New World Communications Group, Inc. (founded as New World Pictures and then renamed New World Entertainment) was an American 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"), continues to exist as holding companies within the complex News Corporation corporate structure.

 

History

New World Pictures (1970-1987)

In 1970, the company was founded as New World Pictures, Ltd., by B-movie legend Roger Corman with his brother Gene, after leaving American International Pictures (AIP). At the time, New World was the last remaining national low budget film distributor, and was also one the most successful independent companies in the nation.

 

Corman hoped to continue AIP's formula at New World, making low-budget films made by new talent and distributing them globally. However, it only started out with only ten domestic offices, only one for Canada, and another for the UK; its films were distributed regionally by other companies.

 

New World initially made exploitation films such as The Student Nurses and other small-scale programmers. Corman helped launch the filmmaking careers of Jonathan Demme (Caged Heat, Crazy Mama), Jonathan Kaplan (White Line Fever), Ron Howard (Grand Theft Auto), Paul Bartel (Death Race 2000), and Joe Dante (Piranha), all of whom made some of their early films as interns for the company.

 

New World also released foreign films from Ingmar Bergman (Cries and Whispers, Autumn Sonata), Federico Fellini (Amarcord), Akira Kurosawa (Dersu Uzala), and countless others. The distribution of such films was for Corman to disassociate New World as an exhibitor for exploitation films.

 

Corman sold the company in 1983 for $16.5 million to Larry Kupin, Harry E. Sloan, and Larry A. Thompson, who took the company public. Corman retained the film library while New World acquired home-video rights. Later that year, Thompson left the company to form his own firm.

 

The company created, in 1984, 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); and New World Video, home video distributor for mainly New World Pictures output. New World acquired Marvel Comics.In May 1986, New World acquired Lion's Gate Studios, a post-production facility for $4.4 million. By early 1987, the company sold its Taft Broadcasting shares for $17.8 million.

 

New World Entertainment (1987-1993)

In 1987, New World acquired Highgate Pictures and Learning Corporation of America. New World Pictures by then changed its name to New World Entertainment to better reflect the company's other subsidiaries 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. In the fall of 1987, New World became the third in the list of prime-time series producers to the network after Lorimar-Telepictures and MCA. In 1988, New World also faced a lawsuit from Michael Mann, executive producer of "Crime Story," a second season hour-long show.New World faces a major financial slump and the company began to restructure; first, the Marvel Entertainment Group was sold to financier Ronald Perelman's Andrews Group, in 1989 then New World Entertainment was subsequently acquired by Perelman later in the year. Four Star Television, which Perelman had previously acquired, became a unit of New World.The bulk of its film and home video holdings were sold in January 1990 to a new company formed by former New World executives.Highgate Pictures and Learning Corporation of America were shut down in 1990. On October 7, 1991, New World sold much of its non-Marvel program library to Sony Pictures Entertainment; Sony used the acquisition to reactivate TriStar Television. Some television programming such as Santa Barbara and The Wonder Years would continue on by New World until their cancellations in 1993 and would not re-enter production of new network television programs until early 1995.

 

In 1992, Perelman acquired bankrupt television station group SCI Television from George Gillett.Following Marvel Entertainment Group's (MEG) ToyBiz deal in 1993, Avi Arad of ToyBiz, was named President and CEO of Marvel Films division and of New World Family Filmworks, Inc., a New World Entertainment subsidiary. New World was MEG former parent corporation and later a fellow subsidiary of the Andrews Group.Marvel Productions became New World Animation by 1993 as Marvel and New World start up Marvel Films including Marvel Films Animation.

 

New World Communications (1993-1997)

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-TV - 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 at the end of March 1995 for sale to another company. That company would eventually be the News Corporation, who purchased the two stations in Summer 1995 and closed on the purchase on January 17, 1996. Meanwhile, the transfer/assignment applications of the Argyle stations were not filed with the FCC until some time after New World had already completed its purchases of the four Citicasters stations on September 9 and October 12, 1994. New World took control of the Argyle stations on January 19, 1995 through time brokerage agreements, and after WBRC and WGHP were placed in a trust, New World completed the acquisition of the Argyle stations on April 14, 1995.

 

Less than a month after the Citicasters acquisition announcement, 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 Moving Target Productions. 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 NBCUniversal 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 (Premiere magazine was purchased in a joint venture between New World and Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., when New World was sold to News Corporation, Hachette-Filipacchi took full ownership of Premiere).

 

In 1996 New World sold the Birmingham and San Diego stations to NBC, becoming final on August 14. In July of that same year, News Corporation announced the purchase of the remainder of New World Communications.

 

On January 22, 1997, News Corporation completed the acquisition of New World Communications, and its television stations were placed into the Fox Television Stations division. Stations formerly owned by New World and still owned by Fox, the copyright for the stations have been either "New World Communications of (city or state)" or "NW Communications of (city or state)" except between 2007 and June 2009. These names have also been used as the legal licensee names of these stations since late June 2009.

