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Universal's Market Share in US and Canada in 2021 was 14%.
TV Following many years of experimental transmission starting in 1928, in 1939 RCA opened TV station W2XBS (since 1960 WNBC) at the opening of the New York's World Fair.
In 1986 General Electric reacquired RCA (and NBC) and sold off its Radio networks.
In 2004 amid a major financial crisis caused by over-expansion, Universal Studios' parent company, a division of the French company Vivendi Universal, sold an 80% stake to NBC's parent company General Electric, forming NBC Universal.
In 2013 Comcast (Xfinity) the largest cable TV and home ISP company in the US, purchased NBC Universal from General Electric.
In 1953 a spin-off company Paramount Theatres purchased struggling Radio and Television network ABC. ABC had initially been started in 1927 as an NBC-operated radio network called the NBC Blue Network. It became independent in 1943, renaming itself as ABC and launching its first TV station in Philadelphia in 1948. In 1954, AB-PT made a deal with Walt Disney to provide capital for his proposed Disneyland amusement park.
Following major success in the 1970s, ABC was purchased by the much smaller company Capital Cities in 1986. It was acquired by the Walt Disney Company in 1996.
In 1976 Paramount launched Showtime cable television, competing with Home Box Office HBO, see below under Warners.
Paramount also had close ties with Radio and Television Broadcasting network CBS on and off through the years and the two companies merged in 2019. CBS had just purchased Channel 10 in Australia, in 2017.
Paramount's Market Share in US and Canada in 2021 was 6%.
In 1972, Warner Brothers became Warner Communications, purchasing a number of major cable channels. In 1991 it merged with Time, becoming Time Warner, and in the process acquired HBO (Home Box Office), the original cable movie channel founded in 1972. In 1996 Time Warner acquired Turner Broadcasting System with distribution rights to all of Ted Turner's classic movie library from MGM, see MGM below.
In 2018 Time Warner was acquired by AT&T briefly, before its sale and merger with Discovery in April 2022.
Market Share in US and Canada in 2021 was 14%.
Fox Films arrived in Hollywood in 1916 from New Jersey. Fox merged with 20th Century Pictures to form
In 1985 it was purchased by News Corporation (Rupert Murdoch) founder of the
News Corporation has retained the FOX TV network after the sale of the studios to Disney.
RKO Radio Pictures (RKO) (1928–1959) owned by RCA, was originally one of the Big Five studios. It was bought by Howard Hughes in 1948, was mismanaged and dismantled, and was pretty much defunct by the 1957 studio lot sale. It has been revived several times as an independent studio, with most recent film releases in 2012 and 2015.
United Artists (UA) (1919–1981) was the third of the Little Three major minor studios, originally only a distributor for independent film producers. Acquired by MGM in 1981. Its most famous brand is the James Bond franchise starting with Dr No in 1962.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (Marcus Loew's MGM) (1924–1986) was probably at the top of the Big Five studios in the 1930s and 1940s. It was acquired by Ted Turner in 1986, who sold the studio back to Kirk Kerkorian that year while retaining MGM's pre-May 1986 library. Sold to Sony in 2005 it became a mini-major studio. Emerged twice from bankruptcy in the 2010s. Since March 2022 it is owned by Amazon.
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