Operation Prime Time

Operation Prime Time
Typeoccasional television network
Country
United States
Founded1976; 48 years ago (1976)
by Al Masini
Key people
Al Masini
Launch date
1976; 48 years ago (1976)
Dissolved1987; 37 years ago (1987)

Operation Prime Time (OPT) was a consortium of American independent television stations to develop prime time programming for independent stations. OPT and its spin-off syndication company, Television Program Enterprises (TPE), were formed by Al Masini. During its existence, OPT was considered the de facto fourth television network.[1][2][3][4][5] OPT was also called an occasional television network[6][7] and occasional program alternative.[8]

OPT inspired syndication and network models that arose in later years, such as The Disney Afternoon, Prime Time Entertainment Network, The CW Plus, and MyNetworkTV.[citation needed]

  1. ^ Brown, Les (May 8, 1977). "Is a Fourth Network About to Hatch?". The New York Times.
  2. ^ Vanocur, Sander (January 23, 1977). "The Fourth Network 'Revolution': Don't Hold Your Breath". The Washington Post.
  3. ^ Bedell Smith, Sally (August 28, 1983). "IS IT TIME FOR A FOURTH TV NETWORK?". The New York Times.
  4. ^ MarketWire via Yahoo! Finance, December 1, 2010
  5. ^ Kanner, Bernice (June 17, 1985). New York Magazine. p. 19.
  6. ^ Lowery, Brian (February 28, 2006). "For Fox, My Network es su network". Variety.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Nadel was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference fls was invoked but never defined (see the help page).