The station is famous for pioneering the Action News format, which was used by many stations throughout the United States. When WFIL-TV premiered it on April 6, 1970, the format allowed the news program to feature more stories than KYW-TV's "Eyewitness News" due to strict time limits on story packages. Within a few months, the station stole first place in the Philadelphia news ratings for the first time ever. It had previously been an also-ran behind KYW-TV and WCAU-TV, as was the case with most ABC affiliates. Despite the station's newspaper roots, it was hampered by the fact that ABC was not on par with CBS and NBC until the early 1970s.