The fun is just beginning as we're warming up to the last real act of the TL.......
at least for now.......
TL-2K23: The Official Thread
- Thread starter Otakuninja2006
- Start date
at least for now.......
Yes. There's gonna be some shocking turns. Considering I have a life and stuff, and it's gonna be quite the post, don't be surprised if I don't post it until late(10PM-12AM) or even tomorrow morning.
I've been kinda busy lately (hence the lack of DMs and posts), but I'll try to read it when I get the chance.
The Remnants of Viacom
The Renmants of Viacom
It would be HIGHLY recommended that you go read TL-2K23 for the full context.
After the whole Viacom scandal and everything that happened, the Redstone family were forced to pay very hefty amounts of money for severe damage while the top 2 (Sherri and Sumner) were arrested, along with many other ex-Viacom executives and employees(most notably Dan Schneider and an producer who harassed and even r*ped several former Nickelodeon stars, including Drake Bell, leading to Drake's suicide in late 2003). National Amusements, and in turn, Viacom, was ordered by the FCC, the FTC, and even the Federal Government(who has never done anything like this before, and certainly doesn't want to again) to close the company and cease most operations. Despite this, some of Viacom's assets were split off and even auctioned. Hell, the death of Viacom would even ultimately lead to the rise of an new media empire with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg both breaking off with Fox and Warner Bros. and Universal respectively to form Lucasfilm-Amblin. Of the new companies/assets to escape Viacom's wrath of destruction was..........
Cineplex Entertainment
Initially an preexisting movie theater chain that already operated in Canada but had a partnership with National Amusements for the Famous Players theater chain. However, after the events of the scandal and the shutdown orders, Cineplex saw potential, and acquired not only NA's stake in the Famous Players brand and chain, but also acquired National Amusements' theater chain, Showcase Cinema and would wind up becoming of the biggest movie theater chains in Canada and a growing brand in the United States and Latin America. They would also get in the film industry with their purchase of Alliance Atlantis in 2007, which netted them the Alliance Atlantis studios and film/TV library, various cable networks and more theater chains and even acquired the remains of Canwest in 2010. As of 2024, Cineplex has been spilt into 2 companies: Cineplex Entertainment for movie theaters and Tribune Alliance Media for their film, TV, music and broadcasting units.
Blockbuster Entertainment
After splitting off from Viacom, striking it out on its own, and hitting the ground running, Blockbuster became a major power in the media retail business. Between running the traditional stores, their DVD/game/CD mailing rental service(inherited from their 2004 merger with Netflix) and expanding their business by acquiring The Musicland Group in 2006 shortly after their merger with Netflix in 2004, thus becoming one of the largest home video, music, and video game retailers only behind the likes of GameStop and fye. In 2020, 11 years after introducing their free online movie service with Blockbuster Movie Pass with Dish Network as a joint venture, Blockbuster revived the Netflix brand and name as a new streaming service, which became an instant hit, starting the next era of the streaming wars, which the previous era of the wars were predominately fought by free online VOD websites. As of 2024, they own and operate the Netflix streaming service, the Blockbuster, E-Play, Musicland and Suncoast retail brands and chains, the Blockbuster mailing service and kiosks, as well as an revival of Blockbuster Entertainment, the division that makes shows and movies for the Netflix streaming service.
CBS Corporation
Founded from whatever sane Viacom executive were left by this point and seeing as there was no point in even selling some of these assets. CBS Corporation emerged, even down to taking over Viacom's old headquarters in New York City. CBS, the flagship brand of the namesake company, continued to be one of the most popular broadcast networks in America, tho not without suffering a ratings drop in the 2003-04 and 2004-05 seasons. In addition, CBS Corporation also got most of Viacom's other assets, such as Showtime/The Movie Channel, Sundance Channel(which was announced to be overhauled as a basic cable channel), Simon and Schuster, CBS Outdoor, Infinity Radio, Eye Entertainment(which includes Eye Animation, Eye Films and Eye Television), as well as most of the former MTV Networks(such as VH1, The Country Network, BET, Logo, the Discovery networks, VIVA, Men Network and 50% of Noggin with Sesame Workshop). In addition, CBS also owns most of Viacom's library, including the Terrytoons and whatever Nicktoons weren't taken back by their respective studios or an competitior.
