The first incarnation ofViacom Inc.[a] (derived from "Video & Audio Communications") was an Americanmass media andentertainmentconglomerate based inNew York City. It began asCBS Television Film Sales, thebroadcast syndication division of theCBS television network on March 16, 1952; it was renamedCBS Films in 1958, renamedCBS Enterprises in 1968, renamed Viacom in 1970, andspun off into its own company in 1971. Viacom was a distributor of CBS television series throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and also distributed syndicated television programs. The company came underSumner Redstone's control in 1987 through his cinema chain companyNational Amusements.[3]
At the time of its split, Viacom's assets included the CBS andUPN broadcast networks, theParamount Pictures film andtelevision studio, local radio station operatorCBS Radio, cable channels such asMTV,Nickelodeon,Comedy Central,BET, andShowtime, outdoor media operatorViacom Outdoor, television production and distribution firmKing World Productions, and book publisherSimon & Schuster. It also owned its IP holding subsidiaryViacom International and brand licensorWestinghouse Licensing Corporation.
In 2000, Viacom acquired theparent company of CBS, the formerWestinghouse Electric Corporation, which had been renamed CBS Corporation in 1997. Viacom wassplit into the second incarnations ofCBS Corporation andViacom on December 31, 2005, which both being controlled by National Amusements;[4] the split was structured with the second CBS Corporation being the original Viacom'slegal successor, and the second Viacom being an entirely new company. The two companies eventuallyre-merged in 2019, leading to the formation of ViacomCBS, now known asParamount Global. In August 2025, Paramount andNational Amusementsmerged withSkydance Media to formParamount Skydance Corporation.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1886 | Westinghouse Electric Corporation is founded as Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company |
| 1912 | Famous Players Film Company is founded |
| 1913 | Lasky Feature Play Company is founded |
| 1914 | Paramount Pictures is founded |
| 1916 | Famous Players and Lasky merge asFamous Players–Lasky and acquire Paramount |
| 1927 | Famous Players–Lasky is renamed to Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation;CBS is founded with investment fromColumbia Records |
| 1929 | Paramount acquires 49% of CBS |
| 1930 | Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation is renamed to Paramount Publix Corporation |
| 1932 | Paramount sells back its shares of CBS |
| 1934 | Gulf+Western is founded as the Michigan Bumper Corporation |
| 1935 | Paramount Publix Corporation is renamed to Paramount Pictures |
| 1936 | National Amusements is founded as Northeast Theater Corporation |
| 1938 | CBS acquires Columbia Records |
| 1950 | Desilu is founded and CBS distributes its television programs |
| 1952 | CBS creates the CBS Television Film Sales division |
| 1958 | CBS Television Film Sales is renamed to CBS Films |
| 1966 | Gulf+Western acquires Paramount |
| 1967 | Gulf+Western acquires Desilu and renames itParamount Television (nowCBS Studios) |
| 1968 | CBS Films is renamed to CBS Enterprises |
| 1970 | CBS Enterprises is renamed toViacom |
| 1971 | Viacom is spun off from CBS |
| 1987 | National Amusements acquires Viacom |
| 1988 | CBS sells Columbia Records toSony |
| 1989 | Gulf+Western is renamed toParamount Communications |
| 1994 | Viacom acquires Paramount Communications |
| 1995 | Paramount Television andUnited Television launchUPN; Westinghouse acquires CBS |
| 1997 | Westinghouse is renamed toCBS Corporation |
| 2000 | Viacom acquires UPN and CBS Corporation |
| 2005 | Viacomsplits into the secondCBS Corporation andViacom |
| 2006 | Skydance Media is founded as Skydance Productions; CBS Corporationshuts down UPN and replaces it withThe CW |
| 2009 | Paramount and Skydance enter an agreement to co-produce and co-finance films |
| 2017 | CBS Corporation sellsCBS Radio to Entercom (nowAudacy) |
| 2019 | CBS Corporation and Viacomre-merge as ViacomCBS |
| 2022 | ViacomCBS is renamed toParamount Global |
| 2025 | Skydance acquires National Amusements andmerges with Paramount Global asParamount Skydance |
Viacom originated on March 16, 1952 — when CBS founded itsbroadcast syndication division,CBS Television Film Sales.[5][6][7] It renamed asCBS Films in October 1958.[8][9] On December 1, 1967, it again renamed asCBS Enterprises Inc..[10][11] On July 6, 1970, it announced that CBS Enterprises would be spun out from its parent company,[12] and the same month the division was incorporated asViacom,[13][14][15][16][17] andspun off on January 1, 1971,[18] amid newFCC rules forbiddingtelevision networks fromowning syndication companies (the rules were later repealed).
