From The TV IV

This article about a company needs to be expanded with more information. Please help out by editing it.

EMKA Ltd. is an in-name-only division of NBC Universal.

EMKA was formed in 1957 by one of NBC Universal's predecessors, MCA Inc. (Music Corporation of America), to serve as a dummy company through which MCA could distribute most of the 1928-1950 Paramount Pictures library (which the company had acquired from Paramount following the 1948 United States Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Paramount Pictures Inc.), as well as some movies produced by Alfred Hitchcock which had originally been released by Paramount, on television. An exception to this are the pre-1950 theatrical cartoons produced by Paramount's Famous Studios animation division; in 1955, most of Famous' output was sold to U.M.&M. TV Corp. (and its later successor company National Telefilm Associates), while its Popeye shorts were purchased by Associated Artists Productions (which was later absorbed into United Artists Television) and its Superman shorts went to Motion Pictures for Television.

MCA formed EMKA as a means to avoid problems with the anti-trust laws in place in the US at the time. When MCA was dissolved in 1997 by then-owner Seagram Company and folded into Universal Studios (which MCA had acquired in 1962), Universal became the owner of EMKA's Paramount catalogue. Those movies handled through EMKA are currently distributed on TV by NBC Universal Television Distribution, and on DVD by Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

EMKA stands for the phonetic pronunciation of original parent company MCA as a word instead of as an acronym.