History Sandbox / HomeVideoDistribution

TBD per [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1598052607026629500 TRS]]:
# Creator/AnimeLimited -- 17 wicks -- 205 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/AnimeLimited related]] -- ''address wicks, then cut''

Turned into redirects (most to UsefulNotes/HomeVideoDistributors):

Cutlist complete:

----
Found since initial discussion; need to discuss:
# Creator/{{Aniplex}} (unclear on which works they had any creative role; don't cut, but revise page)
# Creator/{{Geneon}} (unclear on which works they had any creative role; don't cut, but revise page)
# Creator/GoodTimesEntertainment
# Creator/OpenRoadFilms
# Creator/Section23Films
# Creator/PonycanUSA
# Creator/UAVEntertainment

# Creator/MillCreekEntertainment -- 38 wicks -- 499 inbounds [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/MillCreekEntertainment related]]

# Creator/AnimeLimited -- 17 wicks -- 205 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/AnimeLimited related]] -- ''should this be redirect or cut?''
# Creator/FotomatVideo -- 3 wicks -- 200 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/FotomatVideo related]] -- ''wicks ready, but should this be redirect or cut? inbounds grew slightly since listed''
# Creator/InternationalVideoEntertainment -- 18 wicks -- 200 inbounds -- parent: eventually Creator/{{Lionsgate}} -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/InternationalVideoEntertainment related]] -- ''should this be redirect or cut? inbounds grew slightly since listed''
# Creator/MagneticVideo -- 20 wicks -- 2652 inbounds -- parent: Indie, then Creator/TwentiethCenturyStudios, then Creator/TheCBSFoxCompany, now Creator/{{Disney}} -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/MagneticVideo related]] -- ''make redirect''
# Creator/MillCreekEntertainment -- 38 wicks -- 499 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/MillCreekEntertainment related]] -- ''make redirect''
# Creator/MVMEntertainment -- 6 wicks -- 249 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/MVMEntertainment related]] -- ''wicks ready, but should this be redirect or cut? inbounds grew slightly since listed''
# Creator/WaltDisneyHomeVideo -- 73 wicks -- 3862 inbounds -- parent: Creator/{{Disney}} -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/WaltDisneyHomeVideo related]] -- ''make redirect; deal with other existing redirects''

# Creator/WarnerHomeVideo -- 912 inbounds -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/WarnerHomeVideo related]] -- redirect to parent: Creator/WarnerBros

# Creator/{{Aniplex}} (unclear on which works they had any creative role)
# Creator/{{Geneon}} (unclear on which works they had any creative role)

# Creator/WarnerHomeVideo -- 32 wicks -- 910 inbounds -- parent: Creator/WarnerBros -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/WarnerHomeVideo related]] -- ''make redirect''

# Creator/Section23Films

TBD:

# Creator/MGMCBSHomeVideo -- 13 wicks -- 1649 inbounds -- parent: Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer, plus Creator/{{CBS}} and later Creator/UnitedArtists -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/MGMCBSHomeVideo related]] -- ''wicks ready to make redirect, but what about being target of Creator/MGMUAHomeVideo?''

# Creator/SonyPicturesHomeEntertainment -- 18 wicks -- 80 inbounds -- parent: Creator/SonyPictures -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/SonyPicturesHomeEntertainment related]] -- ''ready to cut''
# Creator/ThornEMIVideo -- 15 wicks -- 238 inbounds -- parent: Creator/{{EMI}}, later others in UK and US -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/ThornEMIVideo related]] -- ''wicks ready, but should this be redirect or cut?''

Turned into redirects to UsefulNotes/HomeVideoDistributors:

# Creator/WorldvisionHomeVideo -- 1 wicks -- 19 inbounds -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/WorldvisionHomeVideo related]]

# Creator/SonyPicturesHomeEntertainment -- 18 wicks -- 80 inbounds -- parent: Creator/SonyPictures -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/SonyPicturesHomeEntertainment related]] -- ''to be cut; deal with other existing redirects''
# Creator/ThornEMIVideo -- 15 wicks -- 238 inbounds -- parent: Creator/{{EMI}}, later others in UK and US -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/ThornEMIVideo related]] -- ''should this be redirect or cut?''

# Creator/FotomatVideo -- 3 wicks -- 200 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/FotomatVideo related]] -- ''should this be redirect or cut? inbounds grew slightly since listed''

# Creator/MGMCBSHomeVideo -- 13 wicks -- 1649 inbounds -- parent: Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer, plus Creator/{{CBS}} and later Creator/UnitedArtists -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/MGMCBSHomeVideo related]] -- ''make redirect''

# Creator/MVMEntertainment -- 6 wicks -- 249 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/MVMEntertainment related]] -- ''should this be redirect or cut? inbounds grew slightly since listed''
# Creator/RandomHouseHomeVideo -- 6 wicks -- 912 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/RandomHouseHomeVideo related]] -- ''make redirect''

# Creator/TheCBSFoxCompany -- 9 wicks -- 352 inbounds -- parent: Creator/TwentiethCenturyStudios plus Creator/{{CBS}}, now Creator/{{Disney}} -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/TheCBSFoxCompany related]]
# Creator/KinoLorberStudioClassics -- 1 wicks -- 324 inbounds -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/KinoLorberStudioClassics related]]
# Creator/LyrickStudios -- 1 wicks -- 387 inbounds -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/LyrickStudios related]]
# Creator/MCAVideoDistributingCorporation -- 2 wicks -- 658 inbounds -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/MCAVideoDistributingCorporation related]]
# Creator/MediaHomeEntertainment -- 2 wicks -- 432 inbounds -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/MediaHomeEntertainment related]]

# Creator/AnimeLimited -- 17 wicks -- 205 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/AnimeLimited related]]
# Creator/FotomatVideo -- 3 wicks -- 193 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/FotomatVideo related]] -- ''should this be redirect or cut?''
# Creator/InternationalVideoEntertainment -- 18 wicks -- 198 inbounds -- parent: eventually Creator/{{Lionsgate}} -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/InternationalVideoEntertainment related]]
# Creator/MadmanEntertainment -- 63 wicks -- 494 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/MadmanEntertainment related]]
# Creator/MagneticVideo -- 20 wicks -- 2652 inbounds -- parent: Indie, then Creator/TwentiethCenturyStudios, then Creator/TheCBSFoxCompany, now Creator/{{Disney}} -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/MagneticVideo related]]
# Creator/MGMCBSHomeVideo -- 13 wicks -- 1649 inbounds -- parent: Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer, plus Creator/{{CBS}} and later Creator/UnitedArtists -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/MGMCBSHomeVideo related]]
# Creator/MillCreekEntertainment -- 38 wicks -- 499 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/MillCreekEntertainment related]]
# Creator/MVMEntertainment -- 6 wicks -- 247 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/MVMEntertainment related]]
# Creator/RandomHouseHomeVideo -- 6 wicks -- 912 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/RandomHouseHomeVideo related]]
# Creator/SonyPicturesHomeEntertainment -- 18 wicks -- 80 inbounds -- parent: Creator/SonyPictures -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/SonyPicturesHomeEntertainment related]]
# Creator/ThornEMIVideo -- 15 wicks -- 238 inbounds -- parent: Creator/{{EMI}}, later others in UK and US -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/ThornEMIVideo related]]
# Creator/WaltDisneyHomeVideo -- 73 wicks -- 3862 inbounds -- parent: Creator/{{Disney}} -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/WaltDisneyHomeVideo related]]
# Creator/WarnerHomeVideo -- 32 wicks -- 910 inbounds -- parent: Creator/WarnerBros -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/WarnerHomeVideo related]]

# Creator/TheCBSFoxCompany -- 9 wicks -- 352 inbounds -- parent: Creator/TwentiethCenturyStudios plus Creator/{{CBS}}, now Creator/{{Disney}} -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/TheCBSFoxCompany related]]
# Creator/FotomatVideo -- 3 wicks -- 193 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/FotomatVideo related]]

# Creator/MagicWindow -- 2 wicks -- 116 inbounds -- parent: eventually Creator/SonyPictures (sublabel of RCA/Columbia) -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/MagicWindow related]]

# Creator/ParamountHomeVideo -- 2 wicks -- 99 inbounds -- parent: Creator/{{Paramount}} -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/ParamountHomeVideo related]]
# Creator/PBSHomeVideo -- 2 wicks -- 131 inbounds -- parent: Creator/{{PBS}} -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/PBSHomeVideo related]]

# Creator/RoadshowHomeVideo -- 2 wicks -- 130 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/RoadshowHomeVideo related]]

Merge Scream Factory into Shout! Factory, cutlist Scream Factory; cleanup the many lists on Shout! Factory:
* Creator/ScreamFactory -- 7 wicks -- 129 inbounds -- parent: Creator/ShoutFactory -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/ScreamFactory related]]
* Creator/ShoutFactory -- 178 wicks -- 1224 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/ShoutFactory related]]

# Creator/AvidHomeEntertainment -- 2 wicks -- 17 inbounds -- parent: -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/AvidHomeEntertainment related]]
# Creator/CineplexOdeonVideo -- 1 wicks -- 26 inbounds -- parent: -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/CineplexOdeonVideo related]]
# Creator/FredLevineProductions -- 1 wicks -- 978 inbounds -- parent: -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/FredLevineProductions related]]
# Creator/ModernTimes -- 1 wicks -- 60 inbounds -- parent: -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/ModernTimes related]]
# Creator/MPIHomeVideo -- 1 wicks -- 57 inbounds -- parent: -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/MPIHomeVideo related]]
# Creator/TwilightTime -- 1 wicks -- 94 inbounds -- parent: -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/TwilightTime related]]
# Creator/VCIHomeVideo -- 1 wicks -- 9 inbounds -- parent: -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/VCIHomeVideo related]]
# Creator/VestronVideo -- 3 wicks -- 17 inbounds -- parent: -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/VestronVideo related]]
# Creator/VistaHomeVideo -- 1 wicks -- 25 inbounds -- parent: -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/VistaHomeVideo related]]
# Creator/WizardVideo -- 1 wicks -- 92 inbounds -- parent: -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/WizardVideo related]]
# Creator/WorldvisionHomeVideo -- 1 wicks -- 19 inbounds -- parent: -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/WorldvisionHomeVideo related]]

