Viacom (1952–2006) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Viacom Inc.

Final logo, used from 1990 to 2005
Viacom's headquarters at One Astor Plaza in New York City
Formerly	CBS Television Film Sales (1952–1958) CBS Films (1958–1968) CBS Enterprises Inc. (1968–1970)
Former type	Public
Traded as	NYSE: VIA
Industry	Broadcasting and publishing
Fate	Split into the second incarnations of CBS Corporation and Viacom
Successors	CBS Corporation (legal successor) Viacom (spun off)
Founded	March 16, 1952; 73 years ago (1952-03-16)
Founder	Ralph Baruch
Defunct	December 31, 2005; 19 years ago (2005-12-31)
Headquarters	One Astor Plaza, New York City , United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Sumner Redstone (Chairman and CEO) Tom Freston (Co-President and Co-COO) Les Moonves (Co-President and Co-COO)
Parent	CBS (1952–1971) Independent (1971–1987) National Amusements (1987–2005)
Divisions	CBS Radio Viacom Productions Viacom International CBS Sports Viacom Outdoor
Subsidiaries	CBS Paramount Pictures MTV Networks Showtime Networks BET Networks Paramount Parks Famous Players Simon & Schuster King World Productions UPN Westinghouse Licensing Corporation

Viacom Inc. was a big American company that worked in mass media and entertainment. It was based in New York City. The name "Viacom" comes from "Video & Audio Communications."

The company started in 1952 as a part of the CBS television network. It was first called CBS Television Film Sales. This part of CBS helped share TV shows with other stations. Over the years, its name changed a few times. It became CBS Films in 1958 and CBS Enterprises in 1968. Finally, in 1970, it was named Viacom.

In 1971, Viacom became its own separate company. This happened because of new rules from the FCC. These rules stopped TV networks from owning companies that shared their shows. Viacom continued to share CBS shows and other TV programs.

In 1987, a man named Sumner Redstone took control of Viacom. He owned a movie theater company called National Amusements.

Before it split in 2005, Viacom owned many well-known companies. These included the CBS and UPN TV networks. It also owned Paramount Pictures, which makes movies and TV shows. Viacom had CBS Radio (local radio stations) and popular cable channels like MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET, and Showtime. It also owned Simon & Schuster, a book publisher.

In 22000, Viacom bought its old parent company, CBS. This made Viacom even bigger. In 2005, Viacom split into two new companies: CBS Corporation and a new Viacom. Both companies were still owned by National Amusements. The new CBS Corporation was seen as the original Viacom's official continuation. The new Viacom was a completely new company.

Viacom's Story

The evolution of Paramount

1912	Famous Players Film Company is founded by Adolph Zukor
1913	Lasky Feature Play Company is founded by Jesse Lasky
1914	Paramount Pictures is founded as a film distributor by W. W. Hodkinson
1916	Famous Players & Lasky merge as Famous Players–Lasky and acquire Paramount.
1920	Group W forms with the launch of KDKA-AM
1927	CBS is founded; Famous Players–Lasky assumes Paramount name
1929	Paramount buys 49% of CBS
1932	Paramount sells back shares of CBS.
1950	Desilu is founded & CBS distributes its television programs
1952	CBS creates the CBS Television Film Sales division
1958	CBS Television Film Sales renamed to CBS Films
1966	Gulf+Western buys Paramount
1968	Gulf+Western acquires Desilu and renames it Paramount Television; CBS Films becomes CBS Enterprises
1970	CBS Enterprises renamed to Viacom
1971	Viacom is spun off from CBS as a separate company
1985	Viacom buys full ownership of Showtime & MTV Networks
1986	National Amusements buys Viacom
1989	Gulf+Western renamed to Paramount Communications
1994	Viacom acquires Paramount Communications
1995	Westinghouse buys CBS
1997	Westinghouse renamed to CBS Corporation
2000	Viacom buys CBS Corporation
2001	Viacom buys BET Networks
2005	Viacom splits into second CBS Corporation and Viacom
2019	CBS Corporation and Viacom re-merge to form ViacomCBS
2022	ViacomCBS changes its name to Paramount Global
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Viacom started on March 16, 1952. This is when CBS created its division for sharing TV shows. It was called CBS Television Film Sales. In October 1958, it changed its name to CBS Films. Then, on December 1, 1967, it became CBS Enterprises Inc.

On July 6, 1970, CBS announced that CBS Enterprises would become a separate company. That same month, the division was officially named Viacom. It became fully independent on January 1, 1971. This separation happened because of new rules from the FCC. These rules said that TV networks could not own companies that shared their shows. The rules were later removed.

