Paramount history

Then in 1914, along with Jesse L. Lasky’s Feature Play Company, Famous Players began distributing films through W. W. Hodkinson’s Paramount Pictures Corporation.

Come 1916 the three companies merged into Famous Players-Lasky.

In 1916 Zukor and Lasky merged their companies to form the Famous Players–Lasky Corporation and acquired Paramount to distribute their films. Its early hits included the first “big western,” The Covered Wagon (1923), and The Ten Commandments (1923), a biblical epic directed by Cecil B. DeMille.

In 1926, Lasky supervised the construction of a new Hollywood studio, which was the foundation of the Paramount Pictures studio lot today.

By 1927, the name of the studio was changed to the Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation.

Wings (1928) receives the very first Academy Award for Best Picture from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

1931 CBS’ first television station, W2XAB, begins broadcasting.

1937 CBS is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

1940 W2XAB transmits the first color TV broadcast in the United States from a transmitter atop the Chrysler building.

As with Hitchcock’s 1944 film Lifeboat, which takes place entirely at sea, Rear Window presented the director with an opportunity to craft a suspense picture within a very confined space.

1948 WCAU-Philadelphia is the first CBS Television Network affiliate.

Paramount Pictures, Inc. which banned movie studios from owning movie theaters, splitting Paramount up into two seperate companies, one for film distribution and one for theater exhibition founded in 1949 called United Paramount Theaters.

Throughout the early 50s, Paramount dominated the Academy Award nominee lists with enduring classics, including Sunset Boulevard, The Greatest Show on Earth (1952 Academy Winner), Shane, The Rose Tattoo and DeMille’s remake of The Ten Commandments.

Rear Window, American thriller film, released in 1954, that is considered one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most suspenseful movies.

1956 CBS broadcasts its first Masters®, which later becomes the longest-running annual sports event presented on one network.

1960 CBS is the first network to broadcast the Olympics in the United States, with the Winter Games in Squaw Valley, Calif.

1961 CBS Sports becomes a division of the CBS Television Network.

Gulf + Western bought Paramount in 1966 and restored the studio’s success with acclaimed star-driven hits and high concept pictures.

1967 CBS begins broadcasting all of its programs in color.

1970 Viacom, a division of CBS, becomes incorporated.

1985 VH1, MTV’s sister channel, launches.

Meanwhile Gulf+Western was starting to become an unpopular investment in the eighties but since Paramount was one of their few successful assets, G+W sold off many of its subsidiaries and got renamed Paramount Communications Incorporated in 1989.

1992 MTV debuts "The Real World," the network’s pioneering reality TV series.

1993 Viacom acquires major Hollywood studio Paramount Pictures.

It became a subsidiary of Viacom in 1994.

1997 CBS Corporation is established, uniting CBS and Westinghouse Electric Corporation.

2000 The Viacom and CBS merger is complete.

2001 Viacom acquires BET.

2005 Viacom launches Logo, the first ad-supported TV channel aimed at the LGBT community.

2007 Viacom 18, one of India’s fastest growing entertainment networks, is founded.

These updates include a new post production sound facility built in conjunction with Technicolor (now part of Formosa Group), which opened in December, 2011.

CBS All Access was launched on October 28, 2014, priced at US$5.99 per month with advertising and $9.99 per month without.

2015 CBS All Access, CBS’ subscription OTT streaming service, debuts.

On December 1, 2016, CBS announced an agreement with the NFL to allow clearance of regional NFL games carried by CBS on CBS All Access from Week 13 of the 2016 NFL season on.

As of February 2017, the service had nearly 1.5 million subscribers.

Buoyed by Star Trek: Discovery, CBS All Access reached over 2 million subscribers by early 2018.

On November 25, 2019, as part of the re-merger between CBS Corporation and Viacom, CBS All Access announced the inclusion of programming from Nickelodeon, as part of the wider launch of children's programming on the service, with other partners including Boat Rocker Studios and WildBrain.

On May 7, 2020, CBS All Access began adding more films to the service, starting with more than 100 from Paramount Pictures, and ViacomCBS announced that CBS All Access will expand internationally within twelve months.

On January 19, 2021, it was announced that Paramount+ would launch on March 4, 2021, with information being released on February 24, 2021 during an investor event.