# Creator/AlliedArtistsVideo -- 3 wicks -- 177 inbounds -- parent: Creator/AlliedArtists -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/AlliedArtistsVideo related]]

# '''Main/HomeVideoDistributors''' -- 0 wicks -- 484 inbounds

# Creator/AvidHomeEntertainment -- 2 wicks -- 17 inbounds -- parent: eventually Creator/{{Lionsgate}} -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/AvidHomeEntertainment related]]

# Creator/CineplexOdeonVideo -- 1 wicks -- 26 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/CineplexOdeonVideo related]]
# Creator/FotomatVideo -- 7 wicks -- 193 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/FotomatVideo related]]
# Creator/FredLevineProductions -- 3 wicks -- 978 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/FredLevineProductions related]]

# Creator/KinoLorberStudioClassics -- 2 wicks -- 324 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/KinoLorberStudioClassics related]]
# Creator/LyrickStudios -- 5 wicks -- 387 inbounds -- parent: eventually Creator/HITEntertainment -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/LyrickStudios related]]

# Creator/MagicWindow -- 3 wicks -- 116 inbounds -- parent: eventually Creator/SonyPictures (sublabel of RCA/Columbia) -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/MagicWindow related]]

# Creator/MCAVideoDistributingCorporation -- 11 wicks -- 658 inbounds -- parent: Creator/{{Universal}} -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/MCAVideoDistributingCorporation related]]
# Creator/MediaHomeEntertainment -- 7 wicks -- 432 inbounds -- parent: eventually Creator/{{Lionsgate}} via Creator/{{Starz}} -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/MediaHomeEntertainment related]]

# Creator/ModernTimes -- 8 wicks -- 60 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/ModernTimes related]]
# Creator/MPIHomeVideo -- 1 wicks -- 57 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/MPIHomeVideo related]]

# Creator/ScreamFactory -- 7 wicks -- 129 inbounds -- parent: Creator/ShoutFactory -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/ScreamFactory related]]
# Creator/ShoutFactory -- 178 wicks -- 1224 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/ShoutFactory related]]

# Creator/TwilightTime -- 1 wicks -- 94 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/TwilightTime related]]
# Creator/VCIHomeVideo -- 1 wicks -- 9 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/VCIHomeVideo related]]
# Creator/VestronVideo -- 8 wicks -- 17 inbounds -- parent: eventually Creator/{{Lionsgate}} -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/VestronVideo related]]
# Creator/VistaHomeVideo -- 1 wicks -- 25 inbounds -- parent: unclear but bullet under Creator/{{Lionsgate}} -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/VistaHomeVideo related]]

# Creator/WizardVideo -- 4 wicks -- 92 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/WizardVideo related]]
# Creator/WorldvisionHomeVideo -- 1 wicks -- 19 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/WorldvisionHomeVideo related]]

# Creator/WorldvisionHomeVideo -- 1 wicks -- 19 inbounds -- parent: none -- [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/relatedsearch.php?term=Creator/WorldvisionHomeVideo related]]

----
!!Non-USA home video distributors -- TBD!
!!!'''Anime Limited'''
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/anime_ltd.png]]

[[http://www.alltheanime.com/ Anime Limited]] is a UK anime distributor established in 2013. However, they have sub-licensed from several companies, including Creator/{{Funimation}}, Creator/VizMedia and Creator/AniplexUSA. They are known for their collector's and ultimate editions of many of their releases.

They've also made use of studio Creator/NYAVPost to dub some of their select titles that they've licenced first and haven't been dubbed elsewhere, such as ''[[Manga/Cyborg009 009 Re:Cyborg]]'', ''Mai Mai Miracle'' and ''Anime/PsychicSchoolWars''.

In 2017, their licensed shows began airing in late-night on Viceland UK.

!!!'''Cineplex Odeon Video'''
Cineplex Odeon Video was the home video division of Canadian theatre chain Cineplex Odeon Corporation and one of the major video distributors in Canada.

Cineplex Odeon's video division began operations in the early 1980's as Pan-Canadian Video Presentations, changing to the familiar name in 1986, and they continued well into the late 1990's until Alliance Atlantis purchased the assets of Cineplex Odeon's film distribution unit along with its home video division.

!!!'''Madman Entertainment'''
[[quoteright:351:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Madman.JPG]]
[[caption-width-right:351:Best. Logo. Ever.]]

->''"Running a team of vigilante {{bounty hunter}}s is something that I've always aspired to do."''\\
--Madman co-founder '''Tim Anderson''', from an extra on the Australian DVD release of ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis 2032'', the company's first acquisition

Originally beginning in 1996 solely to distribute anime in Australia, [[http://www.madman.com.au Madman Entertainment]] has grown into one of the largest entertainment companies in UsefulNotes/{{Australia}} and UsefulNotes/NewZealand, accounting for 97 percent of all anime DVD sales in Australia, with an annual turnover of around $50 million AUD.

Madman has secured the local release rights to a number of very popular franchises including ''Manga/OnePiece'', ''Manga/DragonBall'', ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', ''Manga/{{Akira}}'', ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', and almost all of Creator/StudioGhibli's catalogue. In addition to DVD sales, Madman also manages the theatrical release of some of their titles, particularly the Studio Ghibli movies.

Madman also sub license anime from Creator/AnimEigo, Creator/BandaiEntertainment, Creator/{{Funimation}}, Creator/HarmonyGold, Creator/SentaiFilmworks, Creator/VizMedia, and formerly Creator/ADVFilms and Creator/{{Geneon}}. Madman has always acted as the distributor for Manga's products until 2003 when Creator/MangaEntertainment Australia Ltd merged with Madman. This happened so if Manga lost a license in Australia, Madman would pick it up. If Madman Entertainment lost the license for anime from American companies, Manga UK would sub-license anime to Madman.

In May 2014, they officially opened the streaming service [[https://www.animelab.com/ AnimeLab]]. Offering up over 200 of their (and fellow licencors Hanabee and Siren Visual's) titles from their back catalog as well as entering the simulcast game. The site is exclusively for Australian and New Zealand residents notably, something they love to point out the irony of considering how [[NoExportForYou many services in the U.S. have geoblocked them]].

In addition to anime and manga, Madman also distribute various other genres such as Australian television (mostly from Creator/{{SBS}}), Asian cinema, UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}}, action sports and even independent films. They also have the distribution rights to original Creator/CartoonNetwork and Creator/AdultSwim series. And if that's not enough, they've started their own studio, [[http://www.madmanproductions.com.au/ Madman Productions]].

!!!'''Modern Times'''
Modern Times was once one of the major entertainment companies in Greece. It was founded in 1996 by Kostas Giannikos as a comic book company, their first issue probably being ''ComicBook/SpiderMan Adventures''. Between then and 2002, they were important in the comic industry in Greece, and they also released books, [=CDs=] and audiotapes, as well as videotapes and [=DVDs=], which were initially under the "Nextworks S.A." brand name. The company closed in late 2011, when Kostas Giannikos was arrested for debts.

!!!'''MVM Entertainment'''
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/7ebf6669c27a545106d04145fe7bf614.jpg]]

[[http://www.mvm-films.com/ MVM Entertainment]], a British {{anime}} distributor, is the UK licensee for select titles from Creator/AnimEigo, Creator/CentralParkMedia, {{Creator/GONZO}}, Creator/{{Geneon}} USA, Creator/MediaBlasters, [[Creator/NipponIchi NIS America]], Creator/NozomiEntertainment, Creator/SentaiFilmworks, Urban Vision and Creator/VizMedia. They also distributed Creator/{{Funimation}} titles until 2007, lost the license to Revelation Films for a while, then started getting some Funi titles again when Revelation left the anime business. (However, Funimation's main British distributor is Creator/MangaEntertainment.) MVM also releases one British animated series, ''WesternAnimation/AaaghItsTheMrHellShow'', as well as Asian cinema and live action horror films from both Asia and the English-speaking world.

!!!'''Roadshow Home Video'''
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/roadshow_home_video.png]]
->''Since their beginning in the early fifties, our Parents have shown the world how to successfully market "THE MOVIE".''\\
''Our Parents are, of course, ROADSHOW DISTRIBUTORS, Australia's largest theatrical distributor/importer, and VILLAGE THEATRES, the second largest cinema chain in Australia.''\\
''Now we have taken our twenty years of movie EXPERIENCE in entertaining Australian audiences into a new and exciting field—ROADSHOW HOME VIDEO.''\\
''We offer you the ultimate package in HOME ENTERTAINMENT, and a continuing future supply of multi million dollar Australian and overseas movies.''\\
''ROADSHOW HOME VIDEO, a new dimension in the home entertainment market.''
-->--Announcement seen on some early releases

''[[SelfDemonstratingArticle Welcome to Roadshow Home Video. Before the movie, we'd like to show you previews of some of our films.]]''

This is it, the house that Max built. Roadshow Home Video is an Australian home video company, and a subsidiary of Village Roadshow Corporation.

It began life in 1982 as the largest independent home video releasing company in Australasia, based in New South Wales. Its first offerings, on May 10, 1982, were a blend of 20 Australian and international titles, including homegrown science fiction action film ''Film/MadMax'', X-rated ''Insatiable'', graphically scary horror film ''[[Film/{{Phantasm}} The Never Dead]]'', driving film ''Film/KingOfTheMountain'', and the king of BodyHorror and [[YourHeadAsplode asploding heads]] itself, ''Film/{{Scanners}}''. Apart from titles from Roadshow and sister studio Greater Union, the firm also released titles from Creator/OrionPictures, Creator/EmbassyPictures, Creator/PolyGramFilmedEntertainment, Creator/NewWorldPictures, Creator/CarolcoPictures, Creator/VirginVision, and Creator/ProducersSalesOrganization, among others. It was also the Australian distributor of titles from Creator/WaltDisneyHomeVideo.

