The first four decades of commercial American television were dominated by three huge networks of affiliated stations, known as the "Big Three" CBS, NBC, and ABC. The Big Three provided virtually all of the programs aired on television stations around the country, particularly between the hours of 8:00 and 11:00 P.M. "prime time." By the early 1980s, however, it was clear that television was changing in fundamental ways that the executives at the Big Three barely understood, if at all. Cable television was offering alternatives to major-network programming in the form of unedited movies, all-news and all-sports formats, music-video channels, and a variety of other endeavors that were challenging conventional wisdom about how the business of television operated. In 1985 the picture for the Big Three seemed especially bleak: all three networks were purchased by larger companies between March and December of that year.
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