Leonard Goldenson
Goldenson orchestrated the merger of United Paramount Theatres with ABC in 1953 (after Paramount was ordered to spin it off in the wake of "United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.", a 1948 decree of the U.S. Supreme Court). ABC was originally formed in 1943 in the wake of an earlier Supreme Court decree effectively ordering the spinoff of the largely secondary-status "Blue Network" from its then-parent, NBC; its buyer, industrialist Edward J. Noble, tried to build ABC into a competitive Broadcasting company, but by 1951 was rumored to be on the verge of selling the nearly bankrupt operation to CBS, whose management apparently wanted ABC's critically important owned-and-operated television stations.
American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres
A cable division was started in July 1979 which was incorporated as ABC Video Enterprises, Inc. (AVE) by March 25, 1980. ABC announced ARTS in December 1980 to be launched on April 5, 1981 sharing Nickelodeon's channel at night. ABC and the Hearst Corporation in January 1981 formed a joint venture, Hearst/ABC Video Services, to provide programming to ARTS and launch BETA, a women's network, later that year. With Group W Satellite Communications, ABC Video Enterprise formed the Satellite News Channel in 1981 only to sell it a year later to Turner Broadcasting, owner of CNN. Cox Cable and AVE formed in 1983 FirstTicket to try the market for pay for view sports service. AVE and ESPN launched Reserve Seat Video Productions, a pay per view sports producer, in 1983.