Six Flags Over Texas is not actually owned by Six Flags Entertainment Corp (NYSE:SIX) any longer, but the company itself has since grown quite a bit. Six Flags Entertainment Corp (NYSE:SIX) now owns 18 parks, which welcomed 25.8 million visitors through their gates in 2012. That was good enough to rank it fifth by attendance among theme park chains worldwide.
I want my MTV
MTV hit the airwaves for the first time on Aug. 1, 1981, announced just after midnight with the words “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll,” over footage of the Space Shuttle and Apollo 11 launch countdowns. After some introductory pomp, the music video of The Buggle’s “Video Killed the Radio Star” played, presenting the perfect soundtrack to the birth of the music video era.
MTV was instrumental in building the careers of many ’80s music acts, particularly pop stars like Michael Jackson, whose Thriller album became the source of some of the most successful music videos of all time. The 13-minute music video for the “Thriller” single debuted in 1983 and was MTV’s first world-premiere video. It eventually made its way into the Library of Congress, becoming the first music video so honored. Two years after Thriller‘s watershed release, Viacom, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAB) bought MTV’s parent company, which began a shift that eventually turned the network into the launching pad for both The Jersey Shore and Teen Mom. Thanks a lot, Viacom, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAB).
Media merger week continues
One day after the biggest media acquisition in years shocked the nation, Westinghouse Electric took a widely anticipated step toward becoming a media giant in its own right when it announced a $5.4 billion buyout of broadcaster CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS) on Aug. 1, 1995. The buyout meant that all three of the Big Three broadcasters would thereafter be part of larger corporate entities. It also meant that CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS) would combine with Westinghouse to create the largest broadcasting network in the U.S., with 15 TV stations and 39 radio stations reaching a third of the American populace. That large reach may have been impossible before, as federal communications rules had limited individual companies to coverage of only a quarter of the American public before regulators decided to relax in an era of widespread consolidation.
Westinghouse would adopt the CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS) name two years later, and by the end of the decade there was nothing remaining of the former energy and industrial company’s original operations. Viacom, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAB) wound up merging with this media-focused CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS) in 2000, and this new entity would persist until 2005, when Viacom, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAB) itself also changed its name to CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS) and spun off its non-broadcast interests. Both Viacom, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAB) and CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS) are now under the majority control of National Amusements, which is majority-owned by media magnate Sumner Redstone.
The future of television begins now, with an all-out $2.2 trillion media war that pits cable companies like Cox, Comcast, and Time Warner against technology giants like Apple, Google, and Netflix.
The article The Most Entertaining Day of the Year originally appeared on Fool.com.
Fool contributor Alex Planes has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.
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