That is changing. As partial of a wide-ranging bid to find new hits, ABC is looking to a Magic Kingdom for firepower.

Among ABC’s 24 pilots for a subsequent radio deteriorate is a play formed on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, a Disneyland drum coaster. Another pilot, “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” is formed on subordinate characters from “The Avengers,” that final year took in $1.5 billion during a tellurian box bureau for Marvel Entertainment, a Disney unit. And “Once: Wonderland,” a spinoff of “Once Upon a Time,” a successful angel story radio array introduced in 2011, focuses on Alice and her pals.

“It seemed crazy to live within a walls of one of a best calm companies in a universe and not to be holding advantage of it,” pronounced Paul Lee, ABC’s boss of entertainment.

These efforts are usually in a commander stage, Mr. Lee cautioned, adding that he is not perplexing to spin ABC into a Disney Channel for adults; programs that sincerely trade on Disney stories could spin off ABC’s some-more worldly viewers. Harold L. Vogel, author of “Entertainment Industry Economics,” pronounced Mr. Lee also faces pushback from TV producers who competence rebel during “importing concepts from elsewhere in a corporation.” But if a judgment works, ABC’s ratings troubles could palliate or even reverse. Mr. Lee would also benefit domestic collateral within a company: Robert A. Iger, Disney’s arch executive, has done cross-company team-work and authorization enlargement a concentration of his reign.

For a deteriorate to date, and including sports, ABC ranks final among a Big Four promote networks in a advertiser-friendly demographic of adults 18 to 49. The network’s prime-time line-up has captivated an normal of 2.9 million viewers in that age bracket, a 4 percent decrease from a same duration final year, according to Nielsen.

Sports-heavy NBC and Fox both arrange somewhat forward of ABC by this measure, yet both have had steeper year-on-year declines. CBS, bolstered by a Super Bowl, ranks No. 1, with an normal of 3.8 million adults 18 to 49.

ABC has a strengths — a immeasurable grade of family co-viewing is one, a strike sitcom “Modern Family” is another — but, like all broadcasters, it has struggled to find new dermatitis hits and has a singular selling budget. Mr. Lee hopes to improved use Disney’s immeasurable sovereignty to get people to notice his new programs. “Once Upon a Time,” for instance, has been advertised on a Disney Cruise line, and costumes from a array have been exhibited during Disney parks.

“Big Thunder” comes from Melissa Rosenberg, a writer-producer who is best famous for her work on a “Twilight” film series. Mr. Lee described it as “a stone ’n’ hurl western” — in a suggestion if not in tangible strain — about a male who moves to a mining city with his bum son, whose health starts to mysteriously improve.

ABC and Marvel have kept a parsimonious lid on “S.H.I.E.L.D.,” though a commander was destined and co-written by Joss Whedon, who also destined “The Avengers” and is famous to TV fans as a force behind “Buffy a Vampire Slayer.” The “S.H.I.E.L.D.” project, that got a start when Mr. Iger privately suggested that ABC take a demeanour during it, focuses on spies who manage superhero margin operations.

Mr. Lee’s hunt for programming with some-more Disney DNA comes as ABC shares some-more talent with a renouned wire cousin, ABC Family. Joey Lawrence of a ABC Family array “Melissa Joey,” for instance, has doubled as a horde of “Splash,” a diving foe existence show, on ABC this spring.