Television distribution arm of Paramount Pictures
Paramount Domestic Television (PDT) was the television distribution arm of American television production company Paramount Television, once the TV arm of Paramount Pictures. It was formed in 1982 originally as Paramount Domestic Television and Video Programming, the successor to Paramount Television Domestic Distribution, Paramount Television Sales, and Desilu Sales.
History
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 by Gulf+Western, which was reincorporated as Paramount Communications in 1989.
In 1987, it entered into an agreement with Tribune Entertainment Company whereby Paramount would distribute Geraldo, with Tribune producing. In 1989, both Tribune and Paramount worked again on The 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 of The Arsenio Hall Show, hosted by Arsenio 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 them to an exclusive pact with the studio.[4] He then developed the talk show, which was aired from 1991 to 1998.
After that company was sold to Viacom in 1994, it absorbed the distribution functions of Viacom Enterprises the next year. Viacom had distributed the classic CBS library which included the pre-1960 Desilu library, alongside series from Viacom Productions and Carsey-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 from MTV Networks with the Viacom merger, though these have rarely been seen in syndication. Shortly after The Arsenio Hall Show was cancelled following the acquisition of Viacom, Paramount began distributing and producing MTV's The Jon Stewart Show for the syndication market.[6] In 1987, Coca-Cola Telecommunications teamed up with Paramount Domestic Television (PDT), and Orbis Communications to form International Advertising Sales, which handled advertising of such programs produced by PDT, Orbis and Coca-Cola Telecommunications, including future programming for Merv 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 owned Spelling Television, Worldvision Enterprises, Republic Pictures Television, and Big Ticket Entertainment) and Rysher 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 to Judge Judy and Judge Joe Brown.[9] In 2002, it struck a deal with HDNet to distribute content that was meant to be short for HDTV.[10][11]
After Viacom split into two companies – one called Viacom and the other CBS Corporation – Paramount's television operations became part of the latter company. As a result, Paramount Domestic Television became CBS Paramount Domestic Television. That was in turn merged with King World Productions in 2007 to become CBS Television Distribution (CTD). However, because National Amusements retained majority control of both CBS and the new Viacom, CBS programs (including those under the original Paramount Television name) are still distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment; starting in 2005, they have been released through CBS DVD/Blu-ray. However, some former Paramount programs, such as Entertainment Tonight, then moved from being produced at the Paramount lot to CBS facilities.
Currently, syndication rights to Paramount's theatrical film library lie with Trifecta Entertainment & Media.
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