Viacom (1952–2005)

Expansion through acquisitions

Viacom's first broadcast station acquisition came in 1978 when the company purchased WHNB-TV in New Britain, Connecticut, changing its call letters to WVIT.^[22] Two years later Viacom added the Sonderling Broadcasting chain, giving it radio stations in New York City, Washington, D.C., Houston, and San Francisco, and one television station, WAST (now WNYT) in Albany, New York.^[23]

In 1983 Viacom purchased KSLA in Shreveport, Louisiana,^[24][25] and WHEC-TV in Rochester, New York,^[26] in separate transactions. This was followed in 1986 with CBS-owned KMOX-TV in St. Louis; with the purchase, that station's call letters were changed to KMOV.^[27][28]

Also in 1983, Viacom reacquired its premium channel Showtime, and later merged it with Warner-Amex's The Movie Channel forming Showtime/The Movie Channel, Inc.

Between the late 1980s and the early 1990s, Viacom syndicated several shows produced by Carsey-Werner Productions, namely The Cosby Show, A Different World and Roseanne.^[29]

In 1985, Viacom acquired Showtime/The Movie Channel, Inc. from Warner-Amex, ending the joint venture. Around the same time, Viacom bought MTV Networks, which owned MTV, VH-1, and Nickelodeon.^[30] This led to Viacom becoming a mass media company rather than simply a distribution company, and completed in 1986.

In 1987, Viacom sought to expand its horizons by launching the new Viacom Network Enterprises division, which was led by Ronald C. Bernard, in order to develop and exploit properties outside of the core cable business and the company would ride herd on diverse enterprises as Viacom's pay-per-view venture, Viewer's Choice, Satellite Direct, Inc. and SMA TV, and handle strategic planning and new business development for Viacom Networks Group, and would develop merchandising, licensing and home video business around the two Viacom subsidiaries it was currently operating, Showtime-The Movie Channel, Inc. and MTV Networks.^[31]

In 1989, the company had set up its own division Viacom Pictures, to produce its feature films for television, most notably Showtime.^[32]

Sumner Redstone, via his theater chain operator National Amusements, acquired a controlling interest in Viacom on June 10, 1987.^[3] Redstone made a string of large acquisitions in the early 1990s, announcing plans to merge with Paramount Communications (formerly Gulf+Western), parent of Paramount Pictures, in 1993, and buying the Blockbuster Video chain in 1994. The acquisition of Paramount Communications on July 7, 1994, made Viacom one of the world's largest entertainment companies.^[33] Also in 1993, WTXX entered into a part-time local marketing agreement with Viacom's NBC station WVIT.^[34]

The Paramount and Blockbuster acquisitions gave Viacom access to large television holdings: An archive of programming controlled by Aaron Spelling's company which included, along with his own productions, the pre-1973 ABC and NBC libraries under Worldvision Enterprises and Republic Pictures; and an expanded group of television stations which merged Viacom's five existing outlets into Paramount's seven-station group. Viacom used some of these stations to launch the UPN network, which started operations in January 1995 as a joint venture with Chris-Craft Industries. Shortly afterward, Viacom/Paramount spent the next two years selling off its non-UPN affiliated stations to various owners. In 1997, Viacom exited the broadcast radio business, albeit temporarily, when it sold the majority of its stations to Chancellor Media, a predecessor company of iHeartMedia.

On September 7, 1999, Viacom announced their acquisition of CBS Corporation in a $35.9 billion deal. In addition to being the largest media merger in history at the time, the purchase effectively reunited Viacom with its former parent, CBS.^[35][36] The merger was completed in May 2000, bringing CBS's cable channels TNN (now Paramount Network) and Country Music Television (CMT) under Viacom's MTV Networks wing, as well as CBS's production and distribution units Eyemark Entertainment (formerly Group W Productions) and King World under the main wing.^[37] The merger also folded Viacom's broadcast group, now consisting entirely of UPN stations, into CBS's owned-stations division.^[38][39]

In 2001, Viacom completed its purchase of BET Holdings, the owners of the Black Entertainment Television (BET) network.^[40] As with CBS Cable, it was immediately integrated into MTV Networks, causing some outcry among BET workers in the Washington, D.C., area (where BET was based before the merger). As a result, BET was separated from MTV Networks, into a division known as BET Networks.

