Viacom (2005-2019)

Viacom
Founded	2005 (spun off from the original Viacom, later known as CBS Corporation)
President	Philippe P. Dauman
Notable Works	MTV Networks, BET Networks, Paramount Television Studios

For the "original" Viacom, active 1971–2005, see Paramount Global.

Viacom was one of the worlds largest media and entertainment corporations only behind The Walt Disney Company, WarnerMedia and 21st Century Fox.

History

The second Viacom was created on December 31, 2005, when it was spun off from the "original" Viacom, later known as CBS Corporation. While the CBS network and Showtime remained part of CBS Corporation, most other Viacom networks were brought over to the "new" Viacom, alongside Paramount Pictures.

The Viacom networks were managed through two company divisions, BET Networks and MTV Networks.

On September 29, 2016, Viacom parent National Amusements announced that it was seeking to encourage Viacom and co-owned CBS Corporation to re-merge into one company, which would remain under the ownership of National Amusements, which also announced that it would not accept any offers from outside companies to acquire control of that company, Viacom or CBS Corporation.

Current television assets

Viacom's television assets were separated into two divisions:

• MTV Networks (acquired by the original Viacom in 1986).
• BET Networks (acquired by the original Viacom in 2003).

Viacom also had ownership of a new version of Paramount Television (now Paramount Television Studios), which was relaunched on March 4, 2013. [1] The original Paramount Television, which was owned by Viacom's similarly-named predecessor (later CBS Corporation) from 1994 to 2006 (when it merged with CBS Productions to become CBS Paramount Television), is now CBS Studios. Through its international division Viacom International Media Networks, it also had ownership of British TV network Channel 5 (which is now under Paramount Global ownership).