Noggin LLC.
An 50/50 joint venture between CBS Corporation and Sesame Workshop, Noggin survived the ordeal, which is shocking considering that Noggin was increasingly being pressured by Nickelodeon to turn into "2 channels in 1" as Noggin would take the preschool section while the tween/teen section would be turned into a new block. However, with the whole scandal, the planned revamp was scrapped, but the network was ultimately reborn in 2004 as a legitimate competitor, but the semi-educational focus was reduced. Noggin also picked up whatever of the Nickelodeon library that wasn't taken by the respective studios that created the shows(EX: Klasky-Csupo took the rights to their shows) while CBS proper held on to the Terrytoons and the Nicktoons that weren't revamped after the end of Splatexodus nor taken. As of 2024, out of the major kids/animation networks, thanks to a bunch of surprising developments, Noggin is in 4th place amongst the big guys.
As for what happened with Comedy Central and MTV, well, Time Warner acquired both networks, assuring Comedy Central remained the premiere place for comedy on TV while TBS steered back in a general entertainment-based direction while MTV was eventually revamped as the geek-oriented Spike with all of the music video channels being merged into a new MTV. In addition, HBO and MTV eventually teamed up on a new premium network called MTV Unplugged for more experimental content. The success of it led to HBO and Cartoon Network teaming up to create Checkerboard, an premium animation network.
It would be HIGHLY recommended that you go read TL-2K23 for the full context.
After the whole Viacom scandal and everything that happened, the Redstone family were forced to pay very hefty amounts of money for severe damage while the top 2 (Sherri and Sumner) were arrested, along with many other ex-Viacom executives and employees(most notably Dan Schneider and an producer who harassed and even r*ped several former Nickelodeon stars, including Drake Bell, leading to Drake's suicide in late 2003). National Amusements, and in turn, Viacom, was ordered by the FCC, the FTC, and even the Federal Government(who has never done anything like this before, and certainly doesn't want to again) to close the company and cease most operations. Despite this, some of Viacom's assets were split off and even auctioned. Hell, the death of Viacom would even ultimately lead to the rise of an new media empire with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg both breaking off with Fox and Warner Bros. and Universal respectively to form Lucasfilm-Amblin. Of the new companies/assets to escape Viacom's wrath of destruction was..........
Cineplex Entertainment
Initially an preexisting movie theater chain that already operated in Canada but had a partnership with National Amusements for the Famous Players theater chain. However, after the events of the scandal and the shutdown orders, Cineplex saw potential, and acquired not only NA's stake in the Famous Players brand and chain, but also acquired National Amusements' theater chain, Showcase Cinema and would wind up becoming of the biggest movie theater chains in Canada and a growing brand in the United States and Latin America. They would also get in the film industry with their purchase of Alliance Atlantis in 2007, which netted them the Alliance Atlantis studios and film/TV library, various cable networks and more theater chains and even acquired the remains of Canwest in 2010. As of 2024, Cineplex has been spilt into 2 companies: Cineplex Entertainment for movie theaters and Tribune Alliance Media for their film, TV, music and broadcasting units.
Blockbuster Entertainment
After splitting off from Viacom, striking it out on its own, and hitting the ground running, Blockbuster became a major power in the media retail business. Between running the traditional stores, their DVD/game/CD mailing rental service(inherited from their 2004 merger with Netflix) and expanding their business by acquiring The Musicland Group in 2006 shortly after their merger with Netflix in 2004, thus becoming one of the largest home video, music, and video game retailers only behind the likes of GameStop and fye. In 2020, 11 years after introducing their free online movie service with Blockbuster Movie Pass with Dish Network as a joint venture, Blockbuster revived the Netflix brand and name as a new streaming service, which became an instant hit, starting the next era of the streaming wars, which the previous era of the wars were predominately fought by free online VOD websites. As of 2024, they own and operate the Netflix streaming service, the Blockbuster, E-Play, Musicland and Suncoast retail brands and chains, the Blockbuster mailing service and kiosks, as well as an revival of Blockbuster Entertainment, the division that makes shows and movies for the Netflix streaming service.
