What's the deal with the affiliated channels? When I was in the States a few months ago and I wanted to watch the NBA Finals I thought finding the ABC would be as simple as the ABC is on channel 6 or something like that. Do people recognise the affiliate as the affiliate or do they just consider it the ABC?
People recognize whatever channel number ABC is on in their part of the country as ABC. Same with NBC, CBS, FOX and PBS. They are aware it's an affiliate, but it's all based on where you live and grew up. That being said, sometimes you do see that certain networks seem to turn up on the same number channels a lot around the country. ABC is often on 6 or 7, CBS is often on 2 or 10, NBC is often on 3 or 4, and PBS has 12 and 13. That dates back to the days before cable where you only had 2-13 on the main dial and UHF was what you'd switch on and flip through lots of numbers that had nothing but static until you found a station. Philadelphia's UHF stations were 17, 29, 48 for awhile, and 57 started in 1985. These were the stations where you'd find wrestling for the most part. And Kung Fu movies.