Viacom expanded its activities throughout the decade with a launch of a production unit, and later acquired the rights to various features from various studios.[19][20]
In addition to CBS television series syndication rights, Viacom also held cable systems with 90,000 cable subscribers, at that time the largest in the United States. In 1976, Viacom launchedShowtime, a pay movie channel, withWarner-Amex taking a half-share ownership. The company went into original programming production starting in the late 1970s until the early 1980s with middling results.[17] The company expanded in 1977 to launch a unit for program acquisitions and prime-time network programming.[21]
Viacom's first broadcast station acquisition came in 1978 when the company purchased WHNB-TV inNew Britain, Connecticut, changing its call letters toWVIT.[22] Two years later Viacom added the Sonderling Broadcasting chain, giving it radio stations inNew York City,Washington, D.C.,Houston, andSan Francisco, and one television station, WAST (nowWNYT) inAlbany, New York.[23]
In 1983, Viacom purchasedKSLA inShreveport, Louisiana,[24][25] andWHEC-TV inRochester, New York,[26] in separate transactions. This was followed in 1986 with CBS-owned KMOX-TV inSt. Louis; with the purchase, that station's call letters were changed toKMOV.[27][28]
Also in 1983, Viacom reacquired its premium channel Showtime, and later merged it with Warner-Amex'sThe Movie Channel formingShowtime/The Movie Channel, Inc. Between the late 1980s and the early 1990s, Viacom syndicated several shows produced byCarsey-Werner Productions, namelyThe Cosby Show,A Different World andRoseanne.[29]
In 1985, Viacom acquired Showtime/The Movie Channel, Inc. from Warner-Amex, ending the joint venture. Around the same time, Viacom boughtMTV Networks, which ownedMTV,VH-1, andNickelodeon. The deal was completed in 1986.[30] This led to Viacom becoming a mass media company rather than simply a distribution company.
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. andMTV Networks.[31]
In 1989, the company had set up its own division Viacom Pictures, to produce its feature films for television, most notablyShowtime.[32]
Sumner Redstone, via his theater chain operatorNational 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 (formerlyGulf+Western), parent ofParamount Pictures, in 1993, and buying theBlockbuster 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 stationWVIT.[34]
The Paramount and Blockbuster acquisitions gave Viacom access to large television holdings: An archive of programming controlled byAaron Spelling's company which included, along withhis own productions, the pre-1973ABC andNBC libraries underWorldvision Enterprises andRepublic Pictures; and an expanded group of television stations which merged Viacom's five existing outlets intoParamount's seven-station group. Viacom used some of these stations to launch theUPN network, which started operations in January 1995 as ajoint venture withChris-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 ofiHeartMedia.
On September 7, 1999, Viacom announced their acquisition ofCBS 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 (nowParamount Network) andCountry Music Television (CMT) under Viacom's MTV Networks wing, as well as CBS's production and distribution units Eyemark Entertainment (formerlyGroup W Productions) andKing World under the main wing.[37] The merger also folded Viacom's broadcast group, now consisting entirely of UPN stations, into CBS'sowned-stations division.[38][39]
In 2001, Viacom completed its purchase of BET Holdings, the owners of theBlack 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 asBET Networks.
Although a majority economic interest in Viacom was held by independent shareholders, the Redstone family maintained 71% 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 channelTMF, which at the time was broadcasting inBelgium and theNetherlands. In June 2004, MTVNI boughtVIVA 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 ofInfinity 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 ofComedy Central from then-AOL Time Warner, integrating Comedy Central into MTV Networks.
From its formation until 1995, Viacom operated severalcable television systems generally located in theDayton,San Francisco,Nashville andSeattle 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 toViacom Cable. By 1995, Viacom Cable had about 1.1 million subscribers. Viacom sold the division toTCI in 1995.[42] Viacom's cable assets are now part ofComcast.
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 chairmanLes Moonves and MTV Networkschief executive officerTom Freston, andthe controversy of the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show were also seen as factors. After the departure ofMel Karmazin in 2004, Redstone, who served aschairman and CEO, decided to split the offices ofpresident andchief 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 becomethe second CBS Corporation as it was headed by Moonves and kept CBS,Simon & Schuster,[45] and Paramount Network Television (now known asCBS Studios), among other assets; while MTV Networks, BET Networks, and Paramount Pictures would spin-off to a sister company headed by Freston under theViacom 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 theirre-merger deal; the combined company would be called ViacomCBS, withBob Bakish as president and CEO andShari Redstone as the chairwoman of the new company.[48][49][50] The deal was closed on December 4.[51]
Despite ViacomCBS renaming itself toParamount Global on February 16, 2022,[52] several Paramount retired the Viacom name by assets for 52 years.