CBS Corporation
Founded from whatever sane Viacom executive were left by this point and seeing as there was no point in even selling some of these assets. CBS Corporation emerged, even down to taking over Viacom's old headquarters in New York City. CBS, the flagship brand of the namesake company, continued to be one of the most popular broadcast networks in America, tho not without suffering a ratings drop in the 2003-04 and 2004-05 seasons. In addition, CBS Corporation also got most of Viacom's other assets, such as Showtime/The Movie Channel, Sundance Channel(which was announced to be overhauled as a basic cable channel), Simon and Schuster, CBS Outdoor, Infinity Radio, Eye Entertainment(which includes Eye Animation, Eye Films and Eye Television), as well as most of the former MTV Networks(such as VH1, The Country Network, BET, Logo, the Discovery networks, VIVA, Men Network and 50% of Noggin with Sesame Workshop). In addition, CBS also owns most of Viacom's library, including the Terrytoons and whatever Nicktoons weren't taken back by their respective studios or an competitior.
Noggin LLC.
An 50/50 joint venture between CBS Corporation and Sesame Workshop, Noggin survived the ordeal, which is shocking considering that Noggin was increasingly being pressured by Nickelodeon to turn into "2 channels in 1" as Noggin would take the preschool section while the tween/teen section would be turned into a new block. However, with the whole scandal, the planned revamp was scrapped, but the network was ultimately reborn in 2004 as a legitimate competitor, but the semi-educational focus was reduced. Noggin also picked up whatever of the Nickelodeon library that wasn't taken by the respective studios that created the shows(EX: Klasky-Csupo took the rights to their shows) while CBS proper held on to the Terrytoons and the Nicktoons that weren't revamped after the end of Splatexodus nor taken. As of 2024, out of the major kids/animation networks, thanks to a bunch of surprising developments, Noggin is in 4th place amongst the big guys.
As for what happened with Comedy Central and MTV, well, Time Warner acquired both networks, assuring Comedy Central remained the premiere place for comedy on TV while TBS steered back in a general entertainment-based direction while MTV was eventually revamped as the geek-oriented Spike with all of the music video channels being merged into a new MTV. In addition, HBO and MTV eventually teamed up on a new premium network called MTV Unplugged for more experimental content. The success of it led to HBO and Cartoon Network teaming up to create Checkerboard, an premium animation network.
I found it interesting, to say the least. I am happy that Blockbuster continues to exist into the 2020s ITTL, and even becomes a prominent force in the world of streaming! I also find it oddly fitting that MTV and Comedy Central were acquired by Time Warner, especially given how this timeline incorporates/rebrands them alongside the other Time Warner-owned networks.
I am a bit curious, though... what are the exact fates of each individual Nicktoon? I know some (including all of the Klasky-Csupo shows) were reclaimed by their original creators/studios, while others were picked up by the revived version of Noggin, but I could use some more specification on which Nicktoons fall into the former category and which ones fall into the latter.
Yes, but streaming is different ITTL from the late 2000s up until say, 2019 or so, so by 2024 ITTL, the streaming boom of OTL will only just be getting started, and there's not gonna be a million and one different streaming services either.
Well, Comedy Central largely remains the same. It's MTV that changes, but also moves.
After Splatexodus........
I'll invite you to the PM as I don't want to leak too much about Splatexodus, just know it's the end of Nickelodeon.
Great update Now I'm Wondering What's Blockbuster original creations are going to look like.
