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 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 ...

History

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

, Inc. established a home video arm, CBS Video Enterprises (CVE), in January 1980 with Cy Leslie as chairman. In 1980, CVE formed a joint venture with

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

, MGM/CBS Home Video licensed the film library of

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 Dis ...

Magnetic Video Magnetic Video Corporation was a home video/home audio duplication service that operated between 1968 and 1982. History Magnetic Video Corporation was established by the co-founder Andre Blay, an American film producer in 1968 with Leon Nichols ...

division. In addition to the MGM film library, the company released output from CBS News,

CBS Records CBS Records may refer to: * CBS Records or CBS/Sony, former name of Sony Music, a global record company * CBS Records International, label for Columbia Records recordings released outside North America from 1962 to 1990 * CBS Records (2006), founde ...

, the

television network, CBS Theatrical Films, 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 to

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,

withdrew from the MGM joint venture. The MGM/CBS company reorganized into MGM/UA Home Video. 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.

continued to issue their product and programming under the Fox Video label until 1998, and utilized the CBS/Fox label for

BBC Video 2 Entertain (stylized as 2 , entertain) is a British video and music publisher founded in September 2004 by the merger of BBC Video and Video Collection International in 2004. Under CEO Richard Green, the company operated as a joint venture b ...

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, an ...

, since 2020). After the CBS/ Viacom merger was completed in 2000,

became CBS Video/DVD's distributor. Both companies were split again on January 1, 2006, but they were still controlled by National Amusements.

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, and ...

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 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