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overview
holdings
landmarks
related:
Paramount
CBS
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overview
This profile considers Viacom, a US entertainment conglomerate
that absorbed and then spun off the CBS broadcasting group.
It covers -
Viacom originated as a US cinema operator, moved into
cable television and film/television production/distribution
(Paramount), video rentals (Blockbuster), book publishing
and the national CBS television network. In 2006 it spun
off its broadcast, publishing, themepark and some cable
tv interests as CBS Corporation.
the group
Viacom is based in New York. It is a major content developer
and distributor, with significant US and overseas holdings
that encompass broadcast and cable television, radio,
publishing, outdoor advertising and online services.
Its brands include CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures,
Infinity, Showtime, and Simon & Schuster. It formerly
included the Blockbuster video rentail chain, spun off
in 2004.
A chronology of Viacom's development is here.
Its corporate site is here
Viacom was originally created by CBS
in 1971 to get around a FCC ruling that prohibited television
networks from owning cable systems and TV stations in
the same market. It then began buying cable systems around
the United States. In 1978 it formed Showtime and in 1981
an all-music station called Music Television.
In 1987 it was acquired by Sumner Redstone's National
Amusements Inc, one of the larger cinema operators (with
theatres in the US, Canada, South America and the EU).
Viacom then bought Paramount
(a conglomerate based on one of Hollywood's original movie
studios and including the Simon & Schuster publishing
group) and Blockbuster Video. In 1999 it swallowed CBS.
National Amusements is also the dominant shareholder in
Midway Games Inc, known for Mortal Kombat and
Defender.
holdings
The following page provides
an indication of Viacom holdings.
CBS
The former CBS network, William Paley and Frank Stanton
are discussed in a discrete profile
on this site.
Paramount
Paramount studios and the exhibition arm are discussed
in a note page of this profile.
BET
BET, aka the Black Entertainment Television network, was
established by Robert L Johnson (1946- ) and acquired
by Viacom for US$3 billion in 2000.
As Mr. Johnson tries to recast himself as a mainstream
business mogul, his calendar has become very crowded,
thanks to a high-powered push to start and buy several
companies. As of 2007 Johnson interests included a hedge
fund, a private equity firm, a chain of more than 100
high-end hotels, several commercial banks and savings
institutions, a film company, several gambling ventures
and the Charlotte Bobcats National Basketball Association
franchise (acquired in 2003 for US$300 million).
Johnson graduated from the University of Illinois, studied
public administration at Princeton and worked in public
affairs before becoming a cable television lobbyist in
1976. He gained support from John Malone,
who invested US$500,000 for a 20% stake in BET, launched
as a cable channel for audiences in cities with large
black populations. Johnson took BET public in 1991 as
the the first black-owned company on the NYSE in 1991,
making the networkon the New York Stock Exchange. He retained
56% of the voting power, weathering criticism that BET
was more concerned with exploitation and with promotion
of genres such as gangsta rap than empowerment of its
audiences. In the late 1990s Johnson and Malone bought
out the other BET shareholders.
structure pre-2006
The following paragraphs provide an indication of the
group's coverage prior to the CBS spin off on 1 January
2006.
CBS Television Network includes over 200 affiliated stations,
with program content ranging (not very far) from Everybody
Loves Raymond to 60 Minutes and The Young
& the Restless.
The Viacom Television Stations Group consists of 34 television
stations reaching 15 of the top 20 television markets
in the US, through 16 owned-&-operated CBS stations
and 18 UPN-affiliated stations. It includes duopolies
in six major markets, with CBS and UPN stations in Philadelphia,
Boston, Dallas, Detroit, Miami, and Pittsburgh.
MTV
Networks owns/operates basic cable television programming
services, including MTV Music Television (342 million
households in 140 territories), Nickelodeon (300 million
households via localized channels and individual programs),
VH1 (8 channels reaching over 93 million households) and
"pop culture" TNN (86 million homes in North
America. Viacom's BET - Black Entertainment Television
- is the largest national cable network serving African
Americans (around 65 million households); BET International
reaches 30 countries in Europe and 36 countries in Africa.
Paramount
Television, offshoot of Paramount Studios, is a major
suppliers of television programming for the broadcast,
first-run syndication, and cable markets with over 55,000
hours of programming in its library. Production units
include Spelling Television.
The
group's broadcast and cable television arms - United Paramount
Network (UPN), Showtime Networks and Comedy Central -
reach over 86% of US television homes through affiliated
stations. Programs include Buffy the Vampire Slayer
and the Star Trek series.
