Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, Inc. (

doing business as A trade name, trading name, or business name is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is fictitious business name. Registering the fictitious name with ...

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 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. ...

distribution division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video (as a division of Warner Communications, Inc.). The company launched in the United States with twenty films on

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 ...

and VHS videocassettes in late 1979. The company later expanded its line to include additional titles throughout 1979 and 1980. It is responsible for distributing the film and television library of Warner Bros. Discovery and other companies on various home media formats, such as DVD,

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 ...

Ultra HD Blu-ray Ultra HD Blu-ray (4K Ultra HD, UHD-BD, or 4K Blu-ray) is a digital optical disc data storage format that is an enhanced variant of Blu-ray. Ultra HD Blu-ray supports 4K UHD (3840 × 2160 pixel resolution) video at frame rates up to 60 progre ...

, digital, and streaming platforms. Some of the companies that Warner Bros. Home Entertainment distributes include Max, Warner Bros. ( Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, Warner Bros. Television Studios, Warner Bros. Animation),

New Line Cinema New Line Productions, Inc., Trade name, doing business as New Line Cinema, is an American film production, film and television production company that is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, a division of the Major film studios, ...

, DC Entertainment, DC Studios,

Viz Media Viz Media, LLC is an American entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California, focused on publishing manga, and distribution and licensing Japanese anime, films, and television series. The company was founded in 1986 as Viz, ...

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

, CNN,

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

( Cartoon Network Studios,

Williams Street Williams Street Productions, LLC, formerly known as Ghost Planet Industries, is an American animation and live action television production studio owned by the Warner Bros. Television Studios division of Warner Bros., a unit of Warner Bros. ...

Adult Swim Adult Swim (stylized as dult swimand s is an American adult-oriented television programming block that airs on Cartoon Network which broadcasts during the evening, prime time, and Late-night television, late-night Dayparting, dayparts. T ...

, TBS, TNT,

TruTV TruTV (stylized as truTV) is an American basic cable Television channel, channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel primarily broadcasts reruns of Television comedy, comedy, Reality television, docusoaps and reality shows, with a rec ...

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcas ...

, Rooster Teeth (until its closure in May 2024 and purchase by co-founder Burnie Burns's company Box Canyon Productions in February 2025),

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

, Animal Planet, TLC, HGTV,

Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery, who manages and operates it as a division of the Warner Bros. Discovery U.S. Networks Group. The channel airs both televi ...

, and Amazon MGM Studios (via

MGM Home Entertainment MGM Home Entertainment LLC (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment, d/b/a MGM Home Entertainment and formerly known as MGM Home Video, MGM/CBS Home Video and MGM/UA Home Video) is the home video distribution arm of the American med ...

) among others. Their releases are currently distributed by Studio Distribution Services, a joint venture between WBDHE and

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Universal Pictures Home Entertainment LLC (UPHE) is the home video distribution division of Universal Pictures, an American film studio owned by NBCUniversal, the entertainment unit of Comcast. UPHE is the home video distributor for all of the ...

History

The company was founded in 1978 and launched in the United States with twenty films on

and VHS videocassettes in late 1979. The company later expanded its line to include additional titles throughout 1979 and 1980. Warner Bros. began to branch out into the videodisc market, licensing titles to MCA DiscoVision and RCA's SelectaVision videodisc formats, allowing both companies to market and distribute the films under their labels. By 1985, Warner Bros. was releasing material under their own label in both formats. Titles from Warner Home Video are distributed and manufactured by Roadshow Home Video in Australia and New Zealand because of its film counterpart's films released by Village Roadshow. Warner Home Video also experimented with the "rental-only" market for videos, a method also used by

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 ...

for their first release of ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

'' in 1982. Two known films released in this manner were ''

Superman II ''Superman II'' is a 1980 superhero film directed by Richard Lester and written by Mario Puzo and David Newman (screenwriter), David and Leslie Newman from a story by Puzo based on the DC Comics character Superman. It is the second installment i ...

'' and ''

Excalibur Excalibur is the mythical sword of King Arthur that may possess magical powers or be associated with the rightful sovereignty of Britain. Its first reliably datable appearance is found in Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''Historia Regum Britanniae''. E ...

''. Other films released for rental use include '' Dirty Harry'', '' The Enforcer'', '' Prince of the City'', and '' Sharky's Machine''. In 1990, Warner Home Video acquired the worldwide home video rights to the MGM/UA catalog. The $125 million purchase was used to finance MGM/UA's acquisition by the Pathé Communications Corporation. The intended 12½-year-long deal was cut short in February 2000, with MGM paying Warner Home Video $225 million to regain video rights to a number of its films. In exchange, Warner Home Video gained full control over the video rights to MGM's pre-May 1986 library, an asset the studio had acquired outright from Turner Entertainment Co., but due to a pre-existing licensing deal with MGM, was originally expected to expire in 2003. On December 20, 1996, Warner Home Video was one of the first major American distributors for the then-new DVD format, by releasing the films '' Assassins'', '' Blade Runner: Director's Cut'', '' Eraser'', and '' The Fugitive'' on DVD in Japan and on March 24, 1997, in the United States with ''

Twister Twister most commonly refers to a tornado. Twister or Twisters may also refer to: Aviation * Pipistrel Twister, a Slovenian ultralight trike * Silence Twister, a German homebuilt aircraft design * Wings of Change Twister, an Austrian paragli ...

'' also being a launch title for the region there. Warner Bros. executive Warren Lieberfarb is often seen as "the father of DVD". Lieberfarb's successor, Warner Bros. executive James F. Cardwell was recognized in paving the way for WHV's strategic positioning in next generation technologies such as High Definition DVD ( HD DVD), electronic sell-through and portable video. In 2003, Warner Home Video became the first home video releasing company to release movies only on DVD with no VHS equivalent. Warner Bros

In 2009, Warner Home Video introduced the Warner Archive Collection, which allows the public to order custom-made DVDs of rarely seen films and television series from the Warner and Turner libraries. The films are also available as digital downloads. Warner Archive DVDs and downloads can be ordered online on Warner's website, on Amazon.com or one-time

-affiliated DVD website MoviesUnlimited.com. On June 30, 2020, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment regained the home video rights to the

MGM 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 ...

catalog after 21 years.

Starting in 2022, due to the finalization of the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, WBHE started distributing the television libraries of Discovery-owned networks including the flagship

and Animal Planet.

Studio Distribution Services, LLC

On January 14, 2020, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment and

announced that they would partner on a 10-year multinational joint-venture. In North America, their physical distribution operations were merged into a company named Studio Distribution Services, LLC. Internationally, Universal will distribute Warner Bros.' titles in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Japan; while Warner will distribute Universal's titles in the United Kingdom (until 2025), Italy (until 2024) and Benelux. On April 7, 2020, the European Commission approved the merger. Since June 1, 2021, SDS' logo took the WBHE logo's place on the back covers of the home releases; while there have been several exceptions, mainly manufactured on demand titles including 4K (also steelbooks) and

releases. On June 24, 2024, it was reported that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment had entered into a distribution deal with SDS to handle the physical distribution of their titles.

Notes

References

External links

WarnerBros.com , Home Entertainment , Company
{{DEFAULTSORT:Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Warner Bros. Discovery subsidiaries 1978 establishments in California Companies based in Burbank, California Entertainment companies based in California Entertainment companies established in 1978 Home video companies established in 1978 Home video companies of the United States Home video distributors Mass media companies established in 1978 1978 establishments in the United States