CBS Home Entertainment (formerly CBS Video Enterprises, Inc., MGM/CBS Home Video, CBS/Fox Video and CBS Video, currently branded as CBS DVD for DVD releases and CBS Blu-ray for

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

releases) is a home entertainment company owned by

Paramount Global Paramount Global ( doing business as Paramount) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned and operated by National Amusements (79.4%) and headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York. ...

. Its releases are distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment.

History

CBS, Inc. established a home video arm, CBS Video Enterprises (CVE), in January 1980 with

Cy Leslie Seymour Marvin "Cy" Leslie (December 16, 1922 – January 6, 2008) was an American businessman, the founder of Pickwick Records, and the first president and founder of MGM/UA Home Entertainment Group. Pickwick Records aimed to make music mo ...

as chairman. In 1980, CVE formed a joint venture with MGM, MGM/CBS Home Video licensed the film library of MGM for release on home videocassette, following the early leads of

Paramount Home Video Paramount Home Entertainment (formerly Paramount Home Media Distribution, and originally Paramount Home Video) is the home video distribution arm of Paramount Pictures, a division of Paramount Global. The division oversees PPC's home entertainme ...

and

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...

's Magnetic Video division. In addition to the MGM film library, the company released output from

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the '' CBS Evening News'', '' CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 4 ...

, CBS Records, the CBS television network,

CBS Theatrical Films CBS Theatrical Films, also as CBS Theatrical Films Group, was the film production branch of the U.S. television network, CBS, which was active from 1979 to 1985. CBS was also a partner in TriStar Pictures, which started as a joint venture with Col ...

, and the motion picture division of

Lorimar Lorimar Productions, Inc., later known as Lorimar Television and Lorimar Distribution, was an American production company that was later a subsidiary of Warner Bros., active from 1969 until 1993, when it was folded into Warner Bros. Televisi ...

. By 1981, MGM/CBS had expanded from VHS and

Betamax Betamax (also known as Beta, as in its logo) is a consumer-level analog recording and cassette format of magnetic tape for video, commonly known as a video cassette recorder. It was developed by Sony and was released in Japan on May 10, 1975, ...

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

's CED system as well. Also that year, CBS Video Enterprises handled distribution of its five titles by Samuel Goldwyn Home Entertainment in conjunction with MGM/CBS. In 1982, CBS withdrew from the MGM joint venture. The MGM/CBS company reorganized into

MGM/UA Home Video MGM/UA may refer to: *Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, American film and television production and distribution company **United Artists, American film and television studio, now a subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer * MGM/UA Home Video, the home video arm of Met ...

. A short time later, CBS purchased a stake in 20th Century Fox's home video operation, and formed CBS/Fox Video. The new company reissued many of CBS' properties issued under the CBS/Fox label, in addition to films under the 20th Century Fox banner. Two specialty labels, Key Video, and Playhouse Video, were also created. The CBS/Fox joint venture was reorganized in 1990, with Key Video and Playhouse Video ceasing operations, and Fox Video was created to release the mainstream output of 20th Century Fox. CBS continued to issue their product and programming under the Fox Video label until 1998, and utilized the CBS/Fox label for BBC Video programs until 1999. In 1999, CBS/Fox Video was folded into 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (now called

20th Century Studios Home Entertainment 20th Century Studios Home Entertainment (commonly referred to as 20th Home Video, or 20th Home Entertainment, formerly known as 20th Century-Fox Video, CBS/Fox Video, Fox Video, and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) is a home video label of Wa ...

, part of

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc., doing business as Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, is the home entertainment distribution arm of The Walt Disney Company. The division handles the distribution of Disney's films, television series, a ...

, since 2020). After the CBS/ Viacom merger was completed in 2000, Paramount Home Entertainment became CBS Video/DVD's distributor. Both companies were split again on January 1, 2006, but they were still controlled by

National Amusements National Amusements, Inc. is an American privately owned movie theater operator and mass media holding company incorporated in Maryland and based in Norwood, Massachusetts. It is the controlling shareholder of Paramount Global. History The ...

CBS Corporation The second incarnation of CBS Corporation (the first being a short-lived rename of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation) was an American multinational media conglomerate with interests primarily in commercial broadcasting, publishing, an ...

formed CBS Home Entertainment as a new home entertainment arm in 2007. However, CBS and Viacom remerged once again on December 4, 2019, this time into ViacomCBS (now

). Paramount continues to distribute a majority of CBS DVDs and Blu-rays, with several exceptions.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (abbreviated as SPHE) is the home video distribution division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. Background SPHE is responsible for the distribution of the Sony Pictures l ...

won the right to release material from the newly formed incarnation of

CBS Films CBS Films Inc. was an American film production and distribution company founded in 2007 as a subsidiary of CBS Corporation and was considered a mini-major studio up until 2019. CBS Films originally was planned to distribute, develop and prod ...

beginning in 2010, under license from CBS Home Entertainment; five years later,

Lionsgate Home Entertainment Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...

succeeded Sony Pictures Home Entertainment as CBS Films' home media distributor. Most less-demanded CBS programs are either released on manufactured-on-demand DVDs by CBS itself or licensed to Visual Entertainment Inc.

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:CBS Home Entertainment Home video companies of the United States Paramount Global subsidiaries Companies based in Los Angeles Entertainment companies based in California Entertainment companies established in 1980 Mass media companies established in 1980 1980 establishments in California