Infinity
Broadcasting is one of the largest radio broadcasters
in the United States, where it owns and operates more
than 180 radio stations. Infinity's outdoor advertising
units, Infinity Outdoor and TDI Worldwide, comprise one
of the two largest outdoor advertising operations in the
US, Canada, Mexico and Europe.
Paramount
Pictures was one of the original major studios, with a
2 500 title library that includes Forrest Gump
and Mission Impossible.
Famous Players, founded in 1920, is a major Canadian cinema
operator, with 884 screens at 102 locations and a joint
venture with IMAX. United International Pictures (UIP),
in which Viacom has a 33% interest, handles general distribution
of Paramount Pictures’ films outside the United States
and Canada. United Cinemas International (UCI), a joint
venture between Viacom and Vivendi's
Universal, operates approximately 868 screens in 104 theaters
in the UK, Eire, Germany, Austria, Spain, Japan, Italy,
Portugal, Poland, Argentina, Brazil, and Panama. It is
one of the largest operators of multiplex theaters outside
the United States.
Famous
Music Publishing is one of the top ten music publishers
in the United States, with a catalog of over 100 000 works
that include contemporary music and film scores. Viacom
Consumer Products licenses on behalf of Paramount Pictures,
Paramount Television, Viacom Productions, Spelling Television
and third-parties. CBS Enterprises provides domestic and
international film and television program distribution
services, including syndication of Wheel of Fortune,
Jeopardy! and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Paramount
Home Entertainment distributes videos and DVDs of theatrical
releases from Paramount Pictures, Paramount Classics,
Nickelodeon Movies, MTV Films and non-theatrical releases.
Blockbuster
- unloaded in 2004 through a tax-free split with Viacom
shareholders - was the world's leading renter of videos
and video games with over 7,700 stores in the United States
and 26 other countries as of 2003. It boasted that over
3 million customers visit a Blockbuster store each day.
Simon & Schuster publishes more than 2,100 titles
annually under 38 trade, mass market, children's and new
media imprints.
Paramount Parks is one of the largest theme park operators,
garnering around 13 million visitors annually at its five
North American parks.
studies
Ken Auletta's disappointing collection of profiles
in his The Highwaymen - Warriors of the Information
Superhighway (New York: Random 1997) includes Viacom
czar Sumner Redstone. Many readers will get more value
from Michael J Wolf's The Entertainment Economy (New
York: Times 1999).
Redstone's autobiographical A Passion To Win (New
York: Simon & Schuster 2001) is thin, leading the
Financial Times to speculate "whether Mr Redstone
simply has nothing much to say or wants to keep his thoughts,
passions and fears private". Michael Wolff in The
Autumn of the Moguls (New York: HarperCollins 2003)
more tartly dismissed Redstone as
a vainglorious, old-school egomaniac who has an operatic
personal life that has largely been kept out of the
media, undoubtedly because he controls so much of it
Bruce
Wasserstein's Big Deal (New York: Warner 1998)
is a useful introduction to the business of assembling
and disassembling the US media empires. Wasserstein is
a high-profile merchant banker who acquired New York
magazine in 2003.
The two definitive studies of CBS in the sixties and eighties
are David Halberstam's classic The Powers That Be
(New York: Knopf 79) and Auletta's Three Blind Mice:
How The Television Networks Lost Their Way (New York:
Random House 1991).
The separate CBS page points to
studies of William Paley and CBS, of which the best is
probably Lewis Paper's Empire: William S Paley
& The Making of CBS (New York: St Martins 1987).
Lynn Hinds' Broadcasting the Local News: The Early
History of Pittsburgh's KDKA-TV (University Park:
Pennsylvania State Uni Press 1995) offers a perspective
on broadcasting's early history.
For Blockbuster, the cash cow that allowed the acquisition
of many of the goodies, see Gail Degeorge's gushy The
Making of a Blockbuster: How Wayne Huizenga Built a Sports
and Entertainment Empire from Trash, Grit and Videotape
(New York: Wiley 1995).
Andrew Goodwin's Dancing in the Distraction Factory:
Music Television & Popular Culture (Minneapolis: Uni
of Minnesota Press 1992) and Jack Banks' Monopoly Television:
MTV's Quest to Control the Music (Boulder: Westview
1996) are suggestive.
For Paramount see Bernard Dick's Engulfed: The Death
of Paramount Pictures and the Birth of Corporate Hollywood
(Lexington: Uni Press of Kentucky 2001).
For Simon & Schuster see Turning the pages: an
insider's story of Simon & Schuster, 1924-1984 (New
York: Macmillan 1984) by Peter Schwed.
For Johnson see The Billion Dollar BET: Robert Johnson
and the Inside Story of Black Entertainment Television
(New York: Wiley 2005) by Brett Pulley.
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