Before the merger with CBS Corporation in 1999, it also acted as the licensee company for Viacom's owned television stations; for instance New Britain, Connecticut station WVIT, currently an NBC owned and operated station for the Hartford market owned by Viacom from 1978 until 1997, took their call letters from Viacom International.
Within the next year, following the launch of the United Paramount Network venture it co-owned with Chris-Craft Industries, Paramount/Viacom began to sell off its non-UPN affiliated stations.
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As part of the deal, Springfield Television, the owner of fellow NBC affiliate WWLP in Springfield, Massachusetts, was to have held a one-third stake in channel 30; it abandoned this stake before the deal's completion after concerns arose over their overlapping coverage areas, but continued to hold an option to reacquire it for some time afterward.
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