EMKA, Ltd.

"EMKA" redirects here. For the defunct British racing team, see EMKA Racing.

EMKA, Ltd. is an in-name-only division of Universal Studios' television unit whose sole function is overseeing Paramount Pictures' pre-1950 sound feature film library. EMKA was formed by MCA (Music Corporation of America) in 1957 (the company's name is a pronunciation of the initials in MCA).

In the aftermath of the landmark 1948 United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc.'' case requiring studios to divest of their movie theaters (and marking the unofficial end of the Golden Age of Hollywood), movie studios such as Paramount suffered, and had to sell off their product in order to be profitable, especially in the midst of the rise of television.

Paramount sold a majority of their sound live-action feature film library released until November 3, 1949 (with Chicago Deadline being the latest title in the library, including films by Cecil B. DeMille and Preston Sturges) to MCA, and thus, through their new dummy company, EMKA, they were able to make a profit via airings on television.

EMKA continues to exist today as an in-name-only entity (technically a part of Universal's television division, now called Universal Media Studios), while holding the copyright on the classic Paramount library, even though it is now officially incorporated into Universal's film catalogue. These films became part of Universal's library after MCA bought Universal in 1962.

In 2004, Vivendi, by then the owners of Universal, merged its entertainment division (which included Universal) with General Electric's NBC to form NBCUniversal, and the EMKA-copyrighted films are now distributed on television by NBCUniversal Television Distribution.

In addition to the pre-1950 sound films, five Alfred Hitchcock films originally released by Paramount, including Psycho and The Trouble with Harry, are now part of Universal's film library (though negotiated in a series of separate deals with Hitchcock and his estate in the case of four of the films, while Universal bought Psycho directly from Paramount in 1968). Also, Universal owns through NBC the rights to the 1957 Elvis Presley film Loving You, also originally by Paramount (Lionsgate owns US DVD rights).

On a side note, MCA later acquired one other asset once under control of Paramount Pictures - the studio's record catalog. In 1979, MCA Records purchased ABC Records, which in turn had bought Paramount's record division in 1974.

This is not the same EMKA that was run by late Pink Floyd manager Steve O'Rourke.