 

Current rights to the New World libraries

1971-1983 films

• TV - Trifecta Entertainment & Media

• Video - New Horizons Home Video and Shout! Factory[11]

 

1984-1991 films

• TV - Warner Bros. Television and Lakeshore Entertainment

• Video - Anchor Bay Entertainment and Image Entertainment

 

Television programs

• Broadcast

o 20th Television: (The Big Valley, Real Stories of the Highway Patrol), pre-1994 first-run and off-net syndicated programming from Genesis Entertainment (later New World-Genesis Distribution); and New World's station group. The three exceptions are Sale of the Century, owned by FremantleMedia, the domestic rights to Hearts Afire (which remain under the control of the John Ritter estate and Mozark Productions), and Highway to Heaven, owned by the estate of Michael Landon and his production company with distribution rights to Genesis International.

o NBCUniversal Television Distribution: (Access Hollywood)

o Sony Pictures Television: (Get a Life, Tour of Duty)

o Warner Bros. Television: (Crime Story, The Wonder Years)

o Starz Media: (Sledge Hammer!)

o Disney-ABC Domestic Television, 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 Enterprises made-for-TV cartoon library (excluding Pink Panther TV specials which belongs to MGM)

• Video/DVD - 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment; Anchor Bay Entertainment; Image Entertainment; Rhino Home Video; Sony Pictures Home Entertainment; and Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.

 

Former New World-owned television stations

DMA#	City of license/Market	Station	RF Channel	Display Channel	Years owned	Affiliation
5.	Dallas - Fort Worth	KDFW-TV	35	4	1995–97	Fox owned-and-operated (O&O)
		KDFI-TV	36	27	*	MyNetworkTV O&O owned by Fox
7.	Boston	WSBK-TV	39	38	1993–95	MyNetworkTV affiliate owned by CBS Corporation
8.	Atlanta	WAGA-TV	27	5	1993–97	Fox owned-and-operated (O&O)
11.	Detroit	WJBK-TV	7	2	1993–97	Fox owned-and-operated (O&O)
12.	Phoenix	KSAZ-TV	10	10	1994–97	Fox owned-and-operated (O&O)
14.	Tampa - St. Petersburg	WTVT	12	13	1993–97	Fox owned-and-operated (O&O)
18.	Cleveland	WJW-TV	8	8	1993–97	Fox affiliate owned by Local TV
21.	St. Louis	KTVI	43	2	1995–97	Fox affiliate owned by Local TV
28.	San Diego	KNSD	40	39	1993–96	NBC owned-and-operated (O&O) (joint venture with LIN Television
31.	Kansas City, Missouri	WDAF-TV	34	4	1994–97	Fox affiliate owned by Local TV
35.	Milwaukee	WITI-TV	33	6	1993–97	Fox affiliate owned by Local TV
40.	Birmingham, Alabama	WBRC-TV	50	6	1994–95**	Fox affiliate owned by Raycom Media
		WVTM-TV	13	13	1995–96	NBC affiliate owned by Media General
44.	Austin, Texas	KTBC-TV	7	7	1995–97	Fox owned-and-operated (O&O)
47.	High Point - Greensboro - Winston-Salem, N.C.	WGHP-TV	35	8	1994–95**	Fox affiliate owned by Local TV

*--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 later placed in a trust for sale to Fox. New World continued to operate the stations for several months until Fox took over through time brokerage agreements in September 1995.

 

Partial filmography

Roger Corman Regime

• Angels Die Hard (1970)

• The Student Nurses (1970) - established the "nurse" cycle

• Bury Me an Angel (1971)

• Beast of the Yellow Night (1971)

• The Big Doll House (1971) - established the "women in prison" cycle

• Creature with the Blue Hand (1971) (P/U)

• The Velvet Vampire (1971)

• Scream of the Demon Lover (1971) (P/U)

• Angels Hard as They Come (1971)

• Private Duty Nurses (1971)

• Women in Cages (1971)

• Lady Frankenstein (1971)

• Sweet Kill (1972)

• The Hot Box (1972)

• The Big Bird Cage (1972)

• Night Call Nurses (1972)

• The Cremators (1972)

• Night of the Cobra Woman (1972) (P/U)

• The Woman Hunt (1972)

• Cries and Whispers (1972) (P/U)

• The Harder They Come (1973) (P/U)

• Savage! (1973)

• The Big Bust Out (1973)

• Fly Me (1973)

• The Final Comedown (1973) (P/U)

• Stacey (1973)

• The Young Nurses (1973)

• The Student Teachers (1973)

• Seven Blows of the Dragon (1973) (P/U)

• Fantastic Planet (1973) (P/U)

• The Arena (1974)

• Caged Heat (1974) (P/U)

• Candy Stripe Nurses (1974)

• Big Bad Mama (1974)

• Cockfighter (1974)

• The Last Days of Man on Earth (1974)

• Amarcord (1974) (P/U)

• Tender Loving Care (1974) (P/U)

• T.N.T. Jackson (1975)

• Street Girls (1975)

• Death Race 2000 (1975)

• Tidal Wave (1975) (US version)

• Summer School Teachers (1975)

