Paramount Domestic Television

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Paramount Domestic Television (PDT) was the television distribution arm of American television production company Paramount Television, once the TV arm of Paramount Pictures. It was formed in 1982 as Paramount Domestic Television and Video Programming, the successor to Paramount Television Domestic Distribution, Paramount Television Sales, and Desilu Sales.

Initially, it distributed the back library of Paramount Television and the post-1960 shows by Desilu, and several first-run syndicated shows. Originally, the company (like other sister companies sharing the Paramount name) was owned by Gulf+Western, which was reincorporated as Paramount Communications in 1989. After that company was sold to Viacom in 1994, it absorbed the distribution functions of Viacom Enterprises the next year. Viacom had distributed the classic CBS library which included the pre-1960 Desilu library, alongside its own in-house productions (like Diagnosis: Murder and The Montel Williams Show), and the Carsey-Werner Productions library. As a result, series that had ended with Viacom closing logos now showed the Paramount mountain at the end.

In 1999, Viacom acquired several other TV production firms such as Spelling Entertainment/Republic Pictures (which owned Spelling Television, Worldvision Enterprises and Big Ticket Entertainment) and Rysher Entertainment (or at least its library). As a result, the size of Paramount's TV library more than tripled, giving PDT a slew of new series to distribute. Then the next year, PDT bought syndication rights to Spin City, a sitcom produced by DreamWorks Television - this was a precursor to Viacom buying parent company DreamWorks in 2005.

After Viacom split into two companies - one called Viacom and the other CBS Corporation - Paramount's TV operations became part of the latter company. As a result, Paramount Domestic Television became CBS Paramount Domestic Television. That was in turn merged with King World Productions in 2007 to become CBS Television Distribution.