| 1994 |
 Chronomedia index
Numbers after entries link to the list of references. |
links and notes |
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Cultural highlights | Predictions made this year |
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| January |
Viacom acquires leading video rental chain Blockbuster Entertainment Corporation for $8,400m. |
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| February 15 |
Viacom finally wins control of Paramount Communications in a deal worth almost $10,000m. The enlarged Viacom group now includes not only Paramount Pictures and Blockbuster but also MTV, Nickelodeon, publisher Simon & Schuster, New York Nicks basketball team, New York Rangers hockey team and Madison Square Garden. |
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| February 16 |
High definition television system using vestigial sideband (VSB) transmission proposed by Zenith Electronics Corporation is adopted in the USA. |
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| February 23 |
Proposed merger between Bell Atlantic and Tele-Communications Inc (TCI) is abandoned. |
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| February 28 |
US Supreme Court rules that unauthorised parody versions of songs with altered words do not infringe copyright, in a case concerning a version of Roy Orbison's Oh, Pretty Woman by 2 Live Crew. |
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| March 30 |
Silvio Berlusconi, head of the Fininvest media empire and leader of the newly created Forza Italia political party, wins the Italian elections and becomes prime minister, being sworn in on May 11. |
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| April 14 |
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is launched in US with screening of Gone With the Wind, coinciding with the centenary of the first Edison kinematograph ‘peep-show’ parlour in Times Square, New York. |
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| June 17 |
Sixty-mile highway chase by police of a car containing the former American football star-turned-film actor O J Simpson, suspected of murdering his wife, is followed by helicopter-borne television camera and shown live on all major US television networks. |
See > September 26. |
June 17-July 17 |
Games of the FIFA World Cup football tournament finals, held in the USA, are televised in 188 counties and attract a cumulative total of 32,115.65m viewers. Total transmission time is 16,392 hours. [0065] |
< 1990
> 1998 |
| June 29 |
Charles, Prince of Wales, heir to the British throne, admits adultery in a television interview. |
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| August 10 |
First Turkish satellite, Turksat 1B, is launched. |
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| September 26 |
Trial of O J Simpson on two murder charges (see June 17) begins in Los Angeles. For months to come it is shown live (‘gavel to gavel’) on television in the US and other countries around the world. |
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| September |
TNT/Cartoon Network is launched in Europe and Far East. |
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| October |
BBRK Group, owner of Ealing Studios, goes into receivership, although the studios continue in use. |
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| November 22 |
Sega Saturn games console is launched in Japan. |
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| November 30 |
Sony launches its PlayStation games console in Japan. It splits the Japanese market with the Sega Saturn (see November 22) over the coming year but then races ahead. |
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| December 16 |
Tonis TV becomes the first direct-to-home (DTH) satellite television channel broadcasting to the Ukraine, via Eutelsat. |
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| December |
All European videotex services are interconnected. |
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| December |
France’s Minitel service has 6.5m terminals and, with Audiotel service, generates annual revenue of Ffr 10,200m. |
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| • |
Paramount’s library of feature films and 4,000 television episodes is valued at $9,600m. |
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All New Zealand's print, film and video censorship arrangements are unified under a single body (the Office of Film and Literature Classification) as a result of the Films, Video and Publications Classification Act 1993. |
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Television service is introduced in Fiji by Fiji TV, which is granted a 12-year licence. |
> 1996 |
| • |
Radio and Television Supreme Council (Radyo Ve Televizyon Üst Kurulu, RTÜK) is established in Turkey, with guidelines to maintain strict control over broadcasting. |
< 1983
> 2003 November 16 |
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Jupiter Telecommunications Company, Japan's first multiple cable system operator, is formed as a joint venture between Sumitomo Corporation and Tele-Communications International (TINTA). |
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