National Telefilm Associates
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National Telefilm Associates (otherwise known by its initials, NTA) was an independent distribution company that handled much of Paramount Pictures' animated library.
Founded in 1958 by Ely Landau, NTA was the successor company to U.M.&M. T.V. Corp., which Landau acquired upon NTA's founding. Among NTA's holdings: most of Paramount animated library, including the Max Fleischer shorts (but with the exception of the Popeye and Superman shorts), a majority of the pre-1952 United Artists library, the Frank Capra film It's a Wonderful Life, the original Republic Pictures library (NTA had acquired Republic's catalog after the latter company folded as a studio) and New York City's television station broadcasting on Channel 13, WNTA during NTA's ownership, which was sold to become WNDT and eventually WNET, a major station in PBS; a notable WNTA production syndicated to other commercial stations was the dramatic anthology series, The Play of the Week.
In 1973, NTA bought the library of NBC Films, the syndication arm of the NBC television network, after the FCC ruled TV networks could not syndicate their own shows.
Like its U.M.&M. predecessor, NTA altered the original negatives to the Paramount animated shorts, replacing the front-and-end titles. References to Paramount and Technicolor were blacked out, with the NTA logo replacing the Paramount mountain.
At the end of color prints, the NTA logo had a U.M.&M. copyright byline below it, but on black and white prints, the U.M.&M. copyright appeared where the original Paramount copyright had been.
By the late 1980s, NTA initiated a home video division to handle its backlog. Before the end of the decade, NTA changed its name to Republic Pictures, having bought the latter's name and trademark.
NTA/Republic changed hands in succeeding years, and the distribution of the NTA holdings as we know today is split--the theatrical rights are handled by Paramount, while television rights lie with CBS Paramount Television, all of this as the result of Viacom's 2006 corporate split into two separate companies.
However, Republic's video licensee, Lions Gate Home Entertainment, continues to hold the home video rights to the theatrical catalog (except It's a Wonderful Life, which Paramount now distributes on DVD), while Paramount Home Entertainment (through CBS DVD) handles the television library for home video.
