Editing Paramount Pictures (section)

===1971–80: CIC formation and high-concept era===
In 1970, Paramount teamed with [[Universal Pictures]] to form [[Cinema International Corporation]], a new company that would distribute films by the two studios outside the United States. [[Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer|Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] would become a partner in the mid-1970s. Both Paramount and CIC entered the video market with Paramount Home Video (now [[Paramount Home Media Distribution|Paramount Home Entertainment]]) and [[CIC Video]], respectively.

Robert Evans abandoned his position as head of production in 1974; his successor, [[Richard Sylbert]], proved to be too literary and too tasteful for Gulf and Western's Bluhdorn. By 1976, a new, television-trained team was in place headed by [[Barry Diller]] and his "Killer-Dillers", as they were called by admirers or "Dillettes" as they were called by detractors. These associates, made up of [[Michael Eisner]], [[Jeffrey Katzenberg]], [[Dawn Steel]] and [[Don Simpson]] would each go on and head up major movie studios of their own later in their careers.

The Paramount specialty was now simpler. "[[High concept]]" pictures such as ''[[Saturday Night Fever]]'' and ''[[Grease (film)|Grease]]'' hit big, hard, and fast all over the world,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.filmsite.org/80sintro.html |title=Film History of the 1980s |publisher=Filmsite.org |date=September 8, 1986 |access-date=August 8, 2015 |archive-date=August 23, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150823050646/http://www.filmsite.org/80sintro.html |url-status=live }}</ref> while its fortuitous earlier acquisition of the ''[[Star Trek]]'' property, which had grown into a [[cult favorite]], enabled Paramount to have a long running science fiction film and television franchise to compete with the outstanding popular success of ''[[Star Wars]]''. Diller's television background led him to propose one of his longest-standing ideas to the board: [[Paramount Television Service]], a [[Fourth television network|fourth commercial network]]. Paramount Pictures purchased the [[Hughes Television Network]] (HTN) including its satellite time in planning for PTVS in 1976. Paramount sold HTN to [[Madison Square Garden Sports|Madison Square Garden Corporation]] in 1979.<ref name=ap>{{cite news |title=Cohen Buys Hughes TV Network for 3rd Time |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-74495632.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117060244/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-74495632.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 17, 2013 |access-date=May 30, 2012 |agency=Associated Press |date=June 9, 2003}}</ref> But Diller believed strongly in the concept, and so took his fourth-network idea with him when he moved to [[20th Century Fox]] in 1984, where Fox's then freshly installed proprietor, [[Rupert Murdoch]] was a more interested listener.

However, the television division would be playing catch-up for over a decade after Diller's departure in 1984 before launching its own television network – [[UPN]] – in 1995. Lasting eleven years before being merged with [[The WB]] network to become [[The CW]] in 2006, UPN would feature many of the shows it originally produced for other networks, and would take numerous gambles on series such as ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' and ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' that would have otherwise either gone direct-to-cable or become [[Broadcast syndication|first-run syndication]] to independent stations across the country (as ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' and ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' were).

Paramount Pictures was not connected to either [[Paramount Records]] (1910s–1935) or [[ABC Records|ABC-Paramount Records]] (1955–66) until it purchased the rights to use the name (but not the latter's catalog) in the late 1960s. The [[Paramount Records (1969)|Paramount]] name was used for soundtrack albums and some pop re-issues from the [[Dot Records]] catalog which Paramount had acquired in 1957. By 1970, Dot had become an all-country label<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bsnpubs.com/dot/paramount.html |title=Paramount Album Discography |publisher=BSNpubs.com |date=April 16, 2000 |access-date=January 7, 2010 |archive-date=January 13, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100113165140/http://bsnpubs.com/dot/paramount.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and in 1974, Paramount sold all of its record holdings to [[ABC Records]], which in turn was sold to [[MCA Inc.|MCA]] (now [[Universal Music Group]]) in 1979.<ref>{{Cite book |isbn = 1471611868|title = Elton John|last1 = Hombach|first1 = Jean-Pierre|year = 1987}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |isbn = 1471632903|title = Whitney Houston - Bobby Brown the Truth|last1 = Hombach|first1 = Jean-Pierre}}</ref>