The original Viacom logo used from 1971 to 1976

Besides sharing CBS TV shows, Viacom also owned cable TV systems. At one point, it had 90,000 cable subscribers, which was the most in the U.S. at that time. In 1976, Viacom launched Showtime, a channel that showed movies for a fee. Viacom also started making its own TV shows in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

How Viacom Grew with New Companies

Viacom started buying other companies in 1978. Its first TV station purchase was WHNB-TV in New Britain, Connecticut. They changed its name to WVIT. Two years later, Viacom bought the Sonderling Broadcasting group. This gave them radio stations in big cities like New York City and Washington, D.C.. It also added a TV station, WAST (now WNYT) in Albany, New York.

Logo from 1976 to 1989

In 1983, Viacom bought more TV stations: KSLA in Shreveport, Louisiana, and WHEC-TV in Rochester, New York. In 1986, they bought KMOX-TV in St. Louis from CBS. This station's name was changed to KMOV.

Also in 1983, Viacom bought back its premium movie channel, Showtime. They then combined it with another channel called The Movie Channel. This created Showtime/The Movie Channel, Inc.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Viacom helped share popular TV shows like The Cosby Show, A Different World, and Roseanne.

In 1985, Viacom fully bought Showtime/The Movie Channel, Inc. Around the same time, Viacom bought MTV Networks. This company owned MTV, VH-1, and Nickelodeon. These purchases helped Viacom become a major media company, not just a company that shared shows. This was completed in 1986.

In 1987, Sumner Redstone took control of Viacom. He owned a movie theater company called National Amusements. Redstone then made many big purchases in the early 1990s. In 1993, he planned to merge with Paramount Communications. This company owned Paramount Pictures. In 1994, he bought the Blockbuster Video store chain.

The purchase of Paramount Communications on July 7, 1994, made Viacom one of the biggest entertainment companies in the world. This deal gave Viacom access to a huge library of TV shows and more TV stations. Viacom used some of these stations to start the UPN network in January 1995. In 1997, Viacom temporarily left the radio business. It sold most of its radio stations to another company.

In 1999, Viacom made its biggest purchase yet. It announced plans to merge with its former parent company, CBS. The merger was completed in May 2000. This brought CBS's cable channels like TNN (now Paramount Network) and Country Music Television (CMT) under Viacom's MTV Networks.

In 2001, Viacom bought BET Holdings, which owned the Black Entertainment Television (BET) network. BET was later made into its own division called BET Networks.

In 2002, Viacom's MTV Networks International bought a Dutch music video channel called TMF. In June 2004, MTVNI bought VIVA Media AG, a German music channel. Also in 2002, Viacom bought all the remaining shares of the Infinity Broadcasting radio chain. This meant Viacom was back in the radio station business. In April 2003, Viacom bought the rest of Comedy Central. Comedy Central then became part of MTV Networks.

Viacom Splits into Two Companies

CBS Corporation logo (2005–2019)

Logo of the spun-off Viacom (2005–2019), introduced on December 31, 2005

In March 2005, Viacom announced it would split into two separate companies. Both would still be controlled by National Amusements. This decision was made because the company's stock price wasn't growing much. There was also some competition between the leaders of CBS and MTV Networks.

The original Viacom became the new CBS Corporation. Les Moonves led this company. It kept CBS, Simon & Schuster, and Paramount Network Television (now CBS Studios). The other part of the company, which included MTV Networks, BET Networks, and Paramount Pictures, became a new company called Viacom. Tom Freston led this new Viacom.

Viacom's board approved the split on June 14, 2005. It officially happened on December 31, 2005. The new CBS Corporation and Viacom started trading as separate companies on January 3, 2006.

Logo of ViacomCBS (2019–2022), introduced on December 4, 2019 (shown here is the first variant used from 2019 to 2020)

Later, on August 13, 2019, CBS and Viacom announced they would merge again. The combined company was named ViacomCBS. This merger was completed on December 4, 2019. On February 16, 2022, ViacomCBS changed its name to Paramount Global. However, a part of Paramount called Viacom International still uses the Viacom name today.

Former Viacom-owned Stations

Here are some of the radio and television stations that Viacom used to own.

Radio Stations

Notes:

• Two bold asterisks (**) mean the station was bought from Sonderling Broadcasting in 1980. This was when Viacom first started owning radio stations.
• This list does not include stations owned by CBS Radio or Infinity Broadcasting. Viacom got these when it merged with CBS in 2000.

Television Stations

This list does not include other stations owned by Paramount Stations Group. Viacom got these when it bought Paramount Pictures in 1994. It also doesn't include stations bought after the Paramount deal but before the CBS merger in 2000.

• ¹ WTXX was owned by Counterpoint Communications. However, Viacom helped run the station through a special agreement.

See also

In Spanish: Viacom (1952-2006) para niños