Fourth television network
Prior to 1956, the DuMont Television Network operated as an existing fourth network alongside ABC, CBS, and NBC, but an inability to find solid financial ground, a weaker affiliate base, and internal competition from co-owner Paramount Pictures all contributed to DuMont's closure.
Certainly a new network is not going to stress quality programming when the ratings indicate that the American public prefer hillbillies, cowboys and spies.
The Mutual Broadcasting System (MBS), established as a cooperative radio network owned by the affiliates, showed varied interest in a television counterpart.
During the network's annual shareholder meeting on April 1950, MBS president Frank White announced the tentative formation of the "Mutual Television Network" comprising stations in New York (WOR-TV), Los Angeles (KHJ-TV), Chicago (WGN-TV), Boston (WNAC-TV) and Washington, D.C. (WOIC), all television adjuncts of existing MBS affiliates.
MBS purchased a large group of English films and paid $1.5 million for the right of unlimited play for two years of Roy Rogers and Gene Autry westerns.
[14] Despite this effort, by 1961, NTA carried a significant debt load and WNTA-TV was losing money against stiff competition from independent stations WNEW-TV and WOR-TV.
[17][18] National Telefilm Associates continued syndication services for stations for several years after the closure of NTA Film Network, with Divorce Court was seen as late as 1969.
[26] Due to a cash crunch brought on by Overmyer's other businesses, majority control of ON was sold to a 14-investor syndicate and renamed the United Network weeks before it launched.
[30] The poor timing of the launch limited available budgets for prospective advertisers; this, coupled with onerous charges to transmit over AT&T Bell System phone lines,[31] resulted in the network's failure and the cancellation of Las Vegas after one month.
[32][33] Ownership filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy several weeks later,[34] and despite multiple teases of relaunching as a supplier of news and public affairs programming,[35][36][37] United never resumed operations.
[39] New York Times columnist Jack Gould wrote that United's failure was "further evidence that expansion of commercial TV is little more than a pipe dream".
In September 1967, Kaiser announced their intentions to create a television network with programming supplied by their station group; this included Lou Gordon from WKBD-TV, Hy Lit from WKBS-TV, Alan Douglas from WKBF-TV, and Joe Dolan from KBHK-TV.
[41][42][43] This planned network never gathered traction, and Kaiser faced significant financial losses from constructing the stations, with only WKBD-TV turning a profit.
[46][47] In a series of columns in 1969 about a theoretical fourth network, Newspaper Enterprise Association writer Joan Crosby floated Westinghouse Broadcasting, Metromedia and Hughes Television Network (HTN) as possible candidates; Westinghouse was in the middle of merger talks with MCA Inc., while Metromedia was entertaining a purchase by the Transamerica Corporation.
Crosby speculated HTN could potentially add non-sports programs that "...can change viewer's dialing habits... it would be one way, less costly and with far less of a risk, to start the illusionary fourth network".
[1] While Metromedia "dabbled at creating a fourth network," including a failed 1976 joint venture with Ogilvy and Mather called MetroNet,[48] the company continued to operate solely as a station owner and syndicator.
[36] The following year, Pauley briefly pitched a television news service of his own, using the same concept, before being hired by Mutual Broadcasting.
[38][50] In 1973, Pauley became the founding chief executive officer for Television News Inc. (TVN), a newsfilm service for stations in the United States and Canada.
[63] SFM was a provider of ad hoc network as a service to other clients including Del Monte Foods.
MFN was created to fill the family programming void from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. due to the implementation of the Prime Time Access Rule, using movies from the MGM library scheduled to air on one Sunday every two months.
[72] 100 television stations were signed as affiliates by October 1984, with the planned launch pushed back and set for November 10 of that year.
The service reached agreements with ten stations in larger markets such as New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago by late 1984.
[77] In 1988, the movie network broadcast a special edition of Dune as a two-night event, with additional footage not included in the film's original release.
The Hollywood Premiere Network was formed by MCA and Chris-Craft Industries, owner of several major independent stations via their United Television subsidiary.
[49] Rupert Murdoch, an Australian publishing mogul, initiated two major transactions in 1985 that finally resulted in a fourth television network.
The latter purchase immediately launched industry speculation of a new fourth network, as Murdoch boasted that the Metromedia stations could be used to exploit TCF's film and television library.
[88] To win regulatory approval for the deal, Murdoch gave up his Australian citizenship and became a naturalized U.S. citizen on September 4, 1985.
[92] At the same time, TCF chairman Barry Diller openly floated the idea of Fox bidding against ABC for the rights to Monday Night Football,[93] which proved unsuccessful.
[94] Encountering poor ratings and negative critical reviews, Joan Rivers left The Late Show on May 15, 1987;[95] while briefly encountering success with guest host Arsenio Hall, Fox replaced Late Show with The Wilton North Report, which was cancelled after 21 episodes.
NBC entertainment president Brandon Tartikoff dismissively nicknamed Fox "the coat hanger network," implying that viewers would need to attach wire hangers (often used as a free alternative to set-top loop antennas used to receive UHF signals) to their television sets to view the network's shows.
