New World Communications

New World Pictures logo from the mid and late 1980s; New World's other divisions used similar logos

New World Pictures was an independent motion picture and television production company, and later 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 News Corporation 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 Tampa"), continue to exist as holding companies within the complex NewsCorp corporate structure.

Company history

New World Pictures (1970-1987)

• 1970 - The company was founded as New World Pictures, Ltd., by movie producer Roger Corman.
• 1983 - Corman sold the company to Larry Kupin, Harry Sloane, and Larry A. Thompson, who take the company public. Later that year, Thompson left the company to form his own firm.
• 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 U.S. theatrical release of Warriors of the Wind, a dub of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

New World Entertainment (1987-1993)

• 1987 - New World Pictures changes its name to New World Entertainment to better reflect the company's other divisions besides the film studio; including its purchase of Marvel Comics. Also that year New World almost bought two toy companies, Kenner and Mattel, but both planned acquisitions never materialized.
• 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 financier Ronald Perelman, and then the New World Pictures and New World Video divisions were shut down permanently.
• 1990 - Highgate Pictures and Learning Corporation of America were shut down. The company was on the verge of going out of business, and Ron Perelman (who acquired Marvel from New World a year earlier) purchased the company.
• 1991 - New World sold much of its non-Marvel television program library to Sony Pictures Entertainment, which Sony later used to reactivate TriStar Television.
• 1992 - Perelman acquired bankrupt television station group SCI Television from George Gillett.

New World Communications (1993-1997)

See also: Fox affiliate switches of 1994

In 1993, New World Entertainment purchased stakes in program distributor Genesis Entertainment and infomercial producer Guthy-Renker. Later that year, GCI Broadcast Services, Inc. (formerly known as Gillett Communications, and previously Storer Broadcasting) was folded into New World, and the company changed its name to New World Communications. The television station group was originally composed of:

• WAGA-TV - Atlanta;
• WSBK-TV - Boston;
• WJBK-TV - Detroit;
• WJW-TV - Cleveland;
• WITI-TV - Milwaukee;
• KNSD - San Diego;
• and WTVT - Tampa.

A number of major deals involved New World in 1994, including one which would change the face of American broadcasting. The year began with the acquisition of Argyle Television (formerly Times-Mirror Broadcasting, and partially related to Argyle Television Holdings II, which merged with Hearst Broadcasting to form Hearst-Argyle Television in 1997). Argyle's stations included:

• KTBC-TV - Austin, Texas;
• WVTM-TV - Birmingham, Alabama;
• KDFW-TV - Dallas; and
• KTVI - St. Louis.

A month later, New World acquired four stations from Citicasters (formerly known as Taft Broadcasting):

• WBRC-TV - Birmingham, Alabama;
• WGHP - High Point, North Carolina;
• WDAF-TV - Kansas City, Missouri;
• and KSAZ-TV - Phoenix.

Because of Federal Communications Commission 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. That company would eventually be the News Corporation, who purchased the two stations in 1995.

Less than a month after the Citicasters acquisition, and in the wake of Fox's acquisition of the rights to National Football League games (announced some time earlier), News Corporation (Fox's parent company) made a deal with New World which moved the Fox affiliations to most of New World's stations.

Three New World stations were not included in the Fox deal. In Boston, where New World owned WSBK-TV, Fox was already affiliated with WFXT, a station it would later reacquire. In Birmingham, WVTM was not included because WBRC would be sold to Fox directly, and would switch to Fox when its affiliation contract with ABC expired. And, in San Diego, KNSD did not switch because Fox was already on a VHF station, Tijuana, Mexico-based XETV. Both KNSD and WVTM retained their NBC affiliations.

Later that year, former NBC Entertainment president 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.

In 1995, New World sold WSBK-TV in Boston to Viacom. As well, Genesis Entertainment was renamed New World-Genesis Distribution. Later, it signed a distribution deal with NBC (Access Hollywood was the only program that came out of the deal, it is now distributed by NBC Universal Television) 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.

In 1996 New World sold the Birmingham and San Diego stations to NBC. In July of that year, News Corporation announced the purchase of the remainder of New World Communications.

In January 1997, News Corporation completed its acquisition of New World Communications, and New World's television stations placed in the Fox Television Stations division. Though most of the new stations switched their incorporation names to reflect their new Fox ownership, several of the former New World stations continue to use the New World Communications of (city/region name), Inc. name for d/b/a and licensing purposes only.

After the acquisition, New World's production division was shut down; it was able to finish production on existing programs up until that May. In most cases, the individual successor companies normally include their logo in the closing credits in place of the New World globe.

Current rights to New World Pictures/Entertainment/Television library

1971-1983 films

• TV - CBS Television Distribution
• Video - New Horizons Home Video

1984-1991 films

• TV - Warner Bros. Television and Lakeshore Entertainment
• Video - Anchor Bay Entertainment

Television programs

• Broadcast - 20th Television (The Big Valley, Real Stories of the Highway Patrol); Lakeshore Entertainment; NBC Universal Television Distribution (Access Hollywood); Sony Pictures Television (Get a Life, Tour of Duty); Warner Bros. Television (Crime Story, The Wonder Years); Anchor Bay Entertainment (Sledge Hammer!); Disney, previously Saban Entertainment (Marvel Action Hour, Spider-Man, Iron Man, the pre-1992 library of Marvel Productions/Marvel Films [excluding licensed properties like The Transformers, Muppet Babies, etc.], and the all-original pre-1981 DePatie-Freleng made-for-TV cartoon library); pre-1994 first-run and off-net syndicated programming from Genesis Entertainment (later New World-Genesis Distribution); and New World's station group.
• Video/DVD - 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment; Anchor Bay Entertainment; Rhino Home Video; Sony Pictures Home Entertainment; and Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.

Former New World-owned television stations

*--Station owned by a third party but operated by KDFW-TV under a local marketing agreement.

**--Stations acquired with the purchases of KSAZ-TV and WDAF-TV, but placed in a trust for sale to another company (which turned out to be Fox). New World continued to provide management oversight for these two stations until Fox took over via time-brokerage agreements several months later.

Partial filmography

External links

• News Corporation
• New World Communications at the Internet Movie Database