Viacom Inc.[a] (derived from "Video & Audio Communications") was an American mass media and entertainment conglomerate based in New York City.

[3] At the time of its split, Viacom's assets included the CBS and UPN broadcast networks, the Paramount Pictures film and television studio, local radio station operator CBS Radio, cable channels such as MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET and Showtime, outdoor media operator Viacom Outdoor, television production and distribution firm King World Productions, and book publisher Simon & Schuster.

[8][9] On December 1, 1967, it again renamed as CBS Enterprises Inc..[10][11] On July 6, 1970, it announced that CBS Enterprises would be spun out from its parent company,[12] and the same month the division was incorporated as Viacom,[13][14][15][16][17] and spun off on January 1, 1971,[18] amid new FCC rules forbidding television networks from owning syndication companies (the rules were later repealed).

[21] Viacom's first broadcast station acquisition came in 1978 when the company purchased WHNB-TV in New Britain, Connecticut, changing its call letters to WVIT.

[31] In 1989, the company had set up its own division Viacom Pictures, to produce its feature films for television, most notably Showtime.

[32] Sumner Redstone, via his theater chain operator National Amusements, acquired a controlling interest in Viacom on June 10, 1987.

[34] The Paramount and Blockbuster acquisitions gave Viacom access to large television holdings: An archive of programming controlled by Aaron Spelling's company which included, along with his own productions, the pre-1973 ABC and NBC libraries under Worldvision Enterprises and Republic Pictures; and an expanded group of television stations which merged Viacom's five existing outlets into Paramount's seven-station group.

Viacom used some of these stations to launch the UPN network, which started operations in January 1995 as a joint venture with Chris-Craft Industries.

In 1997, Viacom exited the broadcast radio business, albeit temporarily, when it sold the majority of its stations to Chancellor Media, a predecessor company of iHeartMedia.

In addition to being the largest media merger in history at the time, the purchase effectively reunited Viacom with its former parent, CBS.

[35][36] The merger was completed in May 2000, bringing CBS's cable channels TNN (now Paramount Network) and Country Music Television (CMT) under Viacom's MTV Networks wing, as well as CBS's production and distribution units Eyemark Entertainment (formerly Group W Productions) and King World under the main wing.

In 2002, Viacom's MTV Networks International bought independently run Dutch music video channel TMF, which at the time was broadcasting in Belgium and the Netherlands.

From its formation until 1995, Viacom operated several cable television systems generally located in the Dayton, San Francisco, Nashville and Seattle metropolitan areas.

The internal rivalry between CBS chairman Les Moonves and MTV Networks chief executive officer Tom Freston, and the controversy of the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show were also seen as factors.

The division also licenses the product rights for their various properties and the dissemination of visual and textual television programs on a subscription/fee basis.