Page "Paramount Pictures" Paragraph 26

The Paramount specialty was now simpler.

" High Concept " pictures such as Saturday Night Fever and Grease hit big, hit hard and hit fast all over the world, and Diller's television background led him to propose one of his longest-standing ideas to the board: Paramount Television Service, a fourth commercial network.

Paramount Pictures purchased the Hughes Television Network ( HTN ) including its satellite time in planning for PTVS in 1976.

They also hired Rich Frank of KCOP-TV and a member of the Operation Prime Time steering committee.

But neither the board nor Bluhdorn himself accepted Diller's repeated advancements of this idea and neither did Bluhdorn's successor, Martin Davis.

Paramount sold HTN to Madison Square Garden in 1979.

But Diller believed strongly in the concept, and so took his fourth-network idea with him when he moved to 20th Century Fox in 1984, where Fox's then freshly installed proprietor, Rupert Murdoch was a more interested listener.

Meanwhile, concentrating on hot films, Paramount was met with critical success with the release of The Godfather, based on the popular novel.