ABN Entertainment is the ABN Group's entertainment arm of the ABN television network. The division manages several film and music labels in the Pacific Northwest. It is currently owned by both "Ricky" Z. Sabana and Taylor G. Winston, the grandson of Lee Winston.
Notable people[]
- Chris Lewis (Chairman/CEO)
- Chris Lewis, Chief Operations Officer (COO)
- Donald Winston III, Chief Network Operations Officer (CNOO)
- Tom Sabana Jr., Network Programming Coordinator (NPC)
- Jeice Johnson, Building Maintenance Coordinator (BMC)
- Kevin Tennison, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) (also a member of SGBS)
- Chris Dabeault, Assistant Financial Officer (AFO)
- Kayla Royce, Accounting Manager
- Nathan Sabana, Sales and Marketing Consultant
- Vick Landry, Director of Quality Control
- Dan Champion, Ratings System Coordinator
History[]
Champion Television Group era[]
Opening in 1943, Champion Television Group began operations in Seattle and Charlotte. Founded by Lee Winston, the company chartered five television distributors including ABN's predecessor, American Television Company (ATC).
Sabana-Winston Television Distribution era[]
The leadership was passed down to the relatives of Lee Winston beginning this second era of Champion Digital Broadcasting's history. SWTD began broadcast in 1964 starting with the ribbon cutting ceremony at the newly remodeled facility, the reveal of the first ABN logo, the continuation of the Jack Laverty Show until 1979 when succeeded by The Late Show with Vince Laverty. More stations across the country began broadcasting ABN programming between 1965 to 1982.
Sabana American Broadcast Holdings era[]
Beginning in 1985, SWTD was rebranded as Sabana American Broadcast Holdings (SABH). It was owned by Thomas G. Sabana and Donald Winston, Jr. The company moved closer to downtown Seattle in 1986 by the bay until moving again in 2004 to central Seattle following the earthquake that damaged the Alaskan Way viaduct and parts of Washington State Highway 99. Several newer networks launched between 1988 to 2012.
Official Launch of ABN and ABN Sports[]
American Broadcast Network officially launched in March 1964 as the successor of American Television Company and Champion Television Network. Later, ABN Sports was officially on the air. It continues presently as the number one 24-hour commercial-free network in the country. The network covers an expansive demographic between 12 months to 66 years of age with a large library of programs suited for specific demographics. The sports division also airs Espies award-winning, National Stars' programming, and earning the recognition by the National Motorsports Press Union.
Official Launch of ABN Market Network[]
Beginning broadcast in 1988 one year before its rival, CNBC, the ABN Market Network follows local, regional and national stock markets with consumer news and information programming. There are also special consumer programming shows on certain upcoming products coming to the market. They also include live interactive infomercial shows, which has never been done by any marketing company. By 1990, ABN Market Network had already topped the Hanson and Nielsen ratings over CNBC. Over the past 25 years, ABN Market Network had swept CNBC numerous times including several sweeps in 1997, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2012 and 2014. It had also been nominated as the best consumer news and information television network by several publications including Market World Magazine. It covers the 28-70 year demographic.
Official Launch of Mundovision[]
In a merger with Telemundial Global in 1991, the Spanish-based Mundovision network was created for Spanish speaking audiences. It competes directly with other Spanish-based networks including Mundomax, Univision, Telemundo and Azteca America. It is co-operated by the ABN Domestic Television Corporation and ABN-Telemundial Dual Partnership, Ltd.
Official Launch of ABN Animation Network[]
Launching on February 4, 1994 as Toonopolis, ABN Animation Network is the 24-hour cable and satellite network airing Western traditional animation, Japanese anime, and adult-specific animation. The demographics are between ages 12–35 with specific programming blocks. The network launched two years before ABN Kids and was being planned to be linked with ABN Kids as one entire network.
Official Launch of ABN Kids[]
ABN Kids was introduced to North American audiences on March 1, 1996 as the first cable network in ABN's history dedicated to the younger demographic, primarily children between the ages of 12-months to 8 years. ABN Kids was slated to be folded into ABN Animation Network as one operation, but the ABN Domestic Television Corporation kept them separate. To this day, ABN Kids airs a variety of preschool to grade school level programming, kids affairs, and special kids programs.
Official Launch of ABN News and G-ABN[]
G-ABN (short for Google and ABN), began broadcast in 1998, two years after the launch of MSNBC, of which the acronym mixes the names of Microsoft Network, the internet website and search engine, and NBC, hence MSNBC. G-ABN launched two months after the Google website officially launched on September 4, 1998. It was known at the time to be MSNBC's rival, but later in 2000, G-ABN moved over to the Hanson viewer ratings system citing that the Nielsen ratings were too vague and didn't account for the audience G-ABN serves. It serves an 18-65 year demographic with news, political analysis, special interest news, and documentaries. By 2006, G-ABN flipped to special interest news and documentaries only removing themselves from the political arena citing numerous criticisms by other networks not scaled by the Hanson viewer rating system. In 2012, Google announced the Google Plus application and Google Hangouts launching the web-only service G-ABN 2. At the last release of the Hanson viewer ratings for fourth quarter 2014, G-ABN was shown seven points ahead of its counterpart, ABN News.
In the same year of 1998, ABN News began broadcasting as a chief rival to FOX News, PBS, CBS, NBC, ABC and CNN. Over the past five years, ABN News has topped the Hanson viewer ratings over their rivals and swept FOX News for seven consecutive years being awarded the best cable news network by National Star. The Nielsen ratings reflect differently placing ABN News in third behind FOX News and MSNBC. It serves the 21-65 year demographic and mainly focuses on local, regional, national and global news topics of the day with ABN Market Network and ABN WeatherMax updates. However, as of late, dissent among the staff and management of ABN News along with low ratings and the introduction of "time appropriate" topic discussions have led to the shut down of ABN News. G-ABN will assume network news operations beginning November 1, 2015.
Official Launch of ABN Women[]
As a part of the network's expansion, on April 14, 2011, ABN signs on ABN Women, the network is created for American female audiences between 18-55 with a variety of female-oriented programs. The network has no competitors at present. It was supposed to be ranked with Lifetime, but because the network is scaled with the Nielsen ratings and ABN Women is scaled with the Hanson ratings, it cannot compete with two different viewership rating systems.
Merger of XtreemTV and Launch of ABN Maxx[]
ABN launched the latest network aimed at the male demographic between 18-37 called ABN Maxx after a merger with XtreemTV Network coming upon heavy competition with Ion, and TNN. The subchannel offically launched April 9, 2013 after the merger.
Launch of Big Sky Channel[]
On March 2, 2011, ABN launches the Big Sky Channel which airs Western lifestyle programming along with Montana based sporting programs. The networked is aimed at the demographic of 12-65 with a blend of children's programming, lifestyle, and extreme sports for the 18-27 year demographic. The network is based in Butte, Montana and is seen nationwide as a subchannel. As of February 2014, it has been rebranded as Big Sky Network.
Launch of ABN WeatherMax[]
The network was launched on March 20, 1980 as The National Weather Network. It was acquired by ABN Domestic Television Corporation and agreed to purchase Jasper Communication's, NWN's parent company to form what is now ABN WeatherMax. ABN WeatherMax covers a range of demographics based on the consumers needs. Mobile demographics are said to cover 18-35, ABNWeatherMax.com 18-50, and 18-50+ for television and radio.
Launch of ABN Mobile[]
Launched in 2010, ABN Mobile was developed by ABN Digital Entertainment first for Android and iPad devices. Since 2012, ABN Mobile has been applied to Chromebook, Windows Phone, iPhone, along with Apple and Microsoft tablets.
