Viacom, and its Paramount Pictures unit, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., and Lionsgate this morning announced a joint venture to launch a new "next generation" pay TV channel and video-on-demand
service drawing from five leading studios. The new, as-yet-unnamed channel is scheduled to launch in the fall of 2009, and would compete with Time Warner's HBO, and CBS Corp.'s Showtime, which had
previously been a unit of Viacom prior to its split-up with CBS.
