ABC1 is a free-to-air channel from Disney which broadcasts on the British Digital terrestrial television platform on channel 15. Since launching on September 27, 2004, the channel has begun broadcasting from 6am to 6pm although there are plans for the channel to go 24 hours in the future. The schedule consists of American drama, comedy and soap. These are mainly culled from the ABC network, such as Sports Night, Home Improvement & General Hospital. The channel also shows two programmes from sports network ESPN.
On February 28 and March 1, 2005, the network shook up its schedule by introducing two major new comedies, Hope and Faith and Less Than Perfect to sandwich around the big ratings success of comedy 8 Simple Rules — the two shows mark the most recent imports from the network yet from parent US network ABC.
The channel launched on December 10 2004, on Telewest's digital cable service.
The new channel's launch schedule can be viewed online at: http://www.digilook.net/launch_schedule.htm