The then-new cable channel MTV, criticized for its almost exclusively white playlist, finally started playing Jackson's videos.
Viacom ( VIA - news - people ) in December 2005, when Chief Sumner Redstone (still its controlling shareholder) yanked the broadcast division from its cable siblings MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central, among others, as well as movie studio Paramount Pictures.
Viacom, which includes cable networks like MTV and the Paramount movie studio, was meant to be a growth stock.
Viacom owns Paramount, the film studio, and cable channels like MTV and Nickelodeon.
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Advertisers usually make deals with Viacom to buy ads across the entire platform including cable channels like MTV and Spike.
Its cable networks include MTV and the hugely successful reality show The Osbournes and Nickelodeon, whose children's cartoon show SpongeBob SquarePants is emerging as a cultural phenomenon.
The acquisition gives control over the network to Viacom (nyse: VIA.B - news - people ), which delivered a first-quarter profit off the strength of its other cable networks, including MTV .
Last year's VMAs boasted the highest ratings since 2002, bringing in 11.4 million viewers and making it the No. 1 cable telecast of 2010 for the MTV network.
MTV, which is legally distributed on cable channels, claims to reach 26m households.
In the eighties, as cable caught on, with channels like CNN, TBS, MTV, and Lifetime, it began to chip off pieces of the audience from the networks.
It's not just on MTV, but also on CNN and Fox and some other cable news channels.
At this time last year, Nickelodeon and MTV parent Viacom found themselves in a similar back-and-forth with Time Warner Cable.
Besides the standard online video fare from hulu, Netflix and YouTube, MediaMall Technologies, the company behind PlayOn, has also partnered with other cable channels to get content from Comedy Central, Adult Swim, NHL, PBS.org, MTV.com, VH1.com and others.
Jersey Shore has put MTV back on the map, delivering buzz and ratings for an otherwise buzz- and ratings-challenged cable network.
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