Major US media corporation which began in 1928 as the small radio station Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). Under the management of William Paley, the CBS network grew rapidly and in 1938 the company acquired the American Recording Corporation, which later became Columbia Records. Many well-known radio stars signed by CBS successfully transferred to television, making the company the dominant network until the late 1970s. It had gradually diversified into publishing and other areas, but during 19858 the company sold off these operations and Columbia Records was bought by the Sony Corporation. In 1995, amid falling television ratings, CBS was sold to the Westinghouse Electric Corporation which dropped its own corporate name and assumed the name CBS Corporation in 1997.
| CBS Corporation | |
| Type |
Public (NYSE: CBS) National Amusements owns a controlling amount of voting shares |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1986 |
| Headquarters | New York, New York, USA |
| Key people |
Sumner Redstone, Chairman Leslie Moonves, President & Publishing |
| Products | CBS, The CW, CBS Radio, more... |
| Revenue | $14.536 billion USD (2005) |
| Operating income | -$6.818 billion USD (2005) |
| Net income | -$7.089 billion USD (2005) |
| Employees | |
| Website | www.cbscorporation.com |
CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS) is an American media conglomerate focused on broadcasting, publishing, billboards, and television production, with most of its operations in the United States.
History
Viacom was created in 1970 as the television syndication division of CBS, and was spun off in 1971. also owned CMT and The Nashville Network (now Spike TV), which remained Viacom properties after the 2005 split, but the prior CBS did not own UPN, Showtime, Paramount Television, Paramount Parks, or Simon and Schuster.
In March 2005, Viacom announced plans of looking into splitting the company into two publicly traded companies, amid issues of the stock price stagnating (although it was alleged that another main force behind the split was the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy, which led to MTV not being allowed to produce any more halftime shows, they had also produced the show for Super Bowl XXXV, the first Super Bowl CBS aired since regaining NFL rights and become MTV's corporate sibling). The CBS Corporation name would be revived for one of the companies, to be headed by longtime television executive (and Viacom co-President) Leslie Moonves, and would include CBS, UPN, Infinity Broadcasting, Viacom Outdoor, Showtime Networks, and Paramount's television studio.
The split was structured such that the "new" Viacom was spun off from the "old" Viacom, which was renamed CBS Corporation. The CBS network ran an advertisement stating that the CBS Corporation would exist "beginning on January 3, 2006," (likely referring to be beginning of trading on the New York Stock Exchange), but the websites of the CBS Corporation and Viacom were split beforehand, with a notice on both sites stating that it officially occurred on December 31, 2005.
On January 24, 2006, CBS announced that UPN would shut down in collaboration with the shutdown of Time Warner's The WB network and that the two companies would launch The CW as a replacement for both networks, effective September 18, 2006.
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