available in 409 million households worldwide, through its U.S. flagship channel and its various owned or licensed television channels internationally.
Television consumption
In the US, there is an estimated 119.9 million TV households in the TV season 2018/19. Of the country's leading cable networks as of November 2018 (by number of total day viewers), FOX News Channel ranked first with more than 1.86 million viewers with MSNBC coming in second with approximately 1.27 million viewers.
Late night television in the United States
Most American cable channels often air either blocks of infomercials or time-shifted replays of prime time programming during late night time periods (the use of replays is most commonly used by cable news channels), while only a handful of basic cable channels (such as TNT, Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite and ESPN) maintain a round-the-clock schedule incorporating entertainment programming during the overnight hours.
Starz Encore
, Starz Encore's programming is available to approximately 39.709 million television households (34.1% of cable, satellite and telco customers) in the United States (38.310 million subscribers or 32.9% of all households with pay television service receive at least Starz Encore's primary channel). This outpaces HBO's 35.8 million pay subscribers (also as of February 2015) to make Starz Encore the largest premium channel by overall reach in the United States.
Media of the United States
Ninety-nine percent of American households have at least one television and the majority of households have more than one. The four major broadcasters in the U.S. are the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), CBS (formerly the Columbia Broadcasting System), the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) and the Fox Broadcasting Company (Fox).
Several Spanish language broadcast (as well as cable) networks exist, which are the most common form of non-English television broadcasts. These networks are not as widely distributed over-the-air as their English counterparts, available mostly in markets with sizeable Latino and Hispanic populations; several of these over-the-air networks are alternatively fed directly to cable, satellite and IPTV providers in markets without either the availability or the demand for a locally based owned-and-operated or affiliate station.
List of most watched television broadcasts in the United States
The following is a list of the ten most watched TV broadcasts in the United States in 2015 according to Nielsen.
Channel 5 branded TV stations in the United States
The following television stations in the United States brand as channel 5 (though neither using virtual channel 5 nor broadcasting on physical RF channel 5):
Super Bowl
The day on which the Super Bowl is played, now considered by some as an unofficial American national holiday, is called "Super Bowl Sunday". It is the second-largest day for U.S. food consumption, after Thanksgiving Day. In addition, the Super Bowl has frequently been the most-watched American television broadcast of the year; the seven most-watched broadcasts in U.S. television history are Super Bowls. In 2015, Super Bowl XLIX became the most-watched American television program in history with an average audience of 114.4 million viewers, the fifth time in six years the game had set a record, starting with Super Bowl XLIV, which itself had taken over the number-one spot held for 27 years by the final episode of "M*A*S*H". The Super Bowl is also among the most-watched sporting events in the world, almost all audiences being North American, and is second to the UEFA Champions League final as the most watched "annual" sporting event worldwide.
South Park (season 1)
"South Park" became immediately one of the most popular shows on cable television, averaging consistently between 3.5 and 5.5 million viewers. The Denver-based Tele-Communications Inc., the largest cable operator in the U.S. at the time, had just dropped Comedy Central, but when "South Park" debuted, Denver newspapers and radio stations heavily criticized the operator for not carrying the hit show of the two local filmmakers—Parker and Stone. Doug Herzog, Comedy Central's president at the time, said that the public "went nuts" as the network received about ten million new subscriptions through Tele-Communications Inc. alone, "which at that time was unheard of."
American Dad!
In 2016, a "New York Times" study of the 50 TV shows with the most Facebook Likes found that "American Dad!" is popular in the Northeastern United States, Mid Atlantic, as well as the Great Lakes Region, however it "is not popular in Utah or much of the South".
