What if Comedy Central went to Time Warner?

TheMisterManGuy

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Comedy Central, owned by Paramount Global, is one of the most iconic Television networks in the industry. While it's has decayed quite a bit in recent years, the comedic-focused cable channel has been home to its biggest cash cow, South Park, alonside other hits like The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and Workaholics, and has built its brand on a twisted, ironic, and surreal style of humor that most other networks didn't want to touch. The channel began as a joint-venture of Viacom's MTV Networks, and Time Warner's HBO, born from a merger between their two fledgling comedy networks (Comedy Channel and Ha! TV Comedy Network). Viacom (now Paramount) became its sole owner in 2003, where it resides today.

But what if things played out a bit differently? Specifically what if it was Time Warner to took over as CC's parent instead of Viacom, and moved CC under Turner alongside TBS and TNT? Would the channel have continued growing success, or would it have faltered and died? After the sale, TW opted to use TBS as its comedy network to compete, but TBS mostly relied on network sitcom reruns and original series in the style of network sitcoms and comedic reality shows. CC could've provided an edgy, younger-targeted alternative to TBS' more family-friendly humor, especially with South Park. The only problem is, how would this have affected Adult Swim? Adult Swim had become Comedy Central's chief competitor during the mid-2000s to early 2010s by taking CC's style of humor and slipping it some drugs. But with them being under the same corporate roof, would Time Warner/Turner see these two brands as being redundant? Would Comedy Central have just been rebranded as a 24 hour Adult Swim Channel?
 

PF9

Putting Bleeps on a Streaming Show Is Stupid
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Time Warner was positioning TBS as its outlet for live-action comedy so it would be unlikely. That said, perhaps CC could have remained a joint venture if TW sold its stake to a company other than Viacom, like Vivendi Universal (soon to be NBCUniversal), but Viacom likely had right of first refusal.
 

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