CIC Video was a

home video Home video is recorded media sold or Video rental shop, rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD and Blu-ray. ...

distributor, established in 1980, owned by

Cinema International Corporation Cinema International Corporation (CIC) was a film distribution company started by Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures in the early 1970s to distribute the two studios' films outside the United States – it even operated in Canada before it ...

(the forerunner of

United International Pictures United International Pictures (UIP) is a joint venture of Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures that distributes their films outside the United States and Canada. UIP also had international distribution rights to certain Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (M ...

), and operated in some countries (such as

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Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

and

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

) by local operators. Outside in North America, it distributed films by

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

(now owned by

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and Trade name, doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Show business, entertainment conglomerate (comp ...

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

) and

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

(now owned by

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, ...

, which is owned 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 ...

), CIC's partners. DreamWorks films (through DreamWorks Home Entertainment) were added to the company output in 1998, as the fledgling studio that had a worldwide video distribution deal with Universal.

History

When the distributor appointed Karl Oliver from Brooke Bond Batchelors to be its sales and marketing director in 1991, they wanted him to introduce "classic FMCG disciplines" to its marketing campaign. Oliver responded by reducing video cassette prices to and promote impulse purchasing as part of CIC Video's reformed distribution strategy. After the sudden death of CIC Video's president Roy Featherstone of an asthma attack on 17 July 1992 the distributor underwent restructuring with aid from senior Universal and Paramount employees. In 1994, Viacom purchased Paramount Pictures, enabling CIC Video to gain international distribution rights to shows from, among other networks,

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

and

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

, which came into effect in Australia in 1995 and the UK and other countries in early 1996. In 1999, CIC Video was dissolved when Universal pulled out in favour of its then-newly purchased

PolyGram Filmed Entertainment PolyGram Filmed Entertainment (formerly known as Filmworks, Casablanca Record & Filmworks, PolyGram Films and PolyGram Pictures or simply PFE) was a film production company founded in 1975 as an American film studio, which became a European co ...

's video division ( PolyGram Video) which was then promptly renamed as Universal Pictures Video. Paramount would retain CIC Video's operations, which was then renamed

Paramount Home Entertainment Paramount Home Entertainment (formerly Paramount Home Media Distribution, originally Paramount Home Video, and operating as the namesake film studio since 2022) is the home video distribution arm of Paramount Pictures. The division oversees Para ...

. The last videos with the CIC label were released within the same year. Meanwhile, the distributor signed sales and distribution contracts with local market producers in Europe to increase profit and the brand name of CIC Video remained in the short term in markets where Paramount Home Entertainment were absent. CIC Video was operated in

(where it was known as CIC-Taft Home Video) by the Taft- Hardie joint venture (now Southern Star Group), and also distributed some Southern Star and

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ; formerly known as H-B Enterprises, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. and H-B Production Co.), simply and commonly known as Hanna-Barbera, was an American animation studio and production company, which was acti ...

product under other labels. The Hanna-Barbera library is now handled usually by

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 ...

. The label's defunct subsidiary was a distributor called Rigby-CIC Video and CIC-Taft's label manufacturer was Roadshow Home Video. CIC Video was operated in

by Esselte Video.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cic Video Home video distributors Home video companies established in 1980 Home video companies disestablished in 1999 1981 mergers and acquisitions Universal Pictures Paramount Pictures Gulf and Western Industries