Stations are arranged alphabetically by state andcommunity of license.
Notes:
| AM Stations | FM Stations |
|---|
| City of license/Market | Station | Years owned | Current status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles, CA | KJOI/KXEZ/KYSR 98.7 | 1990–1997 | owned byiHeartMedia |
| KQLZ/KXEZ/KIBB 100.3 | 1993–1997 | KKLQ, owned byEducational Media Foundation | |
| San Francisco, CA | KDIA 1310 ** | 1980–1983 | KMKY, owned by Akai Broadcasting Corporation |
| KDBK/KSRY-FM–98.9 | 1990–1994 | KSOL, owned byUnivision Radio | |
| KDBQ/KYLZ/KSRI 99.1 | 1990–1994 | KSQL, owned by Univision Radio | |
| Denver, CO | KHOW 630 | 1990–1993 | owned by iHeartMedia |
| KHOW-FM/KSYY 95.7 | 1990–1993 | KDHT, owned by iHeartMedia | |
| Washington, DC–Arlington, VA | WMZQ/WZHF 1390 | 1984–1997 | owned byMulticultural Broadcasting |
| WCPT 730 | 1993–1997 | WTNT, owned by Metro Radio | |
| WMZQ-FM 98.7 ** | 1980–1997 | owned by iHeartMedia | |
| WCXR-FM 105.9 | 1993–1997 | WMAL-FM, owned byCumulus Media | |
| Chicago, IL | WLAK/WLIT-FM 93.9 | 1982–1997 | owned by iHeartMedia |
| Detroit, MI | WLTI/WDRQ 93.1 | 1988–1997 | WUFL, owned byFamily Life Radio |
| New York City, NY | WWRL 1600 ** | 1980–1982 | owned by iHeartMedia |
| WKHK/WLTW 106.7 ** | 1980–1997 | owned by iHeartMedia | |
| WAXQ 104.3 | 1996–1997 | owned by iHeartMedia | |
| Memphis, TN | WDIA 1070 ** | 1980–1983 | owned by iHeartMedia |
| WRVR 680 | 1985–1988 | WMFS, owned byAudacy, Inc. | |
| WRVR-FM 104.5 | 1981–1988 | owned by Audacy, Inc. | |
| Houston, TX | KIKK 650 ** | 1980–1993 | owned by Audacy, Inc. |
| KIKK-FM 95.7 ** | 1980–1993 | KKHH, owned by Audacy, Inc. | |
| Seattle–Tacoma, WA | KBSG 1210 | 1989–1996 | KMIA, owned byBustos Media Holdings, LLC |
| KBSG-FM 97.3 | 1987–1996 | KIRO-FM, owned byBonneville International | |
| KNDD 107.7 | 1993–1996 | owned by Audacy, Inc. |
| City of license /market | Station | Channel | Years owned | Current status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Britain–Hartford–New Haven, CT | WVIT | 30 | 1978–1997 | NBC owned-and-operated (O&O) |
| WTXX1 | 20 | 1993–1997 | The CW affiliateWCCT, owned byTegna Inc. | |
| Shreveport, LA–Texarkana, TX | KSLA-TV | 12 | 1983–1995 | CBS affiliate owned byGray Television |
| St. Louis, MO | KMOV | 4 | 1986–1997 | CBS affiliate owned by Gray Television |
| Albany–Schenectady–Troy, NY | WAST/WNYT | 13 | 1980–1996 | NBC affiliate owned byHubbard Broadcasting |
| Rochester, NY | WHEC-TV | 10 | 1983–1996 | NBC affiliate owned by Hubbard Broadcasting |
In the beginning, Sumner's Viacom—which he had renamed VIE-uh-com during the first board meeting, in a nod to his fighting spirit […]
In November 1985, Viacom acquired MTV for $326 million in cash and warrants. One-third of MTV was publicly owned; the rest was owned by Warner Communications and the American Express Company. At the same time, Viacom bought the 50 percent of Showtime, the pay television service, that it did not already own for $184 million.
Viacom completed acquisition of Paramount Communications in July 1994, creating one of the world's largest entertainment companies.
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