Television in the United States
The most successful talk show has been "The Tonight Show", particularly during the 30-year run of third host Johnny Carson. "Tonight" ushered in a multi-decade period of dominance by one network – NBC – in American late-night programming and paved the way for many similar programs combining comedy and celebrity interviews, such as "The Merv Griffin Show" and "Late Night with David Letterman". Despite initial failed attempts during the late 1980s by Fox as well as the success of "The Arsenio Hall Show" in syndication during its first five-year run beginning in 1989, the late-night talk show genre would not become a more competitive field until the 1990s, when CBS gained a major foothold in the field with the "Late Show with David Letterman"; competition in the genre increased even further as cable networks entered into the genre in the 2000s and 2010s with the rise of parody news show "The Daily Show" under host Jon Stewart and newer shows such as "The Colbert Report", "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", and "Conan".
Daytime talk show hits have included "Live with Kelly and Ryan" (and its previous iterations with Regis Philbin as co-host), "The Jenny Jones Show", "The Oprah Winfrey Show", "Rachael Ray", "Dr. Phil", "Ricki Lake (TV series)", "The Ellen DeGeneres Show", and "Harry" which run the gamut from serious to lighthearted in topicality and format; a subset of so-called "trash TV" talk shows such as "The Jerry Springer Show", which hit their peak during the 1990s, also veered into exploitation and titillation. Most daytime talk programs air in syndication, with various attempts airing on network television to mixed results (among the more notable network efforts are the female-driven panel talk shows "The View", "The Talk", The Real and "Get It Girl" on LATV.
Multichannel television in the United States
As of 2017, approximately 79% of U.S. TV households have a television subscription; the market share of multichannel television began to erode in the mid-2010s due to the increasing popularity of subscription-based online video services, the increasing costs of these services due to the carriage fees demanded by major channels, as well as consumers intentionally dropping traditional television service in favor of online alternatives, or never subscribing to such a service at all.
List of news anchors on Channel 7 (Thailand)
This is a list of anchors on Channel 7. Channel 7 is a national free to air TV station in Thailand. Channel 7 is Thailand’s most popular TV station and one of only four of Thailand’s six major free television channels that operate on a commercial basis with advertising as the main source of revenue.[1] Channel 7 broadcasts a general mix of highly regarded news, entertainment and sports programmes.
MSNBC
For the first time, MSNBC in May 2017 became the highest rated American cable news network in primetime. MSNBC's increasing viewership was accompanied by declining numbers at Fox News Channel. MSNBC's May 15–19 programming topped the programming of both CNN and Fox News in total viewers and the advertiser-coveted younger demographic.
Portsmouth, Virginia
Portsmouth is also served by several television stations. The Hampton Roads designated market area (DMA) is the 42nd largest in the U.S. with 712,790 homes (0.64% of the total U.S.). The major network television affiliates are WTKR-TV 3 (CBS), WAVY 10 (NBC), WVEC-TV 13 (ABC), WGNT 27 (CW), WTVZ 33 (MyNetworkTV), WVBT 43 (Fox), and WPXV 49 (ION Television). The Public Broadcasting Service stations are WHRO-TV 15, Hampton/Norfolk and WUND-TV 2, Edenton, NC. Portsmouth residents also can receive independent stations, such as WSKY broadcasting on channel 4 from the Outer Banks of North Carolina and WGBS-LD broadcasting on channel 11 from Hampton. Portsmouth is served by Cox Cable and Verizon FIOS. DirecTV and Dish Network are also popular as an alternative to cable television in Portsmouth. WAVY-TV and WVBT-TV are both sister stations owned by Nexstar and have their office and studio located in the city.
List of most watched television broadcasts in the United States
The following is a list of the ten most watched TV broadcasts in the United States in 2016 according to Nielsen.
Americanization
Copies of American-based TV programs are re-broadcast around the world, many of them through American broadcasters and their subsidiaries (such as HBO Asia, CNBC Europe and CNN International). Many of these distributors broadcast mainly American programming on their TV channels. In 2006, a survey of 20 countries by "Radio Times" found seven American shows in the ten most-watched: "", "Lost", "Desperate Housewives", "The Simpsons", "", "Without a Trace" and "".
American Heroes Channel
As of February 2015, the channel is available to approximately 59,917,000 pay television households (51.5% of households with at least one television set) in the United States.
