WWSB, virtual channel 40 (digital channel UHF 24), is an ABC-affiliated television station licensed to Sarasota, Florida, United States. The station is owned by Gray Television, based in Atlanta.
WWSB Studios are located on 10th Street in the Rosemary district of Sarasota, and its transmitter is located on Rutland Road (County Road 675) in the unincorporated community of Manatee County in Rye, about 5 miles (8 km) to the East-southeast of Parrish. The station also operates a news office in Venice, Florida.
Although WWSB transmits on digital channel 24 and its virtual channel is 40, the station is ABC 7 due to its channel position in most cable systems in the market.
Due to the location of this station's transmitter and the change from analog to digital transmission, its coverage area expands as far north as the north of Hillsborough and Polk counties, south to Punta Gorda and east to Avon Park and Sebring, which gives some viewers the choice of two or three ABC members depending on the location.
As a result, WWSB is technically a secondary ABC affiliate particularly for the east side of Tampa Bay. The city of Tampa itself is on the edge of the WWSB digital signal that can be received through indoor antennas.
By cable, the station is the only ABC affiliate in southern Comcast Sarasota County systems and competes with Fort Myers-based WZVN-TV (also known on the air as "ABC 7") in DeSoto counties and Charlotte. WWSB also competes with WFTV affiliated with ABC from Orlando in Hardee County.
WWSB has faced an uphill battle gaining transportation in cable and satellite providers in some cases. While DirecTV began transporting WWSB in 2009, Dish Network did not run the station until March 2012, and only in standard definition. It was not available in high definition on Dish until 2017.
Verizon FiOS added the station to its Hillsborough and Pasco County systems in October 2006 and, finally, to its entire west central Florida service area, as the system expanded. These achievements greatly increased the coverage area of WWSB and its overlap with WFTS-TV (channel 28).
In December 2013, the non-duplication rules applied by ABC and cable companies threatened to remove WWSB from all Verizon FiOS systems due to the presence of WFTS-TV. WFTS worked with WWSB to retain local and syndicated programming at the provider, while blocking only duplicate network programming, allowing WWSB to remain in FiOS.