New World Pictures (1970–1987) Founded on July 8, 1970,
New World Pictures, Ltd. was co-founded by
B-movie director
Roger Corman and his brother
Gene, following their departure from
American International Pictures (AIP). As the last remaining national low-budget film distributor at the time, New World quickly became one of the most successful independent companies in the nation. Corman hoped to continue AIP's formula at New World, making low-budget films by new talent and distributing them internationally. However, it started with only ten domestic offices, and one each in
Canada and the
United Kingdom; its films were distributed regionally by other companies. New World initially made
exploitation films such as
The Student Nurses and other small-scale productions. Corman helped launch the filmmaking careers of
Jonathan Demme (
Caged Heat,
Crazy Mama),
Jonathan Kaplan (
White Line Fever),
Ron Howard (
Grand Theft Auto),
Paul Bartel (
Death Race 2000) and
Joe Dante (
Piranha), all of whom made some of their early films as
interns for the company. On February 21, 1984, New World Pictures added 3 new pictures to produce a minimum of 14 releases per year, and had plans to start their regional network. In 1984, the company created three new divisions:
New World International, which would handle distribution of New World's productions outside the
United States;
New World Television, a production unit focusing on television programs (the first television programs produced by the unit were the
soap opera Santa Barbara and the
made-for-TV movie Playing With Fire); and
New World Video, which would handle home video distribution of films produced mainly by New World Pictures. It would eventually see the success of its video division in its first few months of operation. In 1986, New World acquired the post-production facility
Lions Gate Studios for $4.4 million, as well as the
Marvel Entertainment Group (MEG), the corporate parent of
Marvel Comics from the liquidated
Cadence Industries.
New World Entertainment (1987–1992) In July 1967,
William "Bill" Deneen left
Encyclopædia Britannica Films to start up the
Learning Corporation of America, a rival company with
Columbia Pictures. It would quickly become one of EBF's biggest rivals in the 16mm field. During his past decade with EBF, William Deneen's specialty was geography films. He was the owner of an independent film company since 1950, which was distributing through EBF until they absorbed his company and made him VP. Among his most famous in-depth looks of everyday life overseas were a series on
Japan,
Hungary and Communism and a trio shot on
Samuel Bronston's sets of
Fall of the Roman Empire, including
Claudius: Boy of Ancient Rome. Despite being made very economically, these were undoubtedly the most expensive-looking school films of the era. In 1987, New World acquired educational film company
Learning Corporation of America and independent film studio
Highgate Pictures. By this time New World Pictures changed its name to
New World Entertainment to better reflect its range of subsidiaries besides the film studio, including its purchase of
Marvel Comics, and partner Harry Sloan said that the name change would have the revised banner "more accurately reflects the business the company is in". Also that year New World almost purchased two toy companies,
Kenner Parker Toys and
Mattel, but both planned acquisitions never materialized (although
Tonka would acquire Kenner in 1987). Around this time, New World faced a significant financial slump, and the company began restructuring itself. This began with the sale of Marvel Entertainment Group to
Andrews Group (run by financier
Ronald Perelman) on January 6, 1989;
Marvel Productions was excluded from the sale. After a failed bid by
Giancarlo Parretti's
Pathé Communications, New World was sold to the Andrews Group in April 1989; Perelman indicated that, while New World's television operations would continue, their motion picture and home video activity would be cut back, if not scrapped entirely. The bulk of its film and home video holdings were sold in January 1990 to Trans-Atlantic Pictures, a newly formed production company founded by a consortium of former New World executives (Trans-Atlantic was sold to
Lakeshore Entertainment in 1996). Highgate Pictures and Learning Corporation of America were shut down in 1990. On October 7, 1991, New World sold much of its "network" television assets to
Sony Pictures Entertainment, who used these assets to relaunch
TriStar Television. Some television programs produced by New World such as
Santa Barbara and
The Wonder Years would remain in production by the company until their cancellations in 1993; New World would not return to producing programs for the major broadcast
television networks until early 1995.
New World Communications (1992–1997) On February 17, 1993, Perelman purchased a majority stake in SCI Television, taking over control of the company from
George Gillett. SCI's stations included CBS affiliates
WAGA-TV in
Atlanta,
WJBK-TV in
Detroit,
WJW-TV in
Cleveland,
WITI-TV in
Milwaukee;
NBC affiliate
KNSD in
San Diego; and
independent WSBK-TV in
Boston. The core of the group was the former television properties of
Storer Communications, which Gillett bought in 1987 financed through
junk bonds that soured after
Black Monday, putting him in a 10:1 debt-to-profit ratio.
WTVT in
Tampa, also affiliated with CBS and owned directly by Gillett, was included. Perelman folded SCI Television into New World Entertainment, forming New World Communications. In 1993, New World Entertainment purchased ownership stakes in
syndication distributor Genesis Entertainment through
Four Star Television and made a direct purchase of infomercial production company,
Guthy-Renker. The company agreed to purchase Argyle Television in May 1994 and its four stations: CBS affiliates
KTBC-TV in
Austin, Texas, and
KDFW-TV in
Dallas; NBC affiliate
WVTM-TV in
Birmingham, Alabama; and
ABC affiliate
KTVI in
St. Louis. Due to WBRC and WVTM being in the same market, New World opted to placed WBRC and WGHP in a
blind trust and sought buyers for both.
