| The following article is written from an Out of Universe perspective. |
CBS Corporation is a major media conglomerate founded on 1 January 2006. It owns CBS Television Studios which in turn owns 50% of the rights to the Doctor Who franchise.
The CBS Corporation was formerly known as Viacom. Following Viacom's split with CBS in 2005, Viacom dissolved and was re-established as the CBS Corporation with Les Moonves appointed as its head. CBS acquired the rights to Viacom's Paramount Television until then headed by Moonves, which was subsequently renamed CBS Paramount Television (now known as CBS Television Studios) and to UPN which Moonves subsequently merged with The WB (Warner Bros. and a previous employer of Moonves) to become The CW.
CBS Corporation also continues to own Simon and Schuster and Paramount Parks, which previously fell under Viacom. One of CBS's other subsidiaries is magazine publisher CBS Communications, which publishes the The Official CBS Watch! Collector's Edition magazine series, in which three Star Trek-themed issues have been released, as of 2015.
Following the split, a new Viacom was founded. This company received the rights to Paramount Pictures, which includes production and distribution of the Doctor Who films.
CBS Corporation and the new Viacom are both controlled by National Amusements.
Background
Viacom was created in 1971 as the television syndication division of CBS, and was spun off in 1971. However, in 1999, Viacom acquired its former parent, by this time also named CBS Corporation, formerly Westinghouse Electric. The prior CBS Corporation also owned CMT and The Nashville Network (now Spike), which remained Viacom properties after the 2005 split, but the prior CBS did not own UPN, Showtime, Paramount Television, Paramount Parks, or Simon and Schuster.