Television in the United States
Many religious broadcast networks and stations exist, also surviving on viewer contributions and time leased to the programming producers; the two most prominent are the Trinity Broadcasting Network, which was founded in 1973 by Paul and Jan Crouch as a part-time ministry that leased programming time on KBSA (now UniMás owned-and-operated station KFTR-DT) in the Los Angeles exurb of Ontario, California, before moving to KLXA-TV (now KTBN-TV) in Fontana, which it began purchasing time on in the following year after KBSA was sold; it gradually became the most widely distributed Christian television network in the world with 20 networks (including five in the United States that are primarily available through multicasting, The Church Channel, the youth-oriented JUCE TV and Smile of a Child TV, and the Latino-oriented TBN Enlace USA and TBN Salsa) and several affiliates internationally; and the Daystar Television Network, founded in 1993 by Marcus and Joni Lamb, when the former's Word of God Fellowship ministry purchased the license of defunct UHF station KMPX (now an Estrella TV owned-and-operated station) in Dallas, Texas. Most of their stations are owned by the television ministries directly or through subsidiary companies (Community Educational Television and Word of God Fellowship, respectively) used by them to operate stations that TBN and Daystar cannot own outright due to FCC regulations prohibiting individual broadcasting companies from owning television stations reaching more than 39% of all U.S. television markets.
Fox Broadcasting Company
"Idol" remains the most recent U.S. television program to date to lead the national prime time ratings and attract at least 30 million viewers for at least two television seasons. It became as the most watched program on U.S. television by seasonal average viewership in the 2000s decade, as well as the most recent program scheduled to have successfully established a graveyard slot on U.S. television since the end of NBC's "Friends" in 2004 and the subsequent decline of the network's previously dominant "Must See TV" Thursday timeblock. By 2005, reality television succeeded sitcoms as the most popular form of entertainment in the U.S. as a result of Fox's rise with "Idol" and NBC's network declines. "House", which aired as "Idol"'s lead-out program on Tuesday nights, earned international prominence in the 21st century and became Fox's first prime time drama series (and the network's third program overall) to reach the Nielsen Top 10 beginning 2006.
HBO
, HBO's programming is available to approximately 36,493,000 households with at least one television set (31.3% of all cable, satellite and telco customers) in the United States (36,013,000 subscribers or 30.9% of all households with pay television service receive at least HBO's primary channel), making it the second largest premium channel in the United States (Encore, owned by Starz Inc., reaches 40.54 million pay television households ). In addition to its U.S. subscriber base, HBO distributes content in at least 151 countries, with approximately 130 million subscribers worldwide.
Television in the United States
Broadcast television stations in the United States were primarily transmitted on the VHF band (channels 2-13) in its earliest years; it was not until the All-Channel Receiver Act of 1964 that UHF broadcasting became a feasible medium.
Alpha Repertory Television Service
To this day, A&E survives as one of the most popular cable channels in the U.S. However while it retained the same arts-focused programming for its first decade-and-a-half as a merged channel, A&E's programming has gradually evolved to bear little or no resemblance to its progenitors (aka "channel drift"), shifting its focus in recent years towards reality, lifestyle and scripted drama series.
List of most-watched television broadcasts
Additionally, the National Football League (or NFL) regular season is watched since 2012 by at least 200 million individuals in the United States, accounting for the largest consistent annual nationwide viewership for any television event in U.S. television history (representing almost 70% of the American households, more than 80% of the total U.S. television viewers, and more than 60% of the 2018 U.S. population of 325 million individuals).
Big Three television networks
Since its founding, Fox has surpassed ABC and NBC in the ratings during the early primetime hours in which it competes against the longer established networks, becoming the second most-watched network behind CBS during the 2000s. During the 2007-08 season, Fox was the highest-rated of the major broadcast networks, as well as the first non-Big Three network to reach first place, but it lost the spot in the 2008-09 season and dropped to a close second. From 2004 to 2012, Fox also dominated U.S. television in the lucrative and viewer-rich 18-49 demographics, in large part due to the success of its NFL coverage and its top rated prime time program, "American Idol". Given the network's success in its prime time and sports offerings, it has been occasionally included with the Big Three, in which case the phrase "Big Four" is used.
