At times, WTVN-TV/WSYX has served as the default ABC affiliate in the western parts of the Wheeling–Steubenville market that couldn't receive WTAE-TV from Pittsburgh, which served as the "de facto" affiliate in most of that market; some viewers in the market are also able to receive WYTV in Youngstown. This gave viewers in the Wheeling/Steubenville market an option to watch ABC programming in pattern, since the only stations in the market (WTRF-TV and WSTV-TV/WTOV-TV) aired ABC programming only in the off-hours, and largely dropped them altogether by the 1980s. (WTOV-TV is now a sister station to WSYX.) That market finally received its own full-time ABC affiliate in 2008, when WTRF-TV launched one on its third digital subchannel, although WSYX remains available on cable in the western parts of the market.