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
Robert Noble (company) as a separate business. The Robert Nobles business had lost significant sales in early 2000s when MoD contracts for Scottish Regiments were sent outside the UK In 2015, after trying to sell the company privately, the management publicly put the site up for sale. Unable to find buyers for the site, the two businesses Robert Noble and Replin were sold to other manufacturers. Robert Noble was sold to Magee's in Ireland and Replin was sold to AW Hainsworth based in Yorkshire Company history and timeline Historic aerial photographs of March Street Mills Image of railway waggon advertising March Street Mills