Roone Arledge
Roone Arledge
Roone Pinckney Arledge, Jr.was an American sports and news broadcasting executive who was president of ABC Sports from 1968 until 1986 and ABC News from 1977 until 1998, and a key part of the company's rise to competition with the two other main television networks, NBC and CBS, in the 1960s, '70s, '80s and '90s. He created many programs still airing today, such as Monday Night Football, ABC World News Tonight, Primetime, Nightline and 20/20...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth8 July 1931
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
I think we have erred on the side of being too conservative so far, to tell you the truth.
The current wisdom now is that if the three networks are covering the news the same way the difference is the anchor people. I think that won't be true in the future.
I don't think the news department will have to lie down and play dead like it has in the past. By and large the network has been understanding, but then so have I.
I don't expect to win every battle but I think Fred Pierce has enough respect for me that I can go fight my battles and win my share.
I don't think people realize the extent to which TV networks are hurt when they carry public broadcasting. I think the estimate is that they lose a half-million dollars for a half day's programming.
I don't think any industry was ever as closely scrutinized and written about and constantly in the public eye as television.
I want everybody in the news business to think of ABC before they go any place else. If it costs us an extra few thousand dollars to do that, what does it mean?
I think people tuned in a lot to see Barbara when she first came here and they just didn't like the show they saw. I think it was dull. It was sterile.
It doesn't mean we shouldn't mention a Lebanese cabinet crisis, for example, but we don't have to spend two minutes with it from the Middle East.
While there seems to be a major commitment now, historically there hasn't been. It's not an automatic thing where they say we gotta cover that.
We probably paid Cassie a little more than we had to but it was done because I wanted to make a statement that we are here and we're serious.
A lot of people told me that the job of making ABC News competitive was so difficult and so long that it wasn't worth the trouble.
They're indispensable. They're the glue that holds a newscast together.
So you have a built-in dilemma. Do you want to go after older people who watch news or younger people who watch ABC entertainment shows.