New World Communications

For the company controlled by Sun Myung Moon and his Unification Church which owns The Washington Times and United Press International, see News World Communications.

New World Communications was a major television production company and television station owner in the United States from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s. News Corporation became a major investor in 1994 and purchased the company outright in 1997; the alliance with NewsCorp helped to cement the Fox network as the fourth major U.S. television network. Although effectively defunct, it, along with various regional subsidiaries (i.e. "New World Communications of Atlanta"), continue to exist as holding companies within the complex NewsCorp corporate structure.

Company History

New World Pictures (1970-1990)

*1970 - The company was founded as New World Pictures, Ltd. by Roger Corman.
*1983 - Roger Corman sold the company to 3 people, Larry Kupin, Harry Sloane, and Larry A. Thompson. The company at this point went public. Later that year, Thompson left the company to form his own company.
*1985 - New World created three new divisions:
**New World International - Distribution of New World content outside the United States.
**New World Television - Television program production unit (its first output was the soap opera Santa Barbara and the made for TV movie Playing With Fire).
**New World Video - Home video distributor for mainly New World Pictures output.
*1986 - New World acquired Highgate Pictures, Learning Corporation of America, and Marvel Comics.
**The US theatrical release of Warriors of the Wind, a dub of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
*1989 - New World acquired Four Star International (a television production company). Also that year, New World faced a major financial slump and the company began to restructure; first the Marvel Comics division was sold to Ronald Perelman, and then the New World Pictures and New World Video divisions were shut down permanently.

New World Entertainment (1990-1993)

*1990 - Highgate Pictures and Learning Corporation of America were shut down. The company was on the verge of going out of business, so Perelman (who acquired Marvel from New World a year earlier) purchased the company, renaming the firm New World Entertainment with a focus on television production.
*1992 - Perelman acquired bankrupt television station group SCI Television from George Gillett.
*Current - Anchor Bay Entertainment owns the video rights to most of the New World Pictures/Entertainment theatrical and television library; other aspects of the library are noted below.

New World Communications (1993-1997)

*1993 - New World Entertainment purchased stakes in program distributor Genesis Entertainment and infomercial producer Guthy-Renker. Later that year, SCI (Storer Communications Inc) Television was folded into New World, and the company changed its name to New World Communications. The television station group was originally comprised of KNSD (NBC - San Diego), WAGA (CBS - Atlanta), WJBK (CBS - Detroit), WITI (CBS - Milwaukee), WJW (CBS - Cleveland), WSBK (Independent - Boston), and WTVT (CBS - Tampa).
*1994 brought a number of major deals involving New World:
**The year began with the acquisition of Argyle Television (the first one; the company was resurrected with mid-market stations after the New World deal). Argyle's stations included KDFW (CBS - Dallas), KTBC (CBS - Austin), KTVI (ABC - St. Louis), and WVTM (NBC - Birmingham).
**A month later, New World acquired the Citicasters television station division, comprised of KSAZ (CBS - Phoenix), WBRC (ABC - Birmingham), WDAF (NBC - Kansas City), WGHP (ABC - Greensboro), WKRC (ABC - Cincinnati), and WTSP (ABC - Tampa Bay). Because of FCC ownership rules at the time, New World decided to acquire WBRC and WGHP and then place them in a trust for sale to another company, and not take WKRC and WTSP.
**Less than a month after the Citicasters acquisition, and in the wake of Fox's acquisition of the rights to the National Football League games (announced some time earlier), News Corporation made a deal with New World which sent the Fox affiliations to most of New World's stations, except for WSBK-TV (which was later sold off to Viacom because News Corp. already owned another station in Boston). In addition to that, two other stations did not change to Fox. WVTM did not switch because WBRC would be sold to News Corp. directly, and would take the Fox affiliation when its ABC contract expired. KNSD did not switch to Fox because Fox was already on VHF in San Diego. Both stations retained their NBC affiliations.
**Later that year, the late Brandon Tartikoff joined the company, and as a result New World acquired his production company. Also, New World acquired the remainder of Genesis Entertainment, which gave New World television distribution capabilities as well as production.
*1995 - New World sold off WSBK in Boston to Viacom. As well, Genesis Entertainment was renamed New World-Genesis Distribution. Later, it signed a distribution deal with NBC which also called for ten-year NBC affiliation renewals on the Birmingham and San Diego stations. That year also brought in the acquisition of Cannell Entertainment and Premiere Magazine as well.
*1996 - New World announced the sale of the Birmingham (WVTM) and San Diego (KNSD) NBC affiliates to NBC. (NBC has since sold WVTM to Media General.) In July of that year, News Corporation announced the purchase of the remainder of New World Communications.
*1997 - In January, NewsCorp completed the acquisition of New World, with its television stations placed in the Fox Television Stations division. After the acquisition, New World's production division was shut down; it was able to finish production on existing programs up until that May. One program originally co-produced by New World continues to this day: Access Hollywood, now produced and distributed solely by NBC Universal. Many other programs originally produced or distributed by New World are now distributed by either Fox (through Twentieth Television--their package includes The Big Valley), Warner Bros. Television (their package includes The Wonder Years), or Sony Pictures Television (their package includes Tour of Duty). In most cases, the individual successor companies normally include their logo in the closing credits in place of the New World globe.