Talk:Big Three (American television)

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Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment[edit]

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Austinchristoffersen.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 15:42, 16 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

three[edit]

DuMont predates ABC, and is therefore the third TV network. ABC was #4, and thus was the first successful 4... see the DuMont article. 132.205.44.134 05:14, 22 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The CW and MyNetworkTV[edit]

Do these networks seriously provide enough competition to the "big three" to warrant mentioning? TerraFrost 12:32, 16 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This all seems rather dated[edit]

Fox is entering it's third decade of existence, it's been the top rated network in the country for large swathes of the past decade. I think this article is too historical in it's outlook, considering "Major Television Network" is a re-direct. Maybe it's time to change the scope and title of this article to reflect the current situation in the US? --MichiganCharms (talk) 01:14, 13 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Fox was entering the third decade of its existence before this article was written. There's no such thing as an article being "too historical" when we're talking about a topic covering a historic period in U.S. broadcasting.

I don't think Major Television Network should be a redirect here, though: It's too U.S.-centric, and as you correctly state, it's not a current concept. That should be rectified. Firsfron of Ronchester 04:35, 13 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I have no problem with this article from a purely historical perspective (though it lacks the postscript of Fox eventually becoming the most watched network and the emergence of UPN/WB/CW with some hit shows over the years) but I do think the redirect needs to be removed... I found this article by clicking it and was kind of surprised. --MichiganCharms (talk) 07:17, 13 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2015/01/13/2014-2015-season-nbc-leads-among-adults-18-49-cbs-tops-total-viewers-through-week-16-ending-january-11-2015/349490/

SOS the Big 3 and the Little 2 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.12.72.225 (talk) 15:21, 16 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Naming[edit]

So I see that the page was previously named Big Three (television networks), but got moved to Big Three TV Networks, ostensibly to "cut down the verbiage, and also eliminate any disambiguations." On the one hand I can see the reasoning behind it, as "(television networks)" does seem like quite a mouthful for a disambiguation, but on the other hand, it strikes me as making it appear that the collective subject of the article are strictly described as "Big Three TV Networks", which doesn't seem to be the case, they're referred to as the "Big Three". Plus, there's the issue that the move appears to have been done unilaterally, which I don't know if in this case was the most adequate step.--EdgarCabreraFariña (talk) 10:58, 25 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@EdgarCabreraFariña: I know I'm a bit late here, but I agree; I suggest that the page should be returned to "Big Three (television networks)", or "Big Three (television)" if that would be more concise. The current title implies a proper name due to capitalization that simply does not exist. Also, leaving a disambiguator in parentheses makes it easier to write wikilinks in markup (see Help:Pipe trick). Pinging Vjmlhds to see why the move happened and if we can revert it. RunningTiger123 (talk) 04:19, 4 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

As I said, it was to make it leaner, meaner, and clearer. I think I have an idea to get everybody some of what they want. Vjmlhds (talk) 11:50, 4 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, I think we need to stop moving the page without discussion. The new title of "Big Three (U.S. TV)" is a violation of usual naming conventions, which encourage "American" over "U.S." (see this RfC). I also think we use "television" over "TV" in titles in all cases except the disambiguator "(TV series)" – for instance, "Drama (film and television)" instead of "Drama (film and TV)", "Rachel Lindsay (television personality)" instead of "Rachel Lindsay (TV personality)", "List of Marvel Cinematic Universe television series" instead of "List of Marvel Cinematic Universe TV series", "Cable television" instead of "Cable TV", etc.

I propose moving the article to "Big Three (television)", as there is no indication of a similar Big Three outside the United States. This time, let's establish consensus before making a move. RunningTiger123 (talk) 14:55, 4 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

It seems that someone else has moved the article to "Big Three (American television)", which I think is a good solution. Assuming nobody else responds here, I guess the matter is closed. RunningTiger123 (talk) 23:06, 7 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Shouldn’t it be Big 4 instead?[edit]

I was just wondering, shouldn’t it be Big 4? Because the Fox Broadcasting Company is essentially a competitor to ABC, CBS and NBC, and the FCC lists it as one of the big 4 American Broadcast Television Networks

https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/fccs-review-broadcast-ownership-rules

I’m just a bit confused is all. I’m not very well versed in American Broadcasting standards but if the FCC labels it as a Major American Broadcast Television Network, shouldn’t it be added with the other 3 and this section become the Big 4? MetaPlanet (talk) 20:22, 29 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]