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| Formerly | Paramount Domestic Television and Video Programming (1982–86) |
|---|---|
| Company type | Subsidiary |
| Industry |
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| Predecessor | Paramount Television Domestic Syndication |
| Founded | 1982; 44 years ago (1982) |
| Defunct | April 24, 2006; 19 years ago (2006-04-24) |
| Fate | Rebranded asCBS Paramount Domestic Television, then merged withKing World to form CBS Television Distribution, which later rebranded asCBS Media Ventures |
| Successors | |
| Parent | Gulf and Western Industries (1982–89) Paramount Communications (1989–94) Viacom (1994–2005) CBS Corporation (2005–06) |
Paramount Domestic Television (PDT) was thetelevisiondistribution arm of American television production companyParamount Television, once the television arm ofParamount Pictures. It was formed in 1982 originally asParamount Domestic Television and Video Programming, the successor toParamount Television Domestic Distribution,Paramount Television Sales, andDesilu Sales, and was rebranded asCBS Paramount Domestic Television on April 24, 2006.
Initially, it distributed the back library of Paramount Television and the post-1960 shows by Desilu, and several first-run syndicated shows. Originally, the company (like other sister companies sharing the Paramount name) was owned byGulf+Western, which was reincorporated as Paramount Communications in 1989.
In 1987, it entered into an agreement withTribune Entertainment Company whereby Paramount would distributeGeraldo, with Tribune producing. In 1989, both Tribune and Paramount worked again onThe Joan Rivers Show, Paramount distributing the program and Tribune producing the series.[1] Also that year, Paramount Domestic Television made its first foray into late-night television with the debut ofThe Arsenio Hall Show, hosted byArsenio Hall himself.[2] In 1990, Tribune and Paramount parted ways, with Tribune handling sales of the show in-house.[3] In 1990,Maury Povich signed with Paramount to develop a daily talk show;[4] his show debuted in 1991 and was distributed by Paramount until 1998, whenStudios USA assumed those responsibilities.
After Paramount was sold toViacom in 1994, it absorbed the distribution functions ofViacom Enterprises the next year. Viacom had distributed the classicCBS library which included the pre-1960 Desilu library, alongside series fromViacom Productions andCarsey-Werner Productions library (Paramount lost the rights to the latter library in late 1994 when Carsey-Werner formed its own in-house distribution unit).[5]
PDT also gained syndication rights to series fromMTV Networks with the Viacom merger, though these have rarely been seen in syndication. Shortly afterThe Arsenio Hall Show was cancelled following the acquisition of Viacom, Paramount began distributing and producing MTV'sThe Jon Stewart Show for the syndication market.[6] In 1987,Coca-Cola Telecommunications teamed up with Paramount Domestic Television (PDT), andOrbis Communications to form International Advertising Sales, which handled advertising of such programs produced by PDT, Orbis andCoca-Cola Telecommunications, including future programming forMerv Griffin Enterprises.[7]
MCA Television and Paramount Domestic Television (PDT) had formed Premier Advertiser Sales, a joint venture created for the sale of advertising for their existing syndicated programs in September 1989. As a possible outgrowth of this sales joint venture, MCA and Paramount began plans for a new network,Premier Program Service.[8]
In 1999, Viacom acquired several other television production firms such as Spelling Entertainment Group (which ownedSpelling Television,Worldvision Enterprises,Republic Pictures Television, andBig Ticket Entertainment) andRysher Entertainment (or at least its library). As a result, the size of Paramount's television library more than tripled, giving PDT a slew of new series to distribute, and included was the distribution rights toJudge Judy andJudge Joe Brown.[9] In 2002, it struck a deal withHDNet to distribute content that was meant to be short forHDTV.[10][11]
After Viacom split into two companies – one calledViacom and the otherCBS Corporation – Paramount's television operations became part of CBS Corporation. As a result, Paramount Domestic Television becameCBS Paramount Domestic Television. That was in turn merged withKing World Productions in 2007 to becomeCBS Television Distribution (CTD). However, becauseNational Amusements retained majority control of both CBS and the new Viacom, CBS programs (including those under the original Paramount Television name) are still distributed byParamount Home Entertainment; starting in 2005, they have been released throughCBS DVD/Blu-ray. However, some former Paramount programs, such asEntertainment Tonight, then moved from being produced at the Paramount lot to CBS facilities.
Currently, syndication rights to Paramount's theatrical film library lie withTrifecta Entertainment & Media.
