Big Three (American television)

In the United States, there are three major traditional commercial broadcast television networks — NBC (the National Broadcasting Company), CBS (formerly known as the Columbia Broadcasting System), and ABC (the American Broadcasting Company) — that due to their longevity and ratings success are informally referred to as the "Big Three". They dominated American television until the 1990s (especially during the network era of the late 1950s to mid-1980s) and are still considered major U.S. broadcast companies to this day.