ABC’s “World News with Charles Gibson” and “Nightline” will be broadcast in high definition beginning the week of August 25 from the Democratic National Convention in Denver and the following week from the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. The programs join the news division’s HD roster of “Good Morning America” and “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” Together the four broadcasts – “GMA,” “World News,” “Nightline” and “This Week” – which are all originating from the convention cities, complement the network’s primetime HD coverage of the Democratic and Republican conventions. This marks the first time ABC has broadcast the political conventions in high definition.
“With all eyes on Denver this week for the Democratic National Convention and next week in St. Paul for the Republican National Convention, it’s the perfect opportunity to present our broadcasts in high definition. Our morning programs ‘GMA’ and ‘This Week’ were the first to bring their audiences HD programming and we’re extremely pleased to fill out that roster with ‘World News,’ ‘Nightline’ and, soon to follow, the news magazines,” said ABC News President David Westin.
During the week of September 8, after two weeks on the road for the political conventions, “World News” and “Nightline” return to ABC’s headquarters in New York City and will be broadcast in high definition from their in-studio sets. The newsmagazines “20/20” and “Primetime,” as well as the weekend editions of “World News” will complete the HD rollout later that week.
All of ABC’s HDTV programs use 720 Progressive (720P), ABC’s selected HDTV format. In January 2004, ABC News was the first to broadcast the State of the Union address in HD (acting for the pool). “Good Morning America” followed in November 2005, the first morning program to debut in HD. In April of this year, “This Week” began broadcasting in HD from its new location at the Newseum, the first Sunday morning public affairs program to do so. Additionally, ABC News has broadcast many hours of long form and new magazines programming in high definition.
ABC has been a leader in bringing HDTV to its viewers, and was the first major broadcast network to begin broadcasting in HDTV, beginning on November 1, 1998, with the theatrical presentation of “The Wonderful World of Disney: 101 Dalmatians.” ABC was also broadcast the first live, regularly-scheduled HDTV sporting event in primetime, the 1999-2000 season of “Monday Night Football,” and was the first broadcast network to air its primetime programming in Dolby Digital 5.1-channel surround sound.
ABC currently broadcasts the majority of its primetime schedule in HDTV, including all comedies, dramas and theatrical movies. In addition, ABC’s popular daytime talk show “The View,” as well as many specials such as the Academy Awards, are also broadcast in HD.