Crisis struck in the mid-'80s when the ACB decided to implement the brilliant idea suggested by the BBFC to deal with UsefulNotes/VideoNasties on their own home turf and require home video releases to be certified separately from cinematic releases. As this was a lot of work to implement, even higher-profile independents like Roadshow were severely affected, and numerous titles, including ''The Never Dead'', went out of print overnight. It's also no coincidence that Roadshow released fewer titles at a time around that time than they used to.

Towards the end of 1985, Roadshow adopted a new identity in the form of several V's gathered together, and this carried over to their cinematic distribution and home video units, as well as its new television (Roadshow Television) and film production (Creator/VillageRoadshowPictures) units. In 1988, they celebrated Australia's bicentennial by releasing the Aussie Six-Pack, a commemorative re-release of six classic Australian movies (''Mad Max'', ''Film/{{Gallipoli}}'', ''Film/FarEast'', ''Film/PicnicAtHangingRock'', ''Film/{{Rebel}}'', and ''Film/{{Stone}}'').

The company still operates today, distributing not just its own titles but also those from Creator/TheBBC, Creator/FremantleMedia, Creator/{{Lionsgate}}, Creator/WarnerBros (mainly co-productions with Village Roadshow), and others.

''For more movie previews, keep watching after the end of this film.''

!!!'''Thorn EMI Video'''
[[quoteright:143:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cbb4ca0a38cd2407d97f4b522ae34381.png]]

Thorn Creator/{{EMI}} Video was a British home video company, owned by the music/electronics conglomerate, that also released its product in North America and Australia. It started life in 1979 as EMI Videogram before taking on its more well-known name in 1981, expanding to the United States later that year with 14 titles, including three music titles and one of two licensed videos of the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana (the other being released by Creator/TheBBC). Thorn EMI later evolved into a mini-major in the North American video business, with such titles as ''Film/TheBurning'', ''Film/TheBushidoBlade'', and ''Film/FirstBlood''. They also distributed product from Creator/ThamesTelevision and some early Creator/NewLineCinema titles.

In November 1984, Thorn EMI Video entered into a joint venture with Creator/{{HBO}}, which boosted its mini-major status. At least in North America, the company was now called Thorn EMI-HBO Video, gaining access to HBO product and becoming the exclusive distributor for many unreleased Creator/OrionPictures films between the establishment of the joint venture and the foundation of Orion's video division (prior to the Thorn EMI/HBO joint venture, Creator/VestronVideo and Creator/EmbassyHomeEntertainment both released a bunch of films from Orion). Following Creator/TheCannonGroup's purchase of the Thorn EMI library in 1986, the company became Cannon Video in the UK and HBO/Cannon Video in North America. However, Cannon was soon forced to sell Thorn EMI's library to producer Jerry Weintraub thanks to financial issues, and the company became simply HBO Video in 1987. Orion dropped out soon after that to setup their own video label, though some Orion films (including ''Film/ThreeAmigos''-- a co-production of Orion and HBO) continued to be distributed by HBO Video. HBO also distributed Weintraub's Thorn EMI product in North America for the time he owned it, while Creator/WarnerHomeVideo distributed it in the UK. HBO Video continued releasing product from a variety of firms (including Creator/MiramaxFilms, Thames, De Laurentiis, Hemdale, and Samuel Goldwyn, among others) through the late 80s and into the 90s, but gradually began concentrating on HBO-produced material as these companies shut down or found other distributors, and was renamed as HBO Home Entertainment in 2010 (its operations have also been streamlined with sister firm Warner Home Entertainment).

Today, Thorn EMI's titles are handled by the likes of Creator/StudioCanal, Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer, and Creator/WarnerBros, among others.

----
!!Other home video companies -- TBD!
!!!'''Allied Artists Video'''
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/5d9b6a3a68f3d01dfa6ec8def2242a0b.png]]

One of the most short-lived early home video companies, Allied Artists Video was set up in 1978 as a joint venture between ailing Hollywood veteran Creator/AlliedArtists and Bell & Howell Video Systems. The company had some successes from its launch in October, including ''Papillon'', ''The Man Who Would Be King'', ''The Betsy'', ''The Story of O'', and ''The Wild Geese'', but its parent company's financial troubles would soon catch up to them, eventually resulting in its 1979 bankruptcy and purchase by Creator/{{Lorimar}}. Lorimar shut down the company the next year, knocking the entire library out of print overnight. [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes Even today, some titles that had been released on video by Allied Artists are still hard to find.]] The last videocassette releases by Allied Artists was the complete Rathbone-Bruce series of ''Franchise/SherlockHolmes'' films.

!!!'''Fred Levine Productions'''
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/focus_video_productions.png]]
Fred Levine Productions[[note]]formerly Focus Video Productions[[/note]] is a home video company founded by Fred Levine. The company produced the ''Series/LittleHardhats'' Direct-To-Video series.

!!!'''Kino Lorber Studio Classics'''
[[quoteright:225:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kl_studio_classics.png]]

[[http://www.klstudioclassics.com Kino Lorber Studio Classics]] is a home video company that specializes in reissuing classic films on UsefulNotes/{{DVD}} and UsefulNotes/BluRay from the catalogs of major studios, including Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer, Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox, Creator/{{Paramount}}, Creator/{{Disney}}, Creator/{{Universal}} and Creator/StudioCanal.

!!!'''Lyrick Studios'''
Lyrick Studios was a production and distribution company that oversaw the release of children's TV shows, home videos, audio albums, books, games and toys based on various franchises, most famously ''Series/BarneyAndFriends'' and ''Series/{{Wishbone}}''. The company was created in 1994 as an umbrella for their two main production companies: '''The Lyons Group''' and '''Big Feats Entertainment''', the creators of Barney and Wishbone respectively. Lyrick was acquired by Creator/HITEntertainment in 2001 and was folded into the company later that year.

All properties released by Lyrick are owned by [=HiT=] except for ''Groundling Marsh'', owned by Portfolio Entertainment, ''Joe Scruggs'', owned by Shadow Play, ''Shelley Duvall'', owned by KOCH, ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTales'', which is owned by [=NBCUniversal=] through Creator/BigIdea and Creator/DreamWorksAnimation.

!!!'''Mill Creek Entertainment'''
[[quoteright:330:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mill_creek_logo_2_2912.jpg]]

[[http://www.millcreekent.com/ Mill Creek Entertainment]] is a low-budget home video company based in Golden Valley, Minnesota that specializes in reissuing films and TV series from major studios' catalogs (mostly Creator/{{Disney}} and Creator/{{Sony}}), although they've also released some original content.

!!!'''MPI Home Video'''
[[quoteright:264:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mpi_home_video_logo_3.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:264:One of the logos]]

'''MPI Home Video''' is a home video distributors by MPI Media Group. It was known to release classic television shows on VHS, Betamax, Laserdisc, DVD, and Blu-Ray.

!!!'''PBS Home Video'''
After years of selling cassettes to the educational market, Creator/{{PBS}} decided it needed to break into the realm of commercial home video. To accomplish that task, PBS joined forces with [[Music/TheMonkees Michael Nesmith]]'s Pacific Arts in 1990, forming '''PBS Home Video''' and releasing its first commercial tapes as the fall season commenced. Among the first releases were programs from ''The Frugal Gourmet'', ''Nature'', ''This Old House'', ''Wall Street Week'', and ''American Playhouse'' among others, and also at least a couple of specials. Over the next few years, PBS Home Video would become an emerging independent, releasing such programs as ''Series/ReadingRainbow'', ''Frontline'', ''Nova'', ''The Dinosaurs'', ''The Civil War'', ''The Astronomers'', and ''Masterpiece Theater'', among others, as well as a few pledge drive specials. Later, however, tensions grew between PBS and Pacific Arts, culminating in an acrimonious split that led to a lawsuit that lasted several years. In the meantime, PBS moved to Turner Home Entertainment for distribution. After Turner was acquired by Creator/WarnerHomeVideo, PBS distributed some tapes independently before joining up with Warner once more for a few years. Later, they went independent again for a time before joining up with Paramount Home Video, with whom they'd stay for several years, until they merged with WGBH's own home video unit to form PBS Distribution.

!!!'''Random House Home Video'''
[[quoteright:304:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/random_house_home_video_logo.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:304:The well known logo]]

'''Random House Home Video''' was, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the home video division]] of American book publisher Random House. Their focus was generally on children's programs, specifically those based off of popular book series. They also released ''Series/SesameStreet'' DirectToVideo titles, and were the first company to bring that series to home video.

In 1995, Sony Wonder entered a partnership with Random House to take over distribution of their videos. Consequently, Creator/SesameWorkshop signed an exclusive deal with Sony Wonder for future ''Sesame Street'' releases to make matters less complicated.

The company went dormant around 2001, though Sony Wonder still used their logos on releases as late as 2006.

!!!'''Twilight Time'''
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/twilight_time_logo.jpg]]

[[http://twilighttimemovies.com Twilight Time]] is a home video company that specializes in releasing limited edition classic films on UsefulNotes/{{DVD}} and UsefulNotes/BluRay from major studios' catalogs, mostly from Creator/{{Sony}} (including Creator/ColumbiaPictures and Creator/TriStarPictures), Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox, Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer (including Creator/UnitedArtists, Creator/OrionPictures and Creator/PolyGramFilmedEntertainment) and Creator/{{Universal}}.

