Viacom

From TeeVeePedia, the Internet TV Encyclopedia.

Viacom was the corporate syndication arm of CBS for many years. Founded in 1971, Viacom's goal was to "encourage" CBS affiliates to air current and former CBS programming whenever possible by threatening to send a giant "V" after their families or make continually annoying "wigga wigga" sounds if they didn't. Viacom executives did their job well; in fact, perhaps a little too well. By 1999, Viacom had acquired enough wealth and power to buy CBS outright. Once in charge, Viacom executives went on a spending spree, purchasing numerous cable television networks including MTV, BET and UPN.

In 2004, Viacom bought the rights to The Super Bowl, a move that soon backfired due to an unfortunate incident. Viacom's executives were removed from the CBS corporate board and exiled to TV Land. Today, Viacom is in charge of CW and several dozen unrelated cable networks, none of which are very successful.