Metromedia was established in 1956 after the DuMont Television Network ceased operations and its owned-and-operated stations were spun off into a separate company.

[2] DuMont had been in economic trouble throughout its existence, and was seriously undermined when ABC accepted a buyout offer from United Paramount Theaters in 1953.

The ABC-UPT deal gave ABC the resources to operate a national television service along the lines of CBS and NBC.

DuMont officials quickly realized the ABC-UPT deal put their network on life support, and agreed in principle to merge with ABC.

[18] In separate 1963 deals the company expanded into Los Angeles, buying first KTTV[19] and later KLAC and the original KLAC-FM (now KIIS-FM).

Metromedia spent the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s increasing its television and radio station portfolio, and continued to expand its syndication business.

[27] In 1979, Metromedia Producers Corporation had also reached a deal with Bob Stewart Productions for an exclusive co-producing agreement.

[28] In 1982, Metromedia made its biggest broadcasting purchase when it acquired WCVB-TV in Boston for $220 million, which at the time was the largest amount ever spent on a single television station property.

Kuralt chose to stay to with CBS; John Hart was also considered as an anchor, but ultimately the planned newscast never came to fruition.

[35] On May 4, 1985, Kluge announced the sale of Metromedia's television stations, and Metromedia Producers Corp., to News Corporation (owned by Australian newspaper publisher Rupert Murdoch) and 20th Century Fox Film Corporation (owned jointly by Murdoch and Marvin Davis) for $3.5 billion.

[38] Kluge also sold Metromedia's outdoor advertising firm, the Harlem Globetrotters, and the Ice Capades in 1985, its cellular phone and yellow pages divisions to the Southwestern Bell Corporation (now known as the second incarnation of AT&T, due to SBC's acquisition of AT&T Corporation in 2005) under the leadership of Zane Barnes, Robert G. Pope, and J.B. Ellis.

They also spun off the radio stations into a separate company (which took on the Metropolitan Broadcasting name)[39][40][41][42][citation needed] before they were sold to various other owners by the early 1990s.

[44][45] In 1983, Christine Craft, a former evening news co-anchor at KMBC-TV in Kansas City, sued Metromedia on claims of fraud and sexual discrimination.

After spending eight months at KMBC-TV in 1981, she was demoted to reporting assignment after a focus group study claimed Craft was "too old, too unattractive and not deferential to men" in the eyes of viewers.