This " strategy " of the gradual dismantling Paramount's assets and library has continued under current Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman who not only split the company in half and gave the television library and distribution rights to the feature films to CBS, but also sold off the Company's music library, Famous Music.

* Paramount also owns ( through the Viacom merger ) US distribution rights to the 1951 film The African Queen, originally distributed by United Artists ( the international rights are with ITV Global Entertainment ).

* Through the merger with Viacom, they gained U. S. rights to the majority of the Cannon Films library ( except Lifeforce, where some of said rights are owned by Sony via its initial US theatrical distribution by TriStar, once posting it on the website Crackle ), owned for other media by MGM ( who also posted Lifeforce on Hulu and Netflix ).

* The Viacom merger also gave Paramount the TV rights to the pre-1984 New World Pictures library, under license from Roger Corman, the company's founder ;

* Paramount has TV and digital rights to some films in the Nelson Entertainment catalog, also as a result of the Viacom merger, including the Bill & Ted films – all other rights, including Nelson's later films and the copyright to Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, reside with MGM ( several other Nelson films are owned by Paramount for TV and digital distribution through the Spelling merger, as Worldvision at one point had rights to some Nelson films as well );

** USA Networks ( also including what is now called Syfy ) – Paramount owned a stake starting in 1982, 50 % owner ( with Universal Studios ) from 1987 until 1997, when Paramount / Viacom sold their stake to Universal ( now part of NBCUniversal )

The station was also simulcasted nationally on Viacom ( which at the time owned CBS ) cable network VH1 that day.

After being acquired by Viacom in 1994, Paramount Pictures began a 10-year output deal with Showtime ( then also owned by Viacom ), effective after 1997, after Paramount's contract with HBO expired.

When CBS was purchased by Viacom, which also owned Nickelodeon, Viacom simply repurposed much of the Nick Jr. lineup — in addition to adding a Saturday edition of the CBS morning-news program The Early Show.

Today, Paramount ( through Republic, which the studio's parent company, Viacom, acquired in 1999 ), in a twist of irony, now owns the original elements to its 1927 – September 1950 output they themselves originally released ( in addition to the April 1962 – 1967 non-Comic King shorts ( except Frog's Legs, starring Little Lulu, which Paramount still owns ) they have retained the rights to and the 1961 Noveltoon, Alvin's Solo Flight, also starring Little Lulu ).

The deal also made Viacom a preferred publisher partner for casual game development and distribution through MSN and Windows.

Finally, Microsoft will also collaborate on promotions and sponsorships for MTV and BET award shows, two Viacom owned cable networks.

The " new " Viacom also inherits the status of being the legal successor to G + W.

In June 2004, based on the popularity of the " Rick James " sketch, it was announced that Chappelle was in talks to portray Rick James in a biopic from Paramount Pictures ( also owned by Viacom ).

This show was also owned by Telepictures while the other two shows were owned by Viacom, so there would be competitive situations as well.

Before its launch, Tele-Communications, Inc. made a failed attempt to acquire a 50 percent stake in Showtime in 1989. there was some debate as to whether Viacom or TCI originally conceived the idea for Encore, a service similar to Flix, that also focused on films from the 1960s to the 1980s until a format change in 1999 in which recent films were added to the mix.

She also was the primary negotiator for the World Wrestling Federation's 2000 TV deal with Viacom.

Country Music Television, also owned by MTV parent Viacom, has a show called Trick My Truck that operates on the same principle, but only customizes semi-trailer trucks.

The series was produced by Viacom Productions ( 1995-aired episodes also had the logo of Paramount Television at the end ).

It is owned by MTV Networks, a division of Viacom, which also owns Paramount Pictures, and networks such as MTV and Nickelodeon.

" It also attempted to place anti-war advertisements on the sides of buildings, billboards and buses but was thwarted when Viacom, which owns the largest outdoor-advertising entity in North America, refused to run the ads.