!!!'''VCI Home Video'''
'''Video Communications, Inc.''' (also known as VCI Home Video) is one of the oldest American video distributors to exist, alongside Creator/MagneticVideo and Creator/FotomatVideo.
----

[-You may have landed on this page looking for a specific home video distributor's page we used to have. If so, what you're looking for may still be here or may have migrated to this {{troper work|s}} wiki for [[https://homevideo.miraheze.org/wiki/Main_Page Home Video]].-]

!!Home video
Home video, as a medium, encompasses pre-recorded videos owned or rented by consumers for viewing in their homes on their own schedule-- to put it laconically, video at home. Thanks to home video, viewers no longer have to visit the cinema during a film's theatrical run or stay by the television during a broadcast controlled by the network.

UsefulNotes/TheBlockbusterAgeOfHollywood first brought videos into viewers' homes on [[UsefulNotes/{{VCR}} videocassettes]] [[note]](yes, one word)[[/note]] containing video recordings on magnetic tape. In the videotape [[DuelingProducts format war]], Video Home System (VHS) eventually won out over Betamax. TheRuleOfFirstAdopters contributed to this victory. At first, videocassette recorders ([=VCRs=]) weren't widely adopted by the average consumer; they were expensive in the mid-1970s, but that changed by the late [[UsefulNotes/TheEighties 1980s]].

The first UsefulNotes/OpticalDisc format, UsefulNotes/LaserDisc, was also introduced during this time period. Even though its sound and picture quality exceeded [=VHS=], it didn't achieve the same widespread adoption in most of the world. [=LaserDisc=] brought about many features that remain common, such as the LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition, [[DVDCommentary commentaries]], and other [[DVDBonusContent bonus features]]. UsefulNotes/{{DVD}} took over in UsefulNotes/TheNineties, and another format war in the early [=2000's=] saw UsefulNotes/BluRay emerge victorious as the UsefulNotes/HighDefinition home video format.

In the early days, a motion picture could only be released on home video after it had been broadcast on television. Interestingly, the home video revolution had roots as an anti-analog piracy system. Why would consumers pay triple digits for a shoddy-quality pirated film recorded from the TV broadcast, maybe full of commercial breaks and network edits, when they could own a legal copy for only $50?

Home video distributors sometimes distinguished titles for sale from titles for rental through their packaging. For instance, 20th Century-Fox Video rental titles were packaged in black, boxy Amaray clamshells; titles for sale used a unique packaging which became colloquially known as the "Fox Box". In the early 1980s, Disney used blue cases (rentals) and white cases (sales) in part to make it easy to determine if dealers were renting out titles meant for sales or making duplicates on standard black VHS tapes.

Unlike [=VHS's=] weak copy protection, UsefulNotes/RegionCoding on optical discs can thwart copying or even ''playing'' them, and they may utilize UsefulNotes/DigitalRightsManagement because DigitalPiracyIsEvil (... or [[DigitalPiracyIsOkay is it?]]). A home video may begin with a [[PublicServiceAnnouncement copyright and anti-piracy notice]], and this warning may be [[UsefulNotes/UserOperationProhibitFlag unskippable]]. Nevertheless, some works only exist today thanks to consumers who [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes recorded, copied, and circulated the tapes]].

For films originally released in cinemas, the "release window" between the theatrical release and the home video release varies with the intent of making profit through multiple venues. Some works are created specifically for home video release, or may get a change of plan during production. These are usually referred to as direct-to-video or straight-to-DVD/straight-to-Blu-ray.

In the [=2010s=], digital home video releases emerged, including digital purchases, video-on-demand services, and video streaming.

!!Home video distribution
Home video distribution basically involves securing the rights to distribute a work in a particular home video format, converting that work into that format, and getting the resulting product into viewers' homes. This process is carried out by home video distributors. Distributors can be standalone companies that license works created by others, or they may be a distribution arm for the studio that makes those works. For instance, [[Creator/{{Disney}} The Walt Disney Company]] distributes home videos of films created by its [[Creator/WaltDisneyAnimationUnits animation studios]] through Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.

Some of the NamesToKnowInAnime act as home video distributors for anime films and series in addition to licensing, translating, and producing dubs.

!Names to know in home video
The "Big Five" major film studios-- Creator/{{Disney}}, Creator/{{Paramount}} Pictures, Creator/SonyPictures, Creator/{{Universal}} Studios, and Creator/WarnerBros-- all have their own home video distribution arms, but home video didn't start with just studio-owned distributors.

!!Magnetic Video and 20th Century Fox
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mvc.PNG]]

Without Magnetic Video Corporation, home video likely wouldn't have gotten off the ground. Magnetic Video was the first home video distributor for theatrical motion pictures that consumers could purchase, not just rent, on Betamax or VHS.

The company was established in 1968 as an [[NonIndicativeName audio duplication facility]] in the Detroit suburb of Farmington Hills, Michigan by an ambitious guy named Andre Blay. Blay wanted to duplicate movies on videocassette, but not only was the technology not advanced enough yet, the major studios were skeptical because of possible analog piracy. However, one fateful day in August 1977, Blay reached an agreement with the financially-strapped Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox to license and distribute 50 of their films. The VHS format was introduced in the United States on August 23 after previously being available overseas. In November 1977, Magnetic Video began their Fox VHS and Betamax releases.

Fox wasn't the only company Magnetic Video made deals with. As their success grew, they began distributing films from other studios. In the United States alone, Magnetic Video produced over 400 different releases from 1977 to 1982.[[labelnote:some releases]](In 1978: Avco-Embassy Pictures Corporation, RBC Films (specifically their Creator/CharlieChaplin library), and Creator/{{Viacom}} International, including films featuring Music/ElvisPresley, Creator/JerryLewis, Creator/{{Terrytoons}} cartoon compilations and sports tapes. In 1979: Bill Burrud Productions, Brut Productions, and Pathé newsreels. In 1980: Creator/{{ABC}} Video Enterprises, the American Film Theatre, and Creator/ITCEntertainment.)[[/labelnote]] They launched Magnetic Video Sports and a [=LaserDisc=] division in 1981, and distributed films by Creator/UnitedArtists Corporation (some of which were originally distributed by Creator/WarnerBros). They had international branches-- Magnetic Video UK, Magnetic Video Australia, and a South Pacific branch. Magnetic Video was also a tape duplicator for early releases by Creator/{{Paramount}} Home Video and MCA Videocassette Inc.

Magnetic Video Corporation was purchased by Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox in 1979. After Andre Blay left the company in late 1981 to form Blay Video, Magnetic Video adopted the name of its parent company and became 20th Century-Fox Video. Around the same time, it began a rental program called the Video Rental Library which grew to include titles in the ''Franchise/StarWars'', ''Franchise/{{Rocky}}'', ''Franchise/JamesBond'', and ''Dollars Trilogy'' franchises.

20th Century-Fox Video soon merged with CBS Video Enterprises to become CBS/Fox Video.

!!CBS/Fox Video
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cbs_fox.jpg]]

The CBS/Fox Company, better known as simply CBS/Fox Video, was the successor to Magnetic Video (as 20th Century-Fox Video) and CBS Video Enterprises.

In the summer of 1982, CBS Video Enterprises had recently split from Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer[[labelnote:MGM]](causing their former joint venture, MGM/CBS Home Video, to be renamed MGM/UA Home Video)[[/labelnote]] when CBS and Fox merged their home video distribution to form CBS/Fox Video.

In addition to many of Magnetic Video's earlier clients, CBS/Fox Video made a deal with Creator/TriStarPictures, a joint venture between CBS, Creator/ColumbiaPictures, and Creator/{{HBO}}.[[note]](until CBS and HBO dropped out of the partnership in 1985 and 1987, respectively)[[/note]] In the mid-'80s, CBS/Fox Video was fairly aggressive with markdowns, beginning with their "Five Star Collection" promotions in 1986. For a brief period in 1987, they were the official duplicator for future parent company [[Creator/{{Disney}} Walt Disney's home videos]] before VCA/Technicolor acquired their duplication facilities that July.

CBS/Fox Video established two sub-labels, both discontinued by 1991: [[labelnote:after 1991]](Key Video was briefly relaunched as Key DVD in the early-2000's, and many Playhouse titles from Fox and CBS were released again in the mid-to-late 90s under the Creator/FoxKids Video label)[[/labelnote]]
* Key Video handled drive-in/B-movie fare, classic and made-for-TV movies, and "low-profile" films from Fox, UA and Creator/{{Lorimar}}.
* Playhouse Video handled children's/family titles, including: CBS-owned Creator/DrSeuss projects, ''Franchise/TheMuppets'' titles, the ''Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes'' films, and the first ''Franchise/DoctorWho'' tapes released in America.

In March 1991, a major reorganization gave Fox greater control over the company's operations, and [=FoxVideo=] was launched to handle the distribution of the company's library. Meanwhile, CBS began releasing their own products under the CBS Video label, with [=FoxVideo=] handling distribution.

In 1995, [=FoxVideo=] was renamed 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The [=FoxVideo=] and CBS/Fox labels continued to be used until 1998, when Fox acquired CBS' remaining stake in the venture. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment became a Creator/{{Disney}} company with their March 2019 acquisition of 21st Century Fox, leading to yet another name: 20th Century Studios Home Entertainment.

!!MGM/CBS and MGM/UA Home Video
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mgm_cbs.PNG]]

Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer (MGM), formerly one of the "Big Five" before the UsefulNotes/FallOfTheStudioSystem, established their home video division in 1979 as MGM Home Video, but did not release any videocassettes under this name. Instead, MGM Home Video formed a partnership with Creator/{{CBS}} Video Enterprises called MGM/CBS Home Video.

Back in 1973, MGM had sold its film distribution division to Creator/UnitedArtists (UA). In 1981, MGM merged with the then-bankrupt United Artists and formed MGM/UA Entertainment Co., the biggest major movie studio combination at the time. At the end of the year, MGM/CBS introduced its rental program, First Run Home Video Theater; its first title was ''Tarzan, the Ape Man''.

