Paramount Television Network was a venture by American film corporation Paramount Pictures to organize a television network in the late 1940s. The company built television stations KTLA in Los Angeles and WBKB in Chicago. It also invested USD 400,000 in the DuMont Television Network, which operated stations WABD in New York City, WTTG in Washington, D. C. and WDTV in Pittsburgh. Escalating disputes between Paramount and DuMont concerning breaches of contract, company control, and network competition erupted regularly between 1940 and 1956. Paramount executives eventually gave up on the idea of a TV network, and continued to produce series for other networks.
About Paramount Television Network in brief
Paramount Television Network was a venture by American film corporation Paramount Pictures to organize a television network in the late 1940s. The company built television stations KTLA in Los Angeles and WBKB in Chicago. It also invested USD 400,000 in the DuMont Television Network, which operated stations WABD in New York City, WTTG in Washington, D. C. and WDTV in Pittsburgh. Escalating disputes between Paramount and DuMont concerning breaches of contract, company control, and network competition erupted regularly between 1940 and 1956. The Paramount Television Network aired several programs, including the Emmy Award-winning children’s series Time for Beany. In 1995, after four decades of television production for other companies, Paramount re-entered the broadcast network field when the company and Chris-Craft Industries launched the United Paramount Network that operated until 2006. Paramount’s longtime television division is now owned by CBS Television Studios, and it has since founded a second version of Paramount Television under Viacom ownership. Both of these are now part of ViacoCBS. KTLA began commercial broadcasts on January 22, 1947; its first evening broadcast was hosted by Bob Hope and featured Kirk Douglas, William Bendix, Dorothy Lamour, William Demarest, Ray Milland and Cecil B. DeMille. Although other Los Angeles stations operated commercial licenses, KTLA had a head start as the first commercially-licensed television station in the city. The revenue stream from KTLA helped fund more professional programming, therefore generating a large viewership. The popularity of KTLA’s local programs opened up the possibility that they would become national hits if released to other stations across the country.
The network signed affiliation agreements with more than 50 television stations in 1950; despite this, most of Paramount’s series were not widely viewed outside the West Coast. Despite Paramount’s partial ownership of DuMont, Paramount’s two stations never aired television programs from DuMont’s television network, and competed against DuMont’s affiliates in LA and Chicago. The Federal Communications Commission filed suit against Paramount for antitrust violations, prevented the studio from acquiring additional television stations. Paramount executives eventually gave up on the idea of a TV network, and continued to produce series for other networks. Paramount was the target of several antitrust lawsuits by the federal government, culminating with U.S. vs. Paramount Pictures, et al. , which found that Paramount and other studios conducted monopolistic practices. Due to this Supreme Court decision, the Federal Communications commission forced Paramount to sell off its theater division in 1949. The company became one of the \”big five\” Hollywood studios. The following year, Paramount purchased a minority interest in DuMont Laboratories, a pioneer in early television technology founded by Dr. Allen B. DuMont. The stock in Du Mont gave Paramount full orpartial ownership of four of the first nine TV stations in the United States. Despite this, Paramount never aired any DuMont television programs on KTLA or WBKB, and never aired DuMont programs on WBKB.
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