Viacom
ViacomCBS is a major media corporation which owns several prominent American television networks, among them Comedy Central, as well as the movie studio Paramount Pictures and its TV unit Paramount Television. Owned by Sumner Redstone, Viacom has taken a strong stance against internet copyright infringement, and has filed suit against Google and YouTube along with several other class action plaintiffs.
The current Viacom was founded in December 2005 as a spinoff from CBS Corporation (the original Viacom), which was founded in 1971 as Viacom Enterprises after its predecessor, syndication company CBS Enterprises, was spun off by original owner (and now CBS Corporation subsidiary) CBS after the Federal Communications Commission ruled in 1970 that the then-Big Three American broadcast networks (CBS, ABC and NBC) could no longer distribute their own programs for off-network syndication or produce programs for first-run syndication due to the FCC's concerns about the Big Three monopolizing the broadcast landscape. In December 2019, CBS and Viacom remerged, forming ViacomCBS. ViacomCBS is owned by movie theatre exhibition company National Amusements.