In 1982, MGM and CBS parted ways; CBS partnered with 20th Century-Fox Video to form CBS/Fox Video, and the former MGM/CBS company was renamed MGM/UA Home Video. The split caused a problem with MGM's rental-only program as one of the titles, ''S.O.B.'', was a CBS release that was yet to become a sale title at the time of the split. However, pre-1981 United Artists releases were licensed to CBS/Fox Video for a while due to a previous agreement between United Artists and Fox from back when the company was known as Magnetic Video.

In 1986, UsefulNotes/TedTurner acquired the pre-1986 MGM library, and MGM/UA signed a deal with Turner Entertainment to continue releasing the library on video. Following MGM's purchase in 1990 by shady Italian financier Giancarlo Paretti's Pathé Communications [[note]](the former [[Creator/TheCannonGroup Cannon Films]]; he had renamed it in anticipation of acquiring famed French movie studio Path&eacute, which didn't happen after the French government essentially determined he was too shady)[[/note]], MGM/UA Home Video struck a deal for Warner Home Video to distribute their titles on home video. Turner's holdings were purchased by Time Warner and the MGM library moved to Warner Home Video in 1996. The company was renamed MGM Home Entertainment in 1998. The deal between Warner Bros. and MGM was originally set to end in 2003, but MGM bought themselves out of it in 2000 and gave up home video rights to Warner Home Video for the Turner-owned MGM/UA films.

After MGM's purchase by Sony and other investors in 2006, the MGM library was released through Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. In 2006, MGM struck a new deal with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, and twice renewed it-- until Disney acquired Fox's parent company. When the Fox deal expired in June 2020, MGM elected not to make a deal with Disney, and MGM's home media distribution moved to Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.

!!MCA/Universal Home Video
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mca_discovision1.gif]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mca_videocassette.jpg]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mca_videodisc.jpg]]

MCA [[labelnote:acronym]](formerly Music Corporation of America, then MCA Records)[[/labelnote]] took full ownership of Creator/{{Universal}} Pictures in 1962. Like Magnetic Video, MCA saw potential in the home video revolution; however, MCA's focus at the time was on video''discs'' rather than the video''cassettes'' that interested Magnetic Video. They branched out of music and began their videodisc division, MCA [=DiscoVision=]. They became the first company to release this format for the consumer market-- even marketing the format as "MCA [=DiscoVision=]" (or simply "[=DiscoVision=]"). After Pioneer Electronics bought out the majority stake in the format, it was renamed to "[=LaserVision=]", then again to its most recognizable name: "UsefulNotes/LaserDisc".

MCA, which had purchased the patents for the "Reflective Optical Videodisc System" in 1968, spun off MCA Laboratories to develop this revolutionary new system. They purchased a defunct furniture factory and converted it to a full-scale mastering and replication facility which became the largest manufacturer of laser videodiscs in the United States.

The first public demonstration of the "Disco-Vision" [[labelnote:hyphen]](it used to be hyphenated)[[/labelnote]] format took place at Universal Studios in Universal City, California, on December 12, 1972, with a seven-minute screening of clips from Universal motion pictures.[[labelnote:reminder]]MCA owned Universal Pictures since 1962. They'd also owned Universal Studios since 1958.)[[/labelnote]] Philips representatives who attended were impressed. They were developing their own videodisc system while RCA was developing a competing vinyl-based videodisc system, the UsefulNotes/CapacitanceElectronicDisc (CED). Philips entered a merger (of sorts) with MCA in September 1974. Two companies were assigned different tasks; MCA would remain in charge of the videodiscs themselves, and Philips would take charge of the playback systems for said videodiscs. They spent 1976 and 1977 working out various problems through test pressings. In 1977, Pioneer entered into a joint venture called Universal Pioneer to handle the potential industrial applications of Disco-Vision.

In 1978, the year of its official launch, Disco-Vision dropped the hyphen and simply became [=DiscoVision=]. Creator/{{Disney}}, Creator/{{Paramount}}, and Creator/WarnerBros, among other entities, signed distribution deals with MCA [=DiscoVision=].

In May 1980, MCA entered the videocassette business as MCA Videocassette, Inc. to distribute both VHS and Betamax releases. They launched with just over two dozen titles from Universal Studios.

[=DiscoVision=] was quickly riddled with problems on many fronts. MCA and Philips scrambled trying to solve them, but this ultimately failed; [=DiscoVision=] went bust by the end of 1981. It's considered an OldShame by MCA and its successors, but a CultClassic among collectors.

In 1982, MCA decided to take a second stab at the videodisc business and launched a more successful division called MCA Videodisc. This label was used for both [=LaserVision=] and CED releases. In 1983, MCA Videodisc and MCA Videocassette merged to become MCA Home Video.

When Universal Studios hit its 75th anniversary in 1990, MCA Home Video started a streak of name changes beginning with [=MCA/Universal=] Home Video, and around 2016 landed on Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

!!Fotomat Video
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fotomat_video_1745.jpg]]

Fotomat was a photography pioneer, video rental innovator, and originator of the "manufacture-on-demand" concept.

In mid-1979, Fotomat entered into an agreement with Creator/{{Paramount}} to rent and sell 43 feature films on videocassette. Among the first offered through Fotomat were ''Film/SaturdayNightFever'', ''Film/TheGodfather'', and ''The Godfather Part II''. Fotomat partnered with Chicago-based Bell & Howell Video Systems on a new manufacture-on-demand rental venture, "Fotomat Drive-Thru Movies"; Bell & Howell was the tape duplicator for the entire run of this service. It was initially tested in Los Angeles before spreading nationwide in December 1979. Customers browsed through a small catalog, called a toll-free number to order the movie or movies of their choice, then the video(s) would arrive the next day for pickup at a Fotomat drive-thru kiosk.[[labelnote:catalog]](a sample list can be found [[https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/688/23591504961_64744a939e_b.jpg here]])[[labelnote]] Renting a title on videocassette was relatively cheap compared to purchasing; rentals were $12 for five days (later reduced to $9.95) compared to purchasing a tape between $40 and $70.[[labelnote:inflation]](For perspective, run those through [[https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm an inflation calculator]]. Brace yourself for sticker shock.)[[/labelnote]]

In 1980, Fotomat entered into a rental arrangement with Creator/{{Disney}} for ten feature films and three episodes of Disney's anthology series, kicking off the distribution of Walt Disney Home Video.

Since Fotomat's problems were quickly apparent to Paramount, Paramount started their own distributor instead of continuing with Fotomat. Those problems included tapes getting lost in transit and resold by less innocuous interests, and competition from local video rental stores that offered cheaper prices without the overnight wait. Fotomat ended the rental service in 1982.

!!Paramount Home Video
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/paramount.jpg]]
Paramount Home Video is one of the earliest players in the home video industry.

Creator/{{Paramount}} Pictures first attempted to enter the industry in 1976 [[labelnote:failure]](through a pact with S/T Videocassette Duplicating Corporation to release certain films on videocassette, but nothing came of that deal)[[/labelnote]], but their movies remained unavailable on videocassette until they joined forces with Fotomat in 1979. Fotomat offered video rental from a catalog with next-day pickup at Fotomat kiosks.

Recognizing early on that Fotomat's program had problems, Paramount decided to self-release its formerly rental-only titles for consumer purchase. Paramount previewed several dozen titles at the Consumer Electronics Show. They later released their titles on laser videodisc.

In 1982, Paramount Home Video released two titles that changed the home video world forever: the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E22SpaceSeed Space Seed]]" and its follow-up movie, ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan''. The videotapes were priced directly for the consumer at the relatively-affordable prices of $29.95 for the episode and $39.95 for the movie (compared to $79.95 ''or more'' for other titles). This move created the home video "sell-through" market, where consumers make a one-time purchase to own a video forever instead of repeatedly paying to rent it. Distributors gained another revenue stream by selling to consumers in addition to rental companies.

In 1999, Paramount Home Video was renamed Paramount Home Entertainment.

During the brief period of 2006-2008 when HD DVD and Blu-ray both existed, Paramount was the first studio to release titles on both formats-- but only for about a year before announcing they would exclusively support HD DVD. They were one of the only supporters; other studios soon dropped HD DVD and Toshiba stopped manufacturing the players in 2008.

!!RCA/Columbia Pictures, [=TriStar=], and Sony
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/edf072c95683bb814cd0a1326cbc18a8.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:250:Former logo during the 1980s]]

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sonyhome.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:250:Logo as Sony Pictures Home Entertainment]]

RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video is the former name of a home video division later known as Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Creator/ColumbiaPictures had been previously releasing its own films and those of fellow Hollywood studio Creator/WarnerBros on Super 8. In November 1979, they launched Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment with 20 titles on VHS and Betamax and several others on Super 8. This entry into the videocassette market is generally regarded as the beginning of the company. Columbia was also a pioneer in closed captioning for home video on its early releases.

In 1981, Columbia and Creator/{{RCA|Records}}, the creator of the UsefulNotes/{{CED}} videodisc format, entered into a joint venture as RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video. In addition to titles from RCA and Columbia, they released works from Columbia's Creator/TriStarPictures and "mini-major" Creator/NewLineCinema, as well as a variety of smaller firms.[[note]](Cinema 5, Films Incorporated, Picture Source Associates, SFM Entertainment, Cantina Blues Films, Pentagon Releasing, IFI Films, Crown International, and Cinetel Films, among others. Later, they picked up the video rights to the Epic Productions library, which they held for a few years in the early '90s, and certain early Creator/AmericanInternationalPictures releases.)[[/note]] During the 1980s, RCA/Columbia had a children's subsidiary called Magic Window.[[note]](It specialized in childrens' entertainment, including classic Creator/ColumbiaCartoons and concurrently airing AnimatedSeries, along with occasional live action programs.)[[/note]] It also had a music subsidiary, [=MusicVision=], which issued titles from Creator/RCARecords along with others like Creator/IslandRecords, Creator/{{Motown}}, and [=PolyGram=] Music Video.

