For the New Year’s Eve Times Square ball drop, the main TV channel is ABC , which airs “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” nationwide and includes the countdown and ball drop at midnight Eastern.

Main TV Channels

  • ABC : The primary home of the ball drop via “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” starting around 8 p.m. ET and running through the midnight countdown.
  • CNN : Also shows the Times Square countdown as part of its “New Year’s Eve Live” coverage with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen.

If You Don’t Have Cable

  • You can usually stream ABC’s ball drop coverage through live TV streaming services that carry local ABC (for example, services that offer network channels in your area).
  • There is also a free official livestream of the Times Square event (commercial-free) on TimesSquareNYC.org, which shows the full ball drop celebration online.

Quick Tips

  • If you just want the “classic” NYC ball drop on regular TV, tune into ABC shortly before midnight local time (or 11:30 p.m. ET to be safe).
  • For an online-only option with no TV, open the official Times Square webcast a bit after 6 p.m. ET and keep it running through midnight.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.