Tom Brokaw
By the end of his time as "Nightly News" anchor, Brokaw was regarded as the most popular news personality in the United States. "Nightly News" had moved into first place in the Nielsen ratings in late 1996 and held on to the spot for the remainder of Brokaw's tenure on the program, placing him ahead of ABC's Peter Jennings and "World News Tonight", and CBS's Dan Rather and the "CBS Evening News".
Censorship on MTV
Censorship on MTV has been the subject of debate for years. MTV, the first and most popular music television network in the U.S., has come under criticism for being too politically correct and sensitive, censoring too much of their programming. Throughout the decades, MTV has altered or removed shows from the channel's schedule to address complaints; and music videos have been censored, moved to late-night rotation, or banned from the channel's rotation for various types of controversial content.
ITV Digital Channels
Currently, ITV2 and ITV3 are the highest rating digital TV channels in the United Kingdom. ITV4 is benefiting from extra investment and is also improving its share of the viewing. The CITV channel is the number one commercial kids TV channel having a higher share of viewers compared to Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon.
Golf Channel
As of February 2015, Golf Channel is available to approximately 79,250,000 pay television households (68.1% of households with television) in the United States.
Television in the United States
Public access television is a noncommercial form of television required by law to be offered to cable television consumers, in which members of the public are free to place their programming on the cable service. It is a subset of public, educational and government access. Most popular in the 1980s and early 1990s, the rise of the Internet and satellite TV (the latter of which is not required to carry public-access TV) rendered it partially obsolete.
Soccer in the United States
In addition to the World Cup, other international soccer competitions involving the U.S. team have become more popular among TV viewers. The 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup attracted record television viewership, with the Univision telecast of the final between the United States and Mexico ranking as the third-most-watched Spanish-language program of all-time in the United States, beaten only by two FIFA World Cup finals matches. The 2009 Confederations Cup Final featuring the United States attracted 6.9 million viewers (including both the English and Spanish broadcasts). The 2013 World Cup qualifier between the U.S. and Mexico drew 7 million viewers, higher than the 5.8 million average viewers of the 2013 NHL Stanley Cup finals. Three 2013 Gold Cup matches were broadcast on the main Fox network channel, the first time since 2002 that a U.S. national team match outside of the World Cup was broadcast on network TV. 
TV networks in the U.S. have also begun showing international soccer tournaments that do not include the United States. Euro 2008 was shown on ESPN and ABC. Viewership for the Euro 2012 was 51% higher than 2008, with the 2012 final watched by over 4 million viewers. The viewership on ESPN of the group-stage matches of the 2013 Confederations Cup was 26% higher than the 2009 tournament, even though the U.S. did not play in the 2013 tournament.
List of most watched television broadcasts in the United States
When TV miniseries are taken into the Nielsen tallies, ABC's "Roots" posted the second most watched series finale in U.S. history, watched on 30 January 1977, by 100 million viewers (51.1% of American households and more than 71% of the total U.S. television viewers that year), but attracted the largest viewership for any type of primetime television series in U.S. history – a record currently standing at between 130 million and 140 million.
United States cable news
CGTN America is the American division of CGTN, the English-language news channel run by Chinese state broadcaster China Central Television. It is based in Washington, D.C. and manages bureaus across North and South America. The service launched in 2012 as CCTV America and employs a mix of American, international and Chinese journalists and produces Americas-based programming with a focus on Asia for CGTN. The channel is carried on DirecTV, Dish Network, AT&T U-Verse and smaller carriers and live streams via its website and LivestreamCNBC (originally an abbreviation for the Consumer News and Business Channel) was launched by NBC in 1989 after the purchase of Satellite Program Network, and merged with competitor Financial News Network that same year. It is owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of the NBCUniversal Television Group division of NBCUniversal. CNBC is the widest distributed of the business channels with about 84.27% of carriage. The channel has many international spin-offs.