Creator/SonyPictures acquired and merged Columbia Pictures and [=TriStar=] Pictures together in 1989, but RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video got into a legal spat with Creator/{{NBC}}. NBC's parent company, General Electric (GE), had acquired RCA in 1986. In 1990, NBC accused Columbia and Sony of attempting to subvert the joint home video venture by picking up international video rights to Creator/OrionPictures films. Ultimately, GE opted to sell its share of RCA/Columbia (50%) to Sony, ending the litigation.

Sony renamed the company Columbia [=TriStar=] Home Video in 1991.[[labelnote:New Line]](Another Sony video division, Sony Video Services, was merged into the former RCA/Columbia and became SVS-Triumph. The name was used for "low-profile" New Line, Columbia, and [=TriStar=] releases during the transition from RCA/Columbia to Columbia [=TriStar=].
New Line eventually established its home video division from the remnants of Nelson Entertainment in 1991, but distribution continued to go through RCA-Columbia/Columbia [=TriStar=] until 1994, when NLC was bought by [[UsefulNotes/TedTurner Turner Broadcasting]] and switched to their in-house label Turner Home Entertainment. In 1996, Turner merged with Time Warner, resulting in Turner Home Entertainment being absorbed into Warner Home Video and New Line Home Video going solo until NLC was merged directly into Creator/WarnerBros in 2009.)[[/labelnote]] Columbia [=TriStar=] continued to evolve together, though the divisions still produced and distributed films with those separate names. The overall company eventually took on the Sony name in 2005 as Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

!!Warner Home Video
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/warner_home_video.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:250:The logo from 1985-1996.]]

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/currentlogo.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:250:The logo adopted in 1997.]]

Warner Home Video was founded in 1978 under the name WCI Home Video [[labelnote:WCI]](as in '''W'''arner '''C'''ommunications, '''I'''nc.)[[/labelnote]], but soon renamed to its familiar form before the company was a year old. They began as the video-releasing division of Warner-Elektra-Atlantic, dedicated to releasing the Creator/WarnerBros library on videocassette, and they released their first VHS and Betamax tapes in late 1979.

Warner Home Video attracted controversy in 1981 when they became the leading company behind rental-only programs. Starting on October 15, Warner would stop selling tapes to video dealers and instead they only rent them out to dealers in selected markets.[[note]](Texas was the first to sign on to the program, followed by San Francisco and Denver, then Oklahoma and Louisiana, among other territories)[[/note]] Many video dealers opposed the plan, and the band Music/{{Queen}} was also a vocal opponent.[[labelnote:Queen]](The rental program caused Queen to gradually switch its American label affiliation from Warner-Elektra-Atlantic (WEA) to Creator/{{EMI}} (who had already been their British distributors from the outset), starting with the contested product, ''Queen: Greatest Flix''. It was the first Queen product EMI released in America, and the band wouldn't return to WEA in the US until 1991. Even that wouldn't last for long, with Creator/HollywoodRecords shifting distributors from Creator/ElektraRecords to [=PolyGram=] in 1995.)[[/labelnote]] Thanks to this opposition, Warner's rental program didn't last more than a year, and the damage had largely been done to rental-only for the foreseeable future. All other rental-only programs (by Disney, MGM/UA, and 20th Century-Fox) were terminated by 1983.

In another controversial move, Warner's early videotape releases were sometimes sped up to fit films on tapes of a certain length. ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'' is the poster child of this time compression practice (though with all dialogue scenes presented at the correct speed, it was lucky compared to most of the other affected titles). Fortunately, the music was seldom presented at a higher pitch despite the speed-up, making Warner an early innovator in the art of efficient time compression; the same could not be said of its contemporaries.

In addition to Warner Bros. and Warner-Elektra-Atlantic titles, Warner Home Video distributed works from other companies [[labelnote:others]](Creator/{{NBC}}, Creator/OrionPictures, Filmways Pictures, New World Pictures, and The Ladd Company, plus Creator/NewLineCinema over a decade before Warner's corporate parent Time Warner purchased the company, and just under three decades before it was merged into Warner Bros. itself)[[/labelnote]]. They would also release [=DVDs=] and Blu-rays for outside companies [[labelnote:outside]](including Creator/TheBBC in North America only, [[Series/SesameStreet Sesame Workshop]], wrestling content from Wrestling/{{WWE}}, Creator/VizMedia, Creator/{{Mattel}} (most notably their ''Literature/AmericanGirl'' made-for-TV and theatrical movies along with their ''Franchise/MastersOfTheUniverse'' theatrical movie), and select Creator/{{Paramount}} backlog titles)[[/labelnote]], as well as sister [=WarnerMedia=] companies.[[labelnote:sisters]](Creator/{{HBO}}, Creator/{{TNT}}, Creator/{{TBS}}, and Creator/CartoonNetwork. The latter three had their videos distributed under the in-house video arm Turner Home Entertainment, along with New Line releases, beginning in 1994. They'd previously gone through RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video and its successors until the merger, at which point New Line's video arm became separate until New Line Cinema was merged with WB itself. Cartoon Network, Creator/AdultSwim), TBS, and TNT-related titles were immediately merged into Warner Home Video.)[[/labelnote]]

In 1997, Warner became the first major studio to release motion pictures on DVD, with an initial batch of 33 titles. Warner Home Video changed its name to Warner Bros. Home Entertainment in 2017.

In 2020, Warner Bros. entered into a physical media joint venture with Creator/{{Universal}} Pictures Home Entertainment, to take effect in 2021.

!!Walt Disney Home Video
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/disney_home_entertainment.png]]

[[Creator/{{Disney}} The Walt Disney Company]]'s home video branch has used ''many'' names for its company name versus incorporated name versus trade name versus primary label names, ''plus'' distributing many other labels it owns. That history is documented elsewhere. For simplicity, we'll go with the long-runner names Walt Disney Home Entertainment (1978–1980, 2001–2007) and Walt Disney Home Video (1980–2001).

As Walt Disney Home Entertainment in 1978, they first released their library into the home market through a distribution agreement with [[Creator/{{MCA}} MCA DiscoVision]]. "[=DiscoVision=]" was the name at the time for UsefulNotes/LaserDisc (LD). The deal included live-action Disney movies and animated episodes of ''Series/WaltDisneyPresents''. The agreement expired in December 1981, but Disney's films and programs were later released on the revamped version of LD by Pioneer Entertainment and Philips.

In March 1980, Disney formed its own home video arm, and Walt Disney Home Video began with thirteen titles [[labelnote:the 13]](''Film/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'', ''Series/DavyCrockett: King of the Wild Frontier'', ''Film/TheLoveBug'', ''Film/BedknobsAndBroomsticks'', ''Film/EscapeToWitchMountain'', ''Film/TheAppleDumplingGang'', ''Film/PetesDragon1977'', ''Film/HotLeadAndColdFeet'', ''The North Avenue Irregulars'', ''Film/TheBlackHole'', and the ''Walt Disney Presents'' episodes "On Vacation With WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse and Friends", "Kids is Kids, Starring WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck", and "The Adventures of WesternAnimation/ChipAndDale")[[/labelnote]] on VHS and Betamax.[[labelnote:format note]](VHS was developed by Victor Company of Japan/Japan Victor Company, or JVC, while Betamax was developed by Sony, a semi-ally of Disney who later co-developed DVD and became the first Blu-ray maker)[[/labelnote]] These releases were licensed to Fotomat for rental, with a four-city test (in UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}, UsefulNotes/{{Houston}}, UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} and UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco) before a nationwide expansion by the end of the year. During 1981-1984, Disney expanded its reach by having video stores sign up to be "authorized rental dealers".

In 1981, ''WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}'' became the first Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon movie to hit home video, followed shortly after by ''WesternAnimation/AliceInWonderland'' and the anthology movies ''WesternAnimation/TheThreeCaballeros'', ''WesternAnimation/FunAndFancyFree'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh''. The Disney management at the time were initially reluctant to release the rest of the Canon anywhere but in theaters out of concern that they would lose their value if they were to be released on tape. They marked the Canon's 15 most lucrative movies [[labelnote:the 15]](''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'', ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'', ''WesternAnimation/LadyAndTheTramp'', ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'', ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians'', ''WesternAnimation/TheSwordInTheStone'', ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967'', ''WesternAnimation/TheAristocats'', ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood'', ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuers'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound'')[[/labelnote]] off-limits from home video by compiling them into a list of "Untouchables". However, this was during the DorkAge of the studio when the Disney brand was associated with children's fluff and attempts to create DarkerAndEdgier fare failed miserably at the box office, so the idea of unleashing the Untouchables on home video eventually caught on.

The idea for Walt Disney Classics, the video line for the Disney Animated Canon, was adopted by Michael Eisner after its originator (then-studio head Ron Miller) was ousted in a boardroom takeover. The first Classics title was ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood'' in 1984, followed by ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'' in 1985. As a compromise to the more conservative members of the board, both titles were priced for rental; one could technically buy the tapes, but they were priced at the very steep $79.95. Also in 1984, Disney launched another home video branch, Buena Vista Home Video (later Buena Vista Home Entertainment), to release productions without Disney's name.

In August 1985, Bill Mechanic moved to Disney Home Video. He was the former head of Paramount Home Video, and the move reunited him with his former Paramount bosses, Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg. While he was with Paramount, Mechanic had given birth to the "sell-through" market with affordable pricing. Sensing an opportunity for Disney, Mechanic lowered the price for ''Pinocchio'' to $29.95, eventually breaking sales records in the video market, and Disney subsequently debuted new releases in the collection in a similar price range. Other video distributors embraced sell-through for children's and family titles. Mechanic also created the so-called "The Disney Vault," making most Disney Classics only available for a limited time before going "back into the vault". Disney's ''Robin Hood'' was the first Classics title reissued on home video in 1991, followed by ''Pinocchio'' in 1993.[[note]]There were talks about never releasing ''Pinocchio'' on video again after its initial release, but the box-office failure of its 1992 theatrical re-release scuttled those plans.[[/note]]

For the first few years of the Walt Disney Classics collection, Disney traditionally re-released an "Untouchable" in theaters, then shortly afterwards "opened the vault" to make it available to own on home video. Brand-new entries to the Disney Animated Canon didn't come to home video at first in hopes that their theatrical re-releases would still make money. However, after 1989's ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}'' became Disney's biggest success in years, it was released to home video only six months after its theatrical premiere. Canon entries following ''Mermaid'' had progressively shorter gaps between their theatrical premieres and their first home video release dates.

