Television in the United States Gray Television, whose 131 stations cover mostly smaller metropolitan areas reaching only 10% of the population. The five major U.S. broadcast television networks are the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), CBS (formerly known as the Columbia Broadcasting System), the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), the Fox Broadcasting Company (Fox) and the CW Television Network. The first and elder three (which are colloquially known as the "Big Three") began as radio networks: NBC and CBS respectively began operations in 1924 and 1927, while ABC was spun off from NBC to Edward J. Noble in 1943 as the Blue Network during FCC inquiries over
Commercial Neutral Broadcasting Company as its signal originated from the Dutch side of the North Sea and did not penetrate very far inland. After only a few months Veronica terminated its contract because the advertising revenue from Dutch programming was more lucrative. Commercial Neutral Broadcasting Company The Commercial Neutral Broadcasting Company (CNBC) was an English language pirate radio station which hired airtime for a few hours each day from the Dutch pirate Radio Veronica in 1960–1961. Programmes were pre-recorded at Veronica's Amsterdam studio together with the Dutch programmes, and broadcast from the Veronica ship "Borkum Riff". The address for prospective advertisers was given as