List of most watched television broadcasts in the United States
The number of viewers for "M*A*S*H" (105.9 million) and "Cheers" (84.4 million) are the numbers most commonly reported. "M*A*S*H" has also been reported at 121.6 million viewers and "Cheers" has been reported at 93.5 million viewers. For "M*A*S*H" and "Cheers", 121.6 million and 93.5 million represent the total audience who watched at least six minutes and the 105.9 million and 84.4 million represent the viewers who watched the average minute. Regular episodes of "M*A*S*H" were thirty minutes long, but the final episode was a television movie of running length of two hours and thirty minutes, which reached a peak audience of 125 million by the primetime telecast conclusion of the 1983 "M*A*S*H" series finale.
NCIS (franchise)
"NCIS", voted America's favorite Television Series in 2011, finished its tenth season as the most-watched television series in the U.S. during 2012–13 and is broadcast in over 200 territories worldwide. As of the end of the 2014–15 TV season, "NCIS" remains TV's most watched drama series. Spin-off "NCIS: New Orleans" ended its first season as the second most watched drama on CBS, and the fifth most watched series on TV. "NCIS: Los Angeles" ended its fifth season as the fourth most watched series on TV, and the second most watched drama.
Sundance TV
As of July 2015, the channel is available to approximately 60.668 million households with television (52.1% of all subscribers) in the United States. In March 2015, Dish Network's Sling TV announced it would soon begin making AMC channels available to cord cutters, including AMC, BBC America, IFC, Sundance TV, and WE tv.
Univision
, Univision has 27 owned-and-operated stations, and current and pending affiliation agreements with 37 additional television stations, encompassing 25 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. possession of Puerto Rico. The network has an estimated national reach of 58.35% of all households in the United States (or 182,330,440 Americans with at least one television set), making Univision the largest U.S. broadcast television network by total market reach. Univision maintains affiliations with low-power stations (broadcasting either in analog or digital) in several markets, including a few larger markets such as San Diego (KBNT-CD and its repeaters KTCD-LP and KHAX-LP), Minneapolis−St. Paul (WUMN-LP), and Kansas City (KUKC-LP). In certain other markets, these low-power affiliates also maintain digital simulcasts on a subchannel of a co-owned/co-managed full-power television station.
ATTN:
ATTN:’s most popular videos are custom made for consumption on social media: short, viral videos with subtitles for viewing without sound. Within this format, they have found particular success with a series they call America Versus. “Between January and October [2016], the show, which compares various U.S. policies to those in other nations, averaged four-and-a-half times as many views as the median Facebook video,” according to Digiday. In January 2018, the company announced that, together with Paramount Television, they would be taking the hit series to television.
Cincinnati
According to Nielsen Media Research, Cincinnati is the 36th largest television market in the United States as of the 2016–2017 television season. Twelve television stations broadcast from Cincinnati. Major commercial stations in the area include WLWT 5 (NBC), WCPO-TV 9 (ABC), WKRC-TV 12 (CBS, with CW on DT2), WXIX-TV 19 (Fox), and WSTR-TV 64 (MyNetworkTV). In addition, locally owned Block Broadcasting has a presence with two low-power outlets: WOTH-CD 20 (shutting down January 23, 2018) and WBQC-LD 25. WCET channel 48, now known as CET, is the United States' oldest licensed public television station (License #1, issued in 1951). It is now co-owned with WPTO 14, a satellite of WPTD in nearby Dayton.
RT (TV network)
Reliable figures for RT's worldwide audience are not available. In the United States, RT typically pays cable and satellite services to carry its channel in subscriber packages. In 2011, RT was the second most-watched foreign news channel in the United States (after BBC World News), and the number one foreign network in five major U.S. urban areas in 2012. It also rates well among younger Americans under 35 and among inner city areas.
Television in the United Arab Emirates
MBC channels are the most watched, particularly among expat Arabs, while Zee TV remains at the top among other expats due to the strong preponderance of South Asians in this group. Abu Dhabi TV is also a popular choice.