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 Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

releases) is an American home video company that distributes films and television shows produced by the

CBS Entertainment Group The following is a list of major assets that are owned by Paramount Global, an American multinational media conglomerate headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Paramount Pictures Corporation * Paramount Studio Grou ...

and is a division label of Paramount Home Entertainment that releases content from the CBS library (

CBS Studios CBS Studios, Inc. is an American television production company which is a subsidiary of the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. It was formed on January 17, 2006, by CBS Corporation as CBS Paramount (Network) Television, as a re ...

CBS Media Ventures CBS Media Ventures, Inc. (formerly CBS Paramount Domestic Television and CBS Television Distribution) is the television broadcast syndication arm of CBS Studios, a division of the CBS Entertainment Group, in turn a division of Paramount Global, ...

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio broadcaster CBS. It is headquartered in New York City. CBS News television programs include ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs ''CBS News Sunday Morn ...

, and their predecessor companies) on home media.

History

CBS, Inc. established a home video arm, CBS Video Enterprises (CVE), in 1979 with Cy Leslie as chairman. In 1980, CVE formed a joint venture with

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

(MGM), called MGM/CBS Home Video which licensed the film library of MGM for release on home videocassette, following the early leads of Paramount Home Video and

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

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

, CBS Records, the CBS television network, CBS Theatrical Films, and the motion picture division of

Lorimar Lorimar may refer to: * Lorimar Television, previously Lorimar Productions and later Lorimar Distribution, an American film and television production and marketing company from 1969 to 1986 * Lorimar-Telepictures, formed in 1986 after the merger of ...

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

Betamax Betamax (also known as Beta, and stylized as the Greek letter Beta, β in its logo) is a discontinued consumer analog Videotape, video cassette recording format developed by Sony. It was one of the main competitors in the videotape format war ag ...

to RCA'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. 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 in the United States until these rights expired on June 30, 2000 and wasn't renewed. On June 28, 2000, BBC Worldwide Americas announced a new partnership with

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, Inc. (doing business as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment; formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the American home video distribution ...

that would begin effectively on July 1, 2000, excluding the release of ''

Walking with Dinosaurs ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' is a 1999 six-part nature documentary television miniseries created by Tim Haines and produced by the BBC Science Unit, the Discovery Channel and BBC Worldwide, in association with TV Asahi, ProSieben and France 3. ...

'', which was instead transferred over from CBS/Fox to Warner Home Video on September 1, 2000. In 2001, CBS/Fox Video was folded into 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (now called

20th Century Home Entertainment 20th Century Home Entertainment (previously known as Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, LLC. and also known as 20th Century Studios Home Entertainment) was a home video distribution arm that distributes films produced by 20th Century Stud ...

, 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). When Viacom purchased CBS in 2000, Paramount Home Entertainment became CBS Video/DVD's distributor. Both companies were split again on December 31, 2005, 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. The company owned 69 theaters and 667 screens throughout the United Stat ...

CBS Corporation CBS Corporation was an American multinational media company with interests primarily in commercial broadcasting, publishing and television production. It was split from Viacom on December 31, 2005, alongside an entirely new Viacom; both ...

formed CBS Home Entertainment as a new home entertainment arm in 2007.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Inc. (abbreviated as SPHE) is the home entertainment distribution division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony. Background SPHE is responsible for the distribution of the Sony Pictures libra ...

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 Major film studio#Mini-majors, mini-major studio up until 2019. CBS Films originally was planned t ...

beginning in 2010, under license from CBS Home Entertainment; five years later, Lionsgate Home Entertainment 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. CBS and Viacom re-merged on December 4, 2019, forming ViacomCBS (now

Paramount Global Paramount Global (Trade name, d/b/a Paramount) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment Conglomerate (company), conglomerate controlled by National Amusements and Headquarters, headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Times Square, ...

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