Disney previously vowed that their crown jewels (''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'') would ''never'' be released on video, but they relented with ''Fantasia'' in 1991, followed by ''Snow White'' in 1994 as the first in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection line. Some time after this, the term "Untouchable" was apparently abandoned at Disney.[[note]]It probably didn't help that five of the Untouchables found their revenue exceeded by the biggest hits of UsefulNotes/TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation.[[/note]] With VHS sales eating up revenue from theatrical reissues, Disney eventually only did the latter on special occasions.

Towards the end of 1997, Disney began releasing their live action movies on UsefulNotes/{{DVD}}. Within the next couple of years, the studio kicked off their efforts to make the Disney Animated Canon available on the format, beginning with ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}''. In lieu of the Untouchables, Disney compiled the 14 movies that sold the most videotapes [[labelnote:the 14]](''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'', ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'', ''WesternAnimation/LadyAndTheTramp'', ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'', ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians'', ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967'', ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'', ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'')[[/labelnote]] into a collection of films each remained available for only a limited time before going into moratorium for many years. They initially referred to these films as the "Platinum" collection, but proceeded to change the name whenever the DAC's oldest entry, ''Snow White'', entered a new media format. Other Disney movies only disappeared from stores if the studio decided to re-release them with more bonus features.

In 2004, Disney became one of the first studios to announce their support of the high definition UsefulNotes/BluRay Disc format.[[labelnote:Blu-ray]](commissioned by the Blu-ray Disc Association, which consists of Sony (the primary maker and Disney semi-ally), Pioneer and Philips (who'd both helped developed [=LaserDisc=]), Hitachi, LG (Lucky-Goldstar) Electronics, Panasonic, Samsung Electronics, Sharp, and Thomson/Technicolor SA)[[/labelnote]]. This poised Blu-ray to enter and ultimately win a format war with HD-DVD from Toshiba. Disney officially started releasing new films to Blu-ray discs in 2006. In 2008, Disney began releasing their traditionally-animated movies on Blu-ray, starting with ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty''.

Meanwhile, Disney VHS tapes (particularly the animated ones) have become collectibles and part of a niche market. They ceased [=LaserDisc=] releases in 1999, and VHS in 2006.

Also in 2006, Disney began venturing into non-physical releases. They became the first studio to make their movies available to purchase and download through Apple's [=iTunes=], which at the time was run by Creator/{{Pixar}} CEO and Disney shareholder Creator/SteveJobs. In 2014, Disney launched a website and mobile app especially for downloading and streaming their movies called Disney Movies Anywhere, which launched the same day that the Canon's highest-grossing movie, ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'', hit digital platforms.

In 2017, Disney began releasing their library on 4K [=UltraHD=] Blu-ray and Digital formats, starting with Creator/MarvelStudios' ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2''. ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales'' became the first Disney-branded film with 4K home media releases, Pixar's ''WesternAnimation/Cars3'' the first Disney-owned animated film to receive such treatment, and Creator/TouchstonePictures' ''Film/ThePrestige'' [[note]](distributed internationally by Creator/WarnerBros, one of the first studios to support UHD)[[/note]] the first Disney-owned 4K catalog title. The same year, Disney Movies Anywhere became Movies Anywhere, and started offering other studios' works in addition to Disney's. The following year, ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'' became the Animated Canon's first [=UltraHD=] title (as a tie-in with ''WesternAnimation/RalphBreaksTheInternet''), and ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'' their first traditionally-animated UHD release.

After Disney's buyout of [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox 21st Century Fox]] in 2019, they began distributing former 20th Century Studios and Creator/SearchlightPictures [=DVDs=], Blu-Rays and 4K [=UHDs=] as 20th Century Studios Home Entertainment. Thanks to a deal [=iTunes=] struck two years earlier to sell 20th Century movies in 4K, their library marks the first Disney-owned movies that [=iTunes=] carries in such a high resolution; 4K digital copies of Disney movies previously remained exclusive to Movies Anywhere and Vudu.

If you haven't been keeping track, that means Disney owns what was once Magnetic Video, the one that started it all.

!Other home video distributors

!!Independent home video distributors

!!!'''FHE, IVE, and Artisan Entertainment'''
The company that began as Family Home Entertainment (FHE) was one of the most important independent distributors of the 1980s and 1990s home video scene.

Family Home Entertainment was founded in 1981 by [[UsefulNotes/{{Pornography}} adult filmmaker]] ([[SincerityMode seriously]]) Noel Christopher Bloom Sr., a year after his adult film company entered the home video market as Caballero Control Corporation. FHE's initial lineup [[note]](which included ''Theatre/{{Pippin}}'', ''Music/TomJones Live in Las Vegas'', a trio of early Creator/ToeiAnimation features, and several Western and Japanese animated programs, including ''WesternAnimation/{{Gumby}}'', ''[[Anime/HanaNoKoLunlun Angel]]'', ''Manga/CandyCandy'', ''Anime/CaptainHarlock'', ''[[Anime/RockyChuckTheMountainRat Fables of the Green Forest]]'', and ''[[Anime/LittleLulu Little Lulu and Tubby]]'')[[/note]] was introduced at that summer's Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago. Most of the initial offerings were licensed from ZIV International, which would later be absorbed by [[Creator/{{Lorimar}} Lorimar-Telepictures]]. From there, FHE had nowhere to go but up, acquiring such lucrative properties as ''Franchise/CareBears'', ''WesternAnimation/GIJoe'', ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'', ''WesternAnimation/StrawberryShortcake'', ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'', and several others from Creator/{{Filmation}}. On some tapes, various ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' shorts were included as padding if the content fell short of an hour.

Not wanting to restrict his mainstream programming to children's entertainment, Bloom entered into a joint venture with Scott Mansfield to form Monterey Home Video. In 1983, FHE started a third mainstream division, U.S.A. Home Video, with three releases: ''Fiona'', a biography of adult star Fiona Richmond; ''Film/{{Ms 45}}'', Creator/AbelFerrara's second feature-length film; and ''Thin Thighs in Thirty Days'', an exercise video. U.S.A. Home Video expanded vigorously the next year by acquiring films from Creator/ITCEntertainment, Creator/{{Viacom}}, Alan Landsburg Productions, Lorimar, and Tomorrow Entertainment, among others. Its biggest hits were ''Film/{{Supergirl}}'' and ''Film/NineteenEightyFour'', the former a theatrical flop which ended up doing better business on home video, and the latter a faithful adaptation of Creator/GeorgeOrwell's dystopian novel which happened to be filmed in the exact timeframe in which the story takes place.

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ive_7.png]]
In late summer 1984, Bloom began a series of consolidations of his labels, leading to International Video Entertainment (IVE) in 1985. The IVE name was used for non-family releases, and the FHE name for family releases. Around the same time, they signed a deal with Creator/ElviraMistressOfTheDark to host a series of horror titles under the [=ThrillerVideo=] label.[[note]](Elvira stayed away from the more adult titles, as well as those that included scenes of animal cruelty, out of concern for her own image).[[/note]] The next year, they entered into a similar pact with Creator/SybilDanning for a series of cult action titles under the Adventure Video label and additionally started releasing sports titles.

In 1986, IVE was nearing bankruptcy when Creator/CarolcoPictures bought a majority stake in IVE, a deal that was finalized in 1987. Carolco brought in former RCA executive Jose Menendez to help stem IVE's massive losses. Bloom did not get along with Menendez and soon left to start another video firm. IVE quickly began making money again, and expanded into distribution of video titles for pay-TV.

In 1988, IVE and FHE were part of a merger with Lieberman Enterprises, a wholesale distribution firm based in Minneapolis that handled videos, records, and computer software. This resulted in another renaming to LIVE Entertainment. They also established more sub-labels, including Carolco Home Video and the budget label Avid Home Entertainment (which distributed cheaper EP/SLP versions of tapes from LIVE and the other labels).

On a darker note, Jose Menendez and his wife were murdered in 1989 by their own sons, Lyle and Erik, in one of America's most infamous criminal cases.

The next few years were rough as the company struggled with a large debt load, a revolving door of executives, and buying all sorts of stuff, including the remains of rival Vestron Video and several regional record and video store chains. By 1994, the company began to sell or spin-off its unprofitable parts (including the retail operations and Lieberman assets). The changing video market led LIVE to invest in film production. They also nearly merged with old partner Carolco Pictures, itself nearly at death's door due to several box-office flops-- but fortunately for LIVE, this plan was averted and they escaped Carolco's fate. They continued to distribute Carolco titles on video after striking a deal with the owner of Carolco's remnants, the French firm [=StudioCanal=].

Bain Capital took the company private in 1997 and it was renamed ''again'' to Artisan Entertainment. By 2000, they were distributing the Creator/RepublicPictures back catalog (under license from Creator/{{Paramount}}), ''Series/HallmarkHallOfFame'' and other Hallmark Entertainment titles, and Creator/DiscoveryChannel Video. They'd had a major theatrical success with the FoundFootage horror film ''Film/TheBlairWitchProject''. They also struck a deal with Creator/MarvelComics to develop films based on their characters, although this deal ultimately bore little fruit.

