28 V I D E O A G E March/April 2022 Int’l TV Distribution Hall of Fame From U.S. TV network spin-offs to the imposition and subsequent elimination of Fin Syn (the former fomented and the latter destroyed the U.S. syndication business), Bert Cohen endured, and his company even created a successful U.S. syndicated show. He was at the heart of the U.S. TV industry’s greatest corporate takeovers, had a hand in reshaping the TV business in the U.K., and opened up a U.S. TV business in Russia after the fall of the USSR. During an interview from his Boca Raton, Florida residence via video conference (while he recovered fromCOVIDduring theOmicronspike), Cohen also mentioned his close connections with industry leaders who shaped U.S. television, including Craig Lindner, Aaron Spelling, Wayne Huizenga, David Lynch, and the Hanna-Barbera principals. He also interacted with leaders who influenced U.S. society, like Muhammad Ali, and heads of state, like Prince Albert of Monaco. Cohen’s career started at ABC-Paramount and endedwithParamount.He joinedABCFilms inhis native New York City in 1968 at 26 years old, and concluded his executive career in late 1999 when Worldvision’s owner, Spelling Entertainment, was acquired by Viacom, the parent company of Paramount. In the intervening 31 years, Cohen worked for seven different entities that owned Worldvision Enterprises (and survived nine management changes), which he joined in 1973 as VP of Operations and International Sales. Worldvision was created in 1954 by ABCParamount to link TV stations around the world in which ABC International (a division ABC created for this express purpose) held a minority interest. The stations were located in six Latin American countries, plus the Philippines, Australia, Canada, Japan, and Lebanon. In 1951, ABC TV Network was acquired by a one-year-old Paramount Theatres, which was a forced spin-off (by the U.S. Department of Justice) of Paramount Pictures. Similarly, ABC was a forced 1943 spin-off of NBC’s second radio network, the Blue Network. ABC became a fullfledged TV network in 1948. In 1973, Kevin O’Sullivan (1928-2006), then president of ABC Films and ABC International, reportedly spent $10 million to acquire — together with four other ABC Films executives (Jerry Smith, Neal Delman, Colin Campbell, and Howard Lloyd) — the assets of ABC Films (the group was one of 23 companies bidding for the ABC Films assets). They were given the Worldvision name as a gift from ABC, created Worldvision Enterprises, and O’ Sullivan became the first president of the new international distribution company. This development was prompted by a 1971 FCC rule (called Fin Syn, which was eliminated in 1993) that barred U.S. TV networks from the U.S. syndication business, but allowed them to still be in the international content distribution business, as well as the domestic home video industry. It was for this purpose that ABC created ABC Video Enterprises, CBS formed CBS Broadcast International, and NBC started NBC International, all in 1979. ABC’s International division was in disarray after it was shaken by an undisclosed scandal that in 1970 caused a change of management at ABC International, with Don W. Coyle (who had started the division in 1958) exiting in favor of O’Sullivan, who was eventually succeeded by Dick O’Leary. In 1974, Worldvision acquired the distribution rights to Little House on the Prairie from NBC, which because of Fin Syn could not distribute the series in U.S. syndication. However, the large guarantee that Worldvision had to pay up front placed the company in financial difficulties, which resulted in the sale of the company to Taft Broadcasting in 1978. That move caused Worldvision to lose its independence and be placed inplay for several corporate “flips.” Indeed, in 1987, investor Carl H. Lindner, Jr. (1919- 2011) became Taft’s majority stockholder following a hostile takeover, and renamed the company Great American Communications (GAC). However, according to Cohen, O’Sullivan sold Worldvision to Taft only because “they made a big offer.” Cohen added that he didn’t know what the offer was exactly. Similarly, John D. Ryan, who later became Worldvision’s president, didn’t know the amount, but he said that Little House did very well internationally and couldn’t put the company in financial stress. To some former Worldvision employees, both Cohen and Ryan were kept in the dark about all corporate decisions, which were exclusively in the hands of O’Sullivan and partner Neal Delman. An interesting twist is that O’Sullivan couldn’t tolerate Taft’s executives and instructed his people to hang up the phone every time someone from Taft called them. In 1988, O’Sullivan retired from Worldvision, and 41-year-old ABC Films alum Ryan became president (focusing on domestic syndication). Cohen was appointed COO, continuing to be responsible for international sales. In 1989, Lindner sold Worldvision to producer Aaron Spelling (1923-2006) for 48.5 percent of his Spelling Entertainment, which was headed by Jules Haimovitz, a former Viacom executive. Two years later, Spelling Entertainment was acquired by the Charter Company (an oil corporation that Lindner acquired out of bankruptcy). The operation was structured with Charter acquiring 31.67 percent of Spelling, which added to GAC’s 48 percent. Charter completed the acquisition of Spelling in 1992 in exchange for stock valued at $44 million and renamed itself Spelling Entertainment. In 1993, Blockbuster acquired 53.4 percent of Spelling Entertainment by issuing $141.5 million worth of its shares to Lindner, who became Blockbuster’s third-largest shareholder. A year later, Spelling acquired Republic Pictures’ library for $104 million, folded Worldvision’s home video division into Republic, and named Worldvision executive Bob Sigman as Republic Pictures’ president and CEO, a position he held until 2001. In 1994, Viacom acquired Blockbuster for $8.4 billion, which, in the meantime, had increased its stake of Spelling to 67 percent. A year later, when Viacom’s interest in Spelling had increased to 77 percent (after a failed attempt to sell it), Worldvision remained in the Viacom fold. It would be there until 1999, when it acquired the shares of Spelling that it didn’t already own (the 23 percent that was publicly held) for $161.7 million, and folded Worldvision into Paramount Pictures, the studio that Viacom had acquired in 1994. Reportedly, the reason that Worldvision lost its stand-alone status (after a cascade of ownership changes)wasattributedtothefact thatParamount didn’t have a successful syndicated show at that time, while Worldvision was distributing Judge Judy, a 1996 court show that became a popular and highly profitable syndicated show in the U.S., especially after Worldvision invested $6 million in promoting the show the first year, and $4 million each in the second and third years. “Our success was our downfall,” commented a former insider. Judge Judy was produced by Big Ticket Television, a Spelling company created in 1994. By the time that ViacomintegratedWorldvision, Bert Cohen’s Worldvision: After Seven Owners, Its Success Became Its Downfall By Dom Serafini Aaron Spelling, Beverly Hills 90210 star Tiffani Thiessen, and Bert Cohen (Continued on Page 30) Muhammad Ali and Bert Cohen at MIP-TV 1982 (Continued from Cover)
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