• Crazy Mama (1975)

• Cover Girl Models (1975)

• Darktown Strutters (1975)

• The Romantic Englishwoman (1975) (P/U)

• The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (1975) (P/U)

• The Story of Adele H (1975) (P/U)

• The Cars that Ate Paris (1976) (P/U)

• Hollywood Boulevard (1976)

• Nashville Girl (1976)

• Foxtrot (1976)

• Eat My Dust! (1976)

• Jackson County Jail (1976)

• Cannonball (1976)

• The Great Texas Dynamite Chase (1976)

• God Told Me To (1976)

• Small Change (1976)

• Lumiere (1976) (P/U)

• Blonde in Black Leather (1977) (P/U)

• Too Hot to Handle (1977) (P/U)

• Andy Warhol's Bad (1977)

• Black Oak Conspiracy (1977)

• Moonshine County Express (1977)

• Assault on Paradise (1977)

• Down and Dirty Duck (1977)

• Eaten Alive! (1977)

• Grand Theft Auto (1977)

• Rabid (1977)

• Thunder and Lightning (1977)

• I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977)

• Dersu Uzala (1977) (P/U)

• 'A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich (1977)

• A Little Night Music (1977)

• The Evil (1978)

• Leopard in the Snow (1978) (P/U)

• Deathsport (1978)

• The Tigress (1978) (P/U)

• Avalanche (1978)

• Jokes My Folks Never Told Me (1978) (P/U)

• Piranha (1978)

• Blackout (1978)

• Autumn Sonata (1978) (P/U)

• The Bees (1978)

• Outside Chance (1978)

• Fast Charlie the Moonbeam Rider (1979)

• Starcrash (1979)

• Love on the Run (1979) (P/U)

• Saint Jack (1979)

• The Brood (1979)

• The Kids Are Alright (1979)

• Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979)

• The Lady in Red (1979)

• Up from the Depths (1979)

• The Green Room (1979) (P/U)

• Angel's Brigade (1979)

• The Prize Fighter (1979)

• Humanoids from the Deep (1980)

• The Tin Drum (1980) (P/U)

• Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)

• Something Waits in the Dark (1980)

• The Georgia Peaches (1980)

• The Private Eyes (1980)

• Shogun Assassin (1980) (P/U)

• Breaker Morant (1980) (P/U)

• Mon Oncle D'Amerique (1980) (P/U)

• Ruckus (1981)

• Smokey Bites the Dust (1981)

• Firecracker (1981)

• Richard's Things (1981) (P/U)

• Mindwarp: An Infinity of Terror (1981)

• Saturday the 14th (1981)

• Quartet (1981) (P/U)

• Galaxy of Terror (1981)

• Three Brothers (1982) (P/U)

• Christiane F (1982) (P/U)

• Slumber Party Massacre (1982)

• Battletruck (1982)

• Tag: The Assassination Game (1982)

• Forbidden World (1982)

• Galaxy Express (1982) (P/U)

• The Calling (1982)

• Fitzcarraldo (1982)

• The Personals (1982)

• Sorceress (1982)

• Time Walker (1982)

• Jimmy the Kid (1982)

• Paradise (1982)

• Screwballs (1983)

• Space Raiders (1983)

• Last Plane Out (1983)

• Deathstalker (1983)

• Love Letters (1984) (P/U)

• Android (1984)

• Suburbia (1984)

• The Warrior and the Sorceress (1984)

 

New Regime

• Angel (1984)

• Warriors of the Wind (1984) (P/U)

• Body Rock (1984)

• C.H.U.D. (1984)

• Crimes of Passion (1984)

• Children of the Corn (1984)

• The Philadelphia Experiment (1984)

• Bad Manners (aka: Growing Pains) (1984)

• Tuff Turf (1985)

• Avenging Angel (1985)

• The Boys Next Door (1985)

• Lust in the Dust (1985)

• Fraternity Vacation (1985)

• Girls Just Want to Have Fun (1985)

• Godzilla 1985 (1985)

• Making Contact (aka: Joey) (1985)

• Out of Control (1985)

• The Stuff (1985)

• Transylvania 6-5000 (1985)

• Black Moon Rising (1986)

• House (1986)

• No Retreat, No Surrender (1986)

• Reform School Girls (1986)

• Soul Man (1986)

• Return to Horror High (1987)

• Death Before Dishonor (1987)

• Beyond Therapy (1987)

• Nice Girls Don't Explode (1987)

• Creepshow 2 (1987)

• House II: The Second Story (1987)

• Flowers in the Attic (1987)

• Hellraiser (1987)

• Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night (1987)

• The Wrong Guys (1988) (1987)

• Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1987)

• Dead Heat (1988)

• Slugs (1988)

• Return of the Killer Tomatoes (1988)

• The Navigator: A Mediaeval Odyssey (1988)

• Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

• Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)

• Warlock (1989)

• The Punisher (1989)

• Heathers (1989)

• Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)

• Brenda Starr (1990)

• Revenge (1990)

• Meet the Applegates (1990)

• Killer Tomatoes Eat France (1991)