After a string of flops, Artisan was put up for sale in 2003 and various consortiums began to bid, among them the aforementioned Marvel Comics (which had the backing of Creator/MiramaxFilms, somewhat ironically). Ultimately, Canadian film house Lions' Gate Films (now known as Creator/{{Lionsgate}}) won and merged with Artisan in 2004. Since then, Lionsgate has become a major Hollywood player-- but it hasn't forgotten about the Artisan side of things. Lionsgate tapped the Artisan library for their Roku channel (Vidmark) and the ''Vestron Video Collector's Series'' on Blu-ray.

!!!'''Media Home Entertainment'''
Media Home Entertainment, Inc. was one of the earliest independent home video distributors. It was founded by Charles Band, his colleague Irwin Yablans, and a few others in 1978. Band himself would leave the company in 1980 to establish his own home video label, Wizard Video. Until 1981, Media Home Entertainment was styled as "MEDA", named after Charles Band's wife, Meda.

As a leader in the new home video boom of the early 1980s, Media Home Entertainment became known for distributing several B-movies, including ''Film/{{Halloween 1978}}'' (and other Creator/JohnCarpenter films), ''Film/TheTexasChainSawMassacre1974'', and ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968''. In an agreement with Creator/NewLineCinema, they distributed the original VHS releases of the first five ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet'' films in the U.S. and Canada. They also signed deals with Creator/TheCannonGroup and Creator/{{Troma}}.

In 1984, Media Home Entertainment was purchased by Gerald Ronson and his company, the British property developer Heron International. Media Home Entertainment was organized into a newly formed division, Heron Communications, Inc. After the acquisition, Media Home Entertainment had six sublabels:

* Hi-Tops Video (childrens' videos, including handling the first VHS releases of the majority of the ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' specials and of ''Series/PeeWeesPlayhouse'', along with ''Literature/{{Babar}}'', ''Franchise/{{Barbie}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Inhumanoids}}'', ''WesternAnimation/LadyLovelyLocks'', and ''WesternAnimation/{{Madeline}}'')
* Fox Hills Video (special interest videos)
* The Nostalgia Merchant (releases of very rare old films, including several made by Creator/RKOPictures)
* Cinematheque Collection (foreign language films)
* Condor Video (Spanish language dubs of films)
* Music Media (music videos)

The good times didn't last as long. In the early 1990s, Media Home Entertainment began folding its operations after Gerald Ronson was convicted of securities fraud. By 1994, Media Home Entertainment fully ceased to exist. Many of its last releases were co-distributed by 20th Century Fox (through the [=FoxVideo=] and CBS/Fox Video labels) or by Video Treasures. The rights to the majority of the Media Home Entertainment library were later held by Anchor Bay Entertainment (successor to Video Treasures, and owned by the Creator/{{Starz}} premium cable network). A few years later, Creator/{{Lionsgate}} bought the whole Starz premium cable network, including the Anchor Bay Entertainment and Media Home Entertainment libraries.

!!!'''Vestron Video'''
From humble beginnings, Vestron Video became one of the biggest independent home video companies on the planet. Vestron was founded in 1981 by former Creator/{{HBO}} executive Austin Owen Furst Jr.,[[labelnote:fun fact]](the name "Vestron" was invented by Austin Furst's daughter by combining the name of the Roman goddess "Vesta" (goddess of the home), with the Greek word "Tron" (which means "instrument")[[/labelnote]] who was hired to dismantle the assets of Time-Life's film division. With public appetite for home video increasing, Vestron struck deals with a number of independent producers and minor film companies to distribute their works on video. Thanks to their origins as a semi-spinoff of HBO/Time-Life, they released some HBO specials on home media. By 1985, Vestron debuted on the stock market, with an IPO worth $440 million; the company was making $350 million in sales a year, with an expansive international operation (present in over 30 countries), rivaling only Creator/WarnerBros in size. They offered specialty titles including ''Magazine/NationalGeographic'' wildlife specials and the Creator/{{PBS}} science series ''Series/{{Nova}}''.

Vestron Video had a few sublabels, including: Children's Video Library (which handled family/children's titles), Lightning Video (which handled extreme B and made-for-TV movies), and Wonderlust Video (which handled adult titles).

However, the home video boom that fueled the company's meteoric rise also proved to be their undoing. Soon, many of the companies they had deals with started their own video companies or went to bigger labels; producers also began increasing prices. Vestron shifted gears into movie production to try and keep their video products going. Their B-movies ''Film/DirtyDancing'' wound up a massive hit at the box office, to the surprise of many. But Vestron found themselves essentially backed into a corner content-wise; much of their in-house productions were B-movies, and the viewers were looking for more than just cheap horror or comedy films. All of this combined into an untenable financial situation. The company's financing fell through and forced Vestron to file for bankruptcy in 1991.

Shortly thereafter, the company was acquired by rival LIVE Entertainment and was folded into said company the following year. Some of Vestron's international branches split off and became separate firms; the UK division became known as ''First Independent'' under the ownership of HTV (the Creator/{{ITV}} company serving Wales and the West of England), but eventually was sold to the UK arm of Columbia Tristar Home Video.

Creator/{{Lionsgate}} eventually got their hands on the LIVE/Vestron assets in the mid-2000s. In 2016, began offering the ''Vestron Video Collector's Series'' on DVD and Blu-ray, a lineup composed of horror tiles from Vestron's heyday and other B-movies owned by Lionsgate, beginning with ''Film/ChoppingMall''. Lionsgate has offered Vestron content through their Vidmark service on Roku.

!!!'''Wizard Video'''
Wizard Video was started by Charles Band in 1980 after leaving Media Home Entertainment. He took one of his own blue movies, ''Auditions'', with him when he left. ''Auditions'' became the second tape his new company offered, after a French drama called ''Don Juan (or, If Don Juan Were a Woman)'', which was released under the name ''Ms. Don Juan''. By 1982, they had started two subsidiaries, Cult Video and Force Video.

Wizard Video's first blockbuster home video release was in 1982, ''Film/{{The Texas Chain Saw Massacre|1974}}'', which made them an independent sensation in the realm of home video. In late 1982, Wizard released three films in the book box packaging style that Warner Home Video and MGM/UA Home Video had earlier popularized, and they also briefly dabbled in 3D. Wizard Video released a 3D Music/WillieNelson concert film (in 2D) called ''Willie Nelson's 4th of July Picnic'', which was pulled after a complaint was filed by the rights-holders in 1983; an Australian avant-garde surfing film called ''Crystal Voyager'' (featuring a climactic voyage through the eye of the wave set to the music of Music/PinkFloyd); ''Film/PinkFlamingos'', the biggest gross-out of its time; a [[BruceLeeClone Brucesploitation]] film; and a few VideoNasties.

The second phase of Wizard Video began in 1984 with four films released in the now-infamous big box style that contemporaries USA Home Video and Magnum Entertainment, among other companies, used at the time. Later that year, they released a Video Nasty by the name of ''S.S. Experiment'', which turned out to not be as [[{{Pun}} "nasty"]] as it seemed (to the point where the UK unbanned it nearly two decades later, with the BBFC admitting to having overreacted to the content). The company turned out some more exploitation and action titles in 1985 and 1986, and released their first direct-to-video film, ''Breeders''. Around the Halloween season, they released two films that would've been rated X in theaters for their gory horror content: the DTV film ''Dreamaniac'', about a succubus who crashes a metalhead's party and kills the guests one by one, and the 1970s slasher film ''The Headless Eyes'', about a burglar who loses an eye to one of his victims and starts stealing eyes from women in a killing spree that baffles the police. The two films were promoted in an ad that invites the viewer to take the absolutely-not-for-the-squeamish Total Terror Test. Wizard's last releases in the classic era were DTV films.

Later, Wizard Video was relaunched three times: once in 1998 (which went nowhere), once in 2005 (as a label for Full Moon's catalog releases), and again in 2014 (as Wizard Studios). In 2013, Band attempted to cash in on the popularity of the classic era by re-releasing several mid-'80s Wizard and Force titles with variations on the original packaging.

----

Home video, as a medium, encompasses pre-recorded videos owned or rented by consumers for viewing in their homes on their own schedule-- to put it laconically, video at home. Thanks to home video, viewers no longer have to visit the cinema during a film's theatrical run or stay by the television during a broadcast controlled by the network.

The "Big Five" major film studios-- Creator/{{Disney}}, Creator/{{Paramount}} Pictures, Creator/SonyPictures, Creator/{{Universal}} Studios, and Creator/WarnerBros-- all have their own home video distribution arms, but it didn't start with just five...

The company was established in 1968 as an [[NonIndicativeName audio duplication facility]] in the Detroit suburb of Farmington Hills, Michigan by an ambitious guy named Andre Blay. Blay wanted to duplicate movies on videocassette, but not only was the technology not advanced enough yet, the major studios were skeptical because of possible analog piracy. However, one fateful day in August 1977, Blay reached an agreement with the financially-strapped Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox to license and distribute 50 of their films. The VHS format was introduced in the United States on August 23 after previously being available overseas. In November 1997, Magnetic Video began their Fox VHS and Betamax releases.

Fox wasn't the only company Magnetic Video made deals with. As their success grew, they began distributing films from other studios. In the United States alone, Magnetic Video produced over 400 different releases from 1977 to 1982. These included videos from:
* 1978: Avco-Embassy Pictures Corporation, RBC Films (specifically their Creator/CharlieChaplin library), and Creator/{{Viacom}} International (including films featuring Music/ElvisPresley, Creator/JerryLewis, Creator/{{Terrytoons}} cartoon compilations and sports tapes)
* 1979: Bill Burrud Productions, Brut Productions, and Pathé newsreels
* 1980: Creator/{{ABC}} Video Enterprises, the American Film Theatre, and Creator/ITCEntertainment
* 1981: Creator/UnitedArtists Corporation (including films that were originally distributed by Creator/WarnerBros), their sports division Magnetic Video Sports, and a [=LaserDisc=] division

There were international branches-- Magnetic Video UