Alternative names TSSL Inaugurated 1999 | Address 1500 Broadway Parent organization The Walt Disney Company | |
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Location Manhattan, New York City Current tenants -Good Morning America
Assorted other ABC News and ESPN programs (see article for others) Owner The Walt Disney Company Headquarters New York City, New York, United States | ||
Times Square Studios (TSS) is an American television studio owned by The Walt Disney Company, located on the southeastern corner of West 44th Street and Broadway in the Times Square area of the borough of Manhattan. The studio is best known as the production home of ABC News' Good Morning America (GMA), a morning news and talk program, segments for other ABC News programs, and various programs on ESPN.
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Background
Times Square Studios is on the site of the former Hotel Claridge, built in 1911. In 1972, the hotel was demolished and the current structure, which housed the National Theater, and a Beefsteak Charlie's restaurant, was built. The theater closed in 1998.
The studio was designed by Walt Disney Imagineering, Disney's design and development arm. The original concept for the studio was conceived by Harry Grossman. His plan called for the studio to broadcast many shows twenty-four hours a day for both Disney-owned and non-Disney programs.
The building's outer facade consists of over nine LED ribbons of lights. The 8th LED ribbon of lights from the top is used as a ticker for ABC News, while the 9th is a sports ticker for ESPN. Also on the facade is a large TV display made by Mitsubishi - Diamond Vision, though the display is sponsored by Siemens, which has their logo below the display. This screen mainly broadcasts the late SportsCenter, along with WABC-TV and ABC News newscasts during non-GMA hours, along with high-profile sports events, series and films on the ABC and ESPN family of networks for both the convenience of Times Square visitors and to provide a simple venue for crowd photo ops for those high-profile events.
The studio is primarily used for productions of ABC News and ESPN. It has also been used regularly to produce programming for other shows not broadcast by a Disney-owned network (such as special week-long New York weeks for international morning programs) including shows for the Australia Network, BBC World News, Discovery Channel, and HBO.