The name Paramount Network Television ( PNT ) was also used for the first time ever ( Viacom Productions would also become a division of PNT ).

This television channel, that launched on April 18, 1998, was aimed at children ages 6 – 12 ; the network's main competition were Turner Broadcasting / Time Warner's Cartoon Network and Boomerang, and Viacom / MTV Networks ' Nicktoons.

Later, reruns aired on other Viacom properties, including Comedy Central and UPN.

In 1995, Viacom and Chris-Craft Industries ' United Television launched United Paramount Network ( UPN ) with Star Trek: Voyager as its flagship series, fulfilling Barry Diller's plan for a Paramount network from 25 years earlier.

UPN was originally owned by Viacom / Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's series.

In 2000, Viacom bought Chris-Craft's half-stake in UPN, gaining full control of the network.

Shortly afterward, Viacom dropped the " United " name for its new network, opting to change the official corporate name to the three-letter initials, " UPN ".

When Viacom split into two companies at the end of 2005, its over-the-air broadcasting interests, including UPN, became part of CBS Corporation.

Viacom ( King World's parent at the time ) cleared Ali & Jack on their CBS and UPN O & O's, and in New York took Regis and Kelly head-on at 9 AM on WCBS.

Both CBS and UPN were owned by Viacom at the time.

Around the same time that the WB launched, another new network, the United Paramount Network ( UPN ), co-owned by Paramount Pictures / Viacom and Chris-Craft Industries, was set to launch, with WATL as the most likely pick to be that network's Atlanta affiliate.

This move left WGNX with cartoons and sitcoms that it would no longer have time to air as a CBS affiliate, so it sold some of its syndicated programming to WVEU, which became the UPN affiliate ( while WATL joined the WB ), and was later sold to Viacom, who changed its calls to WUPA.

That summer, Paramount Stations Group, a subsidiary of Viacom ( which had purchased original parent Paramount Pictures not long after UPN was founded ), bought the station and changed its call letters to WUPA.

* 1995: Viacom launched the United Paramount Network ( UPN ) with Chris-Craft Industries.

When negotiations with fellow Viacom property CBS failed ( see above ) two weeks before the broadcast, and he signed a deal with ESPN, UPN promptly canceled the broadcast, and the show aired on the i Network in December 2004 ( both UPN and CBS are now owned by CBS Corporation ).

In 1997, Westinghouse became CBS Corporation, which would then merge with Viacom ( ironically Paramount's parent since 1994 ) in 2000, making KDKA a sister station with Pittsburgh UPN ( now The CW ) affiliate WNPA-TV ( now WPCW ).

On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation ( who split from Viacom at the end of 2005 ) and Warner Bros. ( the TimeWarner division that operated The WB ) announced that they would dissolve UPN and The WB and merge them to create The CW.

As soon as the deal was announced, Viacom announced both stations would join UPN.

In the same year Viacom also purchased Chris-Craft's 50-percent share of UPN, making WPSG UPN's largest owned-and-operated station.

In 2002, WXYZ-TV reached an agreement with Viacom, then-owner of WWJ-TV and UPN affiliate WKBD-TV ( channel 50 ), in which WKBD canceled the newscast it produced for WWJ-TV, shut down its news department, and contracted with WXYZ to produce WKBD's 10 p. m. newscast.

Channel 43 ended its long run as an independent on January 14, 1995, when it became the market's affiliate for both the UPN and WB networks, with UPN-co-owned by Paramount ( through its parent Viacom ) which as mentioned above produced the Star Trek series-as the primary affiliation ( UPN's first program was Star Trek: Voyager ).

Viacom, a media conglomerate that includes CBS, UPN, MTV, BET, Comedy Central, Paramount Pictures and Showtime, absorbed CBS Corporation as of 2000.

The station was then sold to Paramount Stations Group ( which would become a subsidiary of Viacom that same year ) and became a charter UPN affiliate in 1995 ; that June, the longtime " TV 38 " branding was retired in favor of " UPN 38 ".