Studio Distribution Services

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (formerly Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Universal Studios Home Video, MCA/Universal Home Video, MCA Home Video, MCA Videodisc and MCA Videocassette, Inc.) is the home video distribution division of American film studio Universal Pictures, owned by the NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast.

History

The company was founded in 1980 as MCA Videocassette, Inc. with Gene Giaquinto as president of the division and released 24 films on Betamax and VHS in May 1980, including ''Jaws'', ''Animal House'' and ''The Deer Hunter'' as well as classic films such as ''Dracula'', ''Animal Crackers'' and ''Scarface''. ''Jaws 2'' and ''1941'' were also released that year. Prior to 1980, Castle Films (known as Universal 8 after 1977) had served as Universal's home film distribution unit. In late 1983, both the Laserdisc sister label MCA Videodisc and the VHS/Beta label MCA Videocassette, Inc. were consolidated into a single entity, MCA Home Video, alternating with the MCA Videocassette, Inc. name until December 1983. In 1990, with the 75th anniversary of Universal Studios, it became MCA/Universal Home Video, alternating with the MCA Home Video name from 1990 until 1997. The company later went by various company names, including Universal Studios Home Video (1997–2005) and Universal Studios Home Entertainment (2005–2016).

In 1980, they released two '50s 3-D motion pictures, ''Creature from the Black Lagoon'' and ''It Came from Outer Space'', in anaglyphic format on Beta and VHS.

In 1986, MCA Home Video had inked a distribution deal with video distributor Kartes Video Communications to re-release older and classic titles on videocassette, with six titles from the Universal catalog. This was followed by a similar agreement in 1987, when MCA Home Video had inked a distribution deal with GoodTimes Home Video to re-release several MCA catalog titles for a low price.

In 1986, the company had inked an agreement with Motown Productions, in order to launch a series of four "Motown Video Originals" in an effort to enter the direct-to-video market as "mini-movies" which was budgeted in the mid-six figures, and wanted to be viewed as breakthrough programs by MCA in the anticipated "longform music video" category. Also that year, the company formed a partnership with children's book publisher Price Stern Sloan, who already succeeded with the ''Wee Sing'' titles, inked a deal with the company to handle videocassette releases of children's programs, like ''Mr. Men'' and ''The World's Worst Jokes'', which are the first two projects offered by $100,000, and MCA handled worldwide distribution of PSS projects, with the exceptions of ''Mr. Men'' and ''Wee Sing'', which PSS handled worldwide distribution.

In 1987, MCA Distribution Corp., who normally distributed titles from MCA Home Video and independent home video distributor International Video Entertainment signed an exclusive three-year agreement, that provided that all product produced by IVE, as well as subsidiary label Family Home Entertainment, would be delivered to MCA, which that would only handle distribution for the company, as well as IVE, which would continue to control sales and marketing policies and activities, to be in effect by March 1, and that the IVE subsidiary Creative Video Services would handle a multi-year agreement with the company, which Creative Video Services would supply over 1 million videocassettes that was produced by MCA a year, and initial releases covered by the agreement are a series of titles produced by Carolco Pictures and Scotti Bros. Pictures, and that MCA would offer to distribute new videocassettes from Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus. That year, MCA has restructured its MCA Home Entertainment unit, naming business affairs vice president Sondra Berchin to take over the new position as executive president of the MCA Home Entertainment division, and responsible for handling out new titles and responsibilities to Ned Nalle, Louis Feola and Blair Westlake, all of them were previously alumus of various MCA/Universal units, namely Universal Pay Television.

After the founding of NBC Universal in 2004, Universal started releasing DVDs of shows from the newly established NBC Universal Television Distribution.

Universal 1440 Entertainment was formed in 2005 as the production arm of Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

This company was the worldwide video distributor for DreamWorks titles until DreamWorks was sold to Paramount Pictures' parent company, Viacom, in 2006, at which point Paramount took over distribution. After Viacom spun off DreamWorks in 2008, Universal Studios Home Entertainment was planned to resume distributing DreamWorks' movies, but this deal fell through. Until Lionsgate formed their home video division, their releases were distributed by Universal with the exception of ''Dogma'', which was distributed by Columbia TriStar Home Video. In 2007, it was signed on as home video distributor of releases by Summit Entertainment.

In addition to DVDs, Universal was