Although a majority economic interest in Viacom was held by independent shareholders, the Redstone family maintained 71-percent voting control of the company through National Amusements' holdings of Viacom's stock.

In 2002, Viacom's MTV Networks International bought independently run Dutch music video channel TMF, which at the time was broadcasting in Belgium and the Netherlands. In June 2004, MTVNI bought VIVA Media AG, the German equivalent to MTV. The same month, plans were announced to dispose of Viacom's interest in Blockbuster later that year by means of an exchange offer; the spinoff of Blockbuster was completed in October.

Also in 2002, Viacom acquired the remaining shares of Infinity Broadcasting radio chain, which resulted in Viacom's return to operating radio stations after it originally exited the broadcast radio business in 1997. In April 2003, Viacom acquired the remaining ownership shares of Comedy Central from then-AOL Time Warner, integrating Comedy Central into MTV Networks.

Viacom Cable

From its formation until 1995, Viacom operated several cable television systems generally located in the Dayton, San Francisco, Nashville and Seattle metropolitan areas.^[41] Several of these were originally independent systems that CBS acquired in the 1960s. The division was known as Viacom Cablevision until the early 1990s, when it was renamed to Viacom Cable. By 1995, Viacom Cable had about 1.1 million subscribers. Viacom sold the division to TCI in 1995.^[42] Viacom's cable assets are now part of Comcast.

Corporate spin-off

In March 2005, Viacom announced that it would split into two companies – one would contain Viacom's "slow-growth" assets; the other would consist of the company's "high-growth" divisions^[43] – under National Amusements' control because of a stagnating stock price. The internal rivalry between CBS chairman Les Moonves and MTV Networks chief executive officer Tom Freston, and the controversy of the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show were also seen as factors. After the departure of Mel Karmazin in 2004, Redstone, who served as chairman and CEO, decided to split the offices of president and chief operating officer between Moonves and Freston. Redstone was set to retire in the near future, and a split would be a creative solution to the matter of replacing him.^[44]

The existing Viacom would become the second CBS Corporation as it was headed by Moonves and kept CBS, Simon & Schuster,^[45] and Paramount Network Television (now known as CBS Studios), among other assets; while MTV Networks, BET Networks, and Paramount Pictures would spin-off to a sister company headed by Freston under the Viacom name. The split was approved by Viacom's board on June 14, 2005,^[46] and took effect on December 31.^[4] The second iterations of CBS Corporation and Viacom began trading on January 3, 2006.^[47]

On August 13, 2019, CBS and Viacom officially announced their re-merger deal; the combined company would be called ViacomCBS, with Bob Bakish as president and CEO and Shari Redstone as the chairwoman of the new company.^[48][49][50] The deal was closed on December 4.^[51]

Despite ViacomCBS renaming itself to Paramount Global on February 16, 2022,^[52] several Paramount assets retain the Viacom name, such as Viacom International (until inactive) and Viacom18 (the latter of which Paramount holds a minority stake in until sold in 2024).

Radio stations

Notes:

• Two boldface asterisks appearing following a station's call letters (**) indicate a station that was purchased from Sonderling Broadcasting in 1980, which initiated Viacom's entry into radio station ownership (WAST television in Albany was also purchased through the Sonderling deal);
• This list does not include stations owned by CBS Radio and its predecessors, Westinghouse Broadcasting and Infinity Broadcasting which were acquired by Viacom through its merger with CBS in 2000.

Television stations

This list does not include other stations owned by Paramount Stations Group which were acquired by Viacom through its acquisition of Paramount Pictures in 1994, nor any other station purchased by Viacom/Paramount following the Paramount acquisition and prior to its merger with CBS in 2000.

• ¹ WTXX was owned by Counterpoint Communications, but Viacom operated the station through a part-time local marketing agreement.