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Skydance Content Sales is the international television distribution arm of American media conglomerate, Skydance Corporation, originally established in 1962 as the international d…
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Investigate this subjectSkydance Content Sales is the international television distribution arm of American media conglomerate, Skydance Corporation, originally established in 1962 as the international distribution division of Desilu Productions. With the sale of Desilu to Gulf+Western, then-owners of film studio Paramount Pictures, in 1968, the division evolved into Paramount's first foray into the international televi…
Skydance Content Sales is the international television distribution arm of American media conglomerate, Skydance Corporation, originally established in 1962 as the international distribution division of Desilu Productions. With the sale of Desilu to Gulf+Western, then-owners of film studio Paramount Pictures, in 1968, the division evolved into Paramount's first foray into the international television industry in the 1970s.
The division handles the distribution of television content from the libraries of Paramount Media Networks, Paramount Television Studios, CBS Studios, CBS Media Ventures, Warner Bros Television , HBO Max and Paramount+.
The division as well as Paramount International Television was originally established in 1962 as the international distribution division of Desilu Productions, Desilu International, which was managed by Bruce Gordon. The company co-produced The Lost Islands with the Ten Network (now Network 10) in 1975. Network 10 and this division have been in common ownership since 2019 after the ViacomCBS re-merger. In 1983, it acquired distribution rights to the Australian miniseries, Return to Eden.
In 1967, Desilu was sold to Gulf+Western, the then-owners of the film studio Paramount Pictures, adding international television to its well-known film operations. Gulf+Western rebranded the division as Paramount Television International to handle international sales of Desilu/Paramount properties from Paramount Television. The following year, John Pearson, who had run Desilu/Paramount's international operations, was fired. He proceeded to form his own company, John Pearson International, whose purpose was continue distributing the sitcom Here's Lucy for the international market.
In 1987, the company, along with MCA TV International, signed an agreement with China Central Television (CCTV), to offer a total of 100 drama hours. The deal, the largest license ever granted to Chinese television in that era, made the two Hollywood studios the largest suppliers of foreign production for that country. In 1990, it briefly considered an investment in Australia's Nine Network.
In 1986, Paramount Television International formed a partnership that would exploit the rights to the Madison Square Garden properties. In 1995, Paramount International Television launched a joint venture to be headed by Peter Press. In 1998, James Dowaliby was tapped to be vice president of production and Christopher Ottinger was named vice president of business development at the division. Later that year, Paramount announced plans to enter international co-production.
In 2000, the division was touted to develop and co-produce Jeremiah with Lions Gate Television, but was replaced by MGM Television.
In 1981, CBS launched its international division, CBS Broadcast International, to sell news, sports and entertainment programming produced in-house to foreign markets as well as non-broadcast and new technology markets in the United States. It eventually merged into CBS Worldwide Enterprises and later incorporated into its marketing unit CBS Productions (unrelated to the later company of the same name) with CBS Theatrical Films in August 1984. In the summer of 1985, CBS Productions, CBS News and Columbia House partnered to produce a videocassette The Vietnam War with Walter Cronkite.
Later that year, CBS shut down its theatrical production unit and CBS Broadcast International spun-out from the production unit, restoring the CBS Broadcast International moniker in the process. In 1985, it sold a package of its productions to China Central Television, in an attempt at introducing TV series and sports from the western world, as Chinese television had limited international content at the time. It planned to provide the CBS Evening News bulletins to UK-based British Satellite Broadcasting in 1988.
CBS Broadcast International produced syndicated episodes of the television series, The Twilight Zone in 1985. It then signed a partnership agreement with MGM/UA Telecommunications 2 years later to syndicate its episodes from all 2 seasons with 30 new first-run episodes to form a 90-episode syndication package. On 28 October that same year, CBS Broadcast International announced its acquisition of television and ancillary market rights to four Academy Award/Oscar-winning films produced by Arthur Cohn such as Dangerous Moves, Black and White in Color, The Garden of the Finzi Continis and The Sky Above, The Mud Below. It also announced plans to pick up the bulletins of CBS Evening News with Dan Rather which would place it on a tape-delayed basis on international channel Tele Monte Carlo.
CBS Broadcast International launched a global programming alliance with Virgin Media Television in 1997. That following year, Stephanie Pacheco was named the managing director of international sales of the division.
CBS Broadcast International and Paramount International Television merged on August 11, 2004 to create CBS Paramount International Television and would be headed by Armando Nuarez Jr. The division was transferred to CBS Corporation when CBS spun off from Viacom on January 1, 2006, with television rights to the films from its sister company, Paramount Pictures, obtained by Trifecta Entertainment and Media. With the December 4, 2019 merger of CBS and Viacom, the television rights to Paramount's films were brought back to the now-combined Paramount Global. The company distributes television content from the libraries of CBS Studios, the King World Productions and certain HBO shows internationally the Rysher Entertainment library, the latter owned domestically by 2929 Entertainment.
In May 2009, CPITV was renamed CBS Studios International. On 14 September that year, CBS Studios International struck a joint venture deal with Chellomedia to launch six CBS-branded channels in the UK which would replace Zone Romantica, Zone Thriller, Zone Horror and Zone Reality, plus timeshift services Zone Horror +1 and Zone Reality +1. The replacement channe
Source: Paramount Global Content Distribution (CC BY-SA)
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