Affiliation agreement with Fox, acquisition by News Corporation, and transfer to Disney The biggest deal involving New World Communications would aid in changing the face of American broadcasting. In the wake of
Fox's landmark $1.58-billion deal with the
National Football League (NFL) on December 17, 1993, which awarded it the television rights to the
National Football Conference (NFC) beginning with the league's
1994 season, the network began seeking agreements with various station groups such as
SF Broadcasting to affiliate with
VHF stations that had established histories as affiliates of the
Big Three (ABC, CBS and NBC) and therefore had higher value with advertisers (compared to its predominately
UHF affiliate body, the vast majority of which were independent stations before joining the network), in an effort to bolster the network's newly acquired package of NFL game telecasts. Shortly after the Citicasters acquisition announcement, on May 23, 1994, New World Communications and Fox reached a multi-year affiliation agreement in which New World would switch most of its television stations to the network beginning that fall. The deal would include most of the stations that New World was acquiring from Argyle and Citicasters, with all of the affected stations joining Fox after existing affiliation contracts with their then-current network partners concluded. In exchange, Fox parent
News Corporation agreed to purchase a 20% interest in New World for $500 million. New World was approached by Fox in part due to the group's expanding presence in several primary and secondary markets of NFC teams. New World, meanwhile, was concerned about the effect that the network's loss of NFC rights to Fox would have on both CBS, which was near the bottom of the
network ratings at the time, and on the group's CBS-affiliated stations. The stations that became Fox affiliates had to acquire or produce additional programming to fill their broadcast days, as Fox programmed significantly fewer hours of network content (prime time programming for two hours on Monday through Saturdays and three hours on Sundays, the Monday through Saturday children's block
Fox Kids, and an hour of
late night programming on Saturdays) than its three established major network competitors; on top of that, most of the New World stations (with KTVI later becoming the lone exception) declined to carry the Fox Kids block. The time vacated by news programs, daytime shows and children's programs from each station's former network was filled by additional syndicated programming, particularly local newscasts. The deal as a whole (as well as a second affiliation agreement that was struck one month after the New World deal through the purchase of four stations by a joint venture with
Savoy Pictures) caused a
domino effect that resulted in various individual and group affiliation deals involving all four networks (primarily CBS, Fox, and ABC) affecting television stations in more than 70
media markets; in most of those areas, New World did not own a station. Three New World stations were excluded from the Fox affiliation deal. In Boston, where New World owned WSBK-TV, Fox was already affiliated with
WFXT (channel 25). WVTM was exempted in Birmingham, as, in the summer of 1995, New World sold WBRC and WGHP to
Fox Television Stations, with WBRC switching to Fox after its affiliation contract with ABC expired on August 31, 1996. KNSD (also a UHF station) also did not switch as Fox was already affiliated with a VHF station in the San Diego market,
Tijuana,
Baja California,
Mexico-based
XETV-TV (channel 6). KNSD and WVTM retained their NBC affiliations, although in 1995, its contract was renewed for 10 years. New World planned to sell all 3 stations as well, to comply with the FCC's 12-station ownership limit. In November 1994, New World sold WSBK-TV to the
Paramount Stations Group subsidiary of
Viacom for $100 million. Later that year,
Brandon Tartikoff, who helped NBC out of its ratings doldrums in the 1980s in his former role as President of Entertainment at NBC, joined New World Communications in an executive position; concurrently, New World acquired Tartikoff's
production company Moving Target Productions. New World also acquired the remaining interest in Genesis Entertainment, which expanded upon New World's production assets into television distribution (Genesis has subsequently renamed New World-Genesis Distribution following the closure of the purchase). After New World took over Moving Target Productions, the production company was renamed to MT2 Services. In 1995, Stone Stanley Productions was signed an exclusive agreement with New World Entertainment. 1995 also saw the acquisitions of
Cannell Entertainment and entertainment magazine
Premiere. In May 1996, New World sold WVTM and KNSD to
NBC Television Stations for $425 million. On July 17, 1996, Fox parent News Corporation announced it would acquire the remainder of New World Communications for $2.48 billion in stock. When the merger with News Corporation was finalized on January 22, 1997, New World's television production and distribution arms folded into
20th Century Fox Television and
20th Television, respectively and the former New World television stations were transferred into its Fox Television Stations subsidiary, turning the former group's 12 Fox affiliates into owned-and-operated stations of the network, joining WGHP and WBRC. The
New World Animation and Marvel Films Animation libraries were acquired by
Saban Entertainment and
Fox Kids Worldwide (in turn acquired by Disney through its 2001 purchase of Fox Family Worldwide) following News Corporation's acquisition of New World. As part of the
acquisition of 21st Century Fox by The Walt Disney Company, the New World library was transferred to TFCF America, Inc., a subsidiary of
The Walt Disney Company, effective March 20, 2019, while the New World holding companies remained with
Fox Corporation. == Legacy ==