NTA Film Network
 |
|
| Type | Defunct broadcast television network |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Availability | United States (1956—1961) |
| Owner |
National Telefilm Associates Twentieth Century Fox |
|
Key people
|
Charles C. Barry Oliver A. Unger |
|
Launch date
|
October 1956 |
| Dissolved | November 1961 |
The NTA Film Network was an early American television network founded by Ely Landau in 1956. The network was not a full-time television network like CBS, NBC, or ABC. Rather, it operated on a part-time basis, broadcasting films and several first-run television programs from major Hollywood studios. Despite attracting over 100 affiliate stations and the financial support of Twentieth Century-Fox (which purchased a 50% share of NTA in November 1956) the network proved unprofitable, and was discontinued by 1961. The NTA Film Network's flagship station, WNTA-TV, is now WNET, one of the flagship stations of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
Parent company National Telefilm Associates was founded by producers Ely Landau and Oliver A. Unger in 1954 when Landau's film and television production company, Ely Landau, Inc., was reorganized in partnership with Unger and screenwriter and producer Harold Goldman. NTA was the successor company to U.M. & M. TV Corporation, having purchased U.M. & M. in 1956.
In October 1956, NTA launched the NTA Film Network, a syndication service which distributed both films and television programs to independent television stations and stations affiliated with NBC, CBS, or ABC (DuMont had recently gone out of the network business). The ad-hoc network's flagship station was WNTA-TV, channel 13 in New York. The NTA Network was launched as a "fourth TV network", and trade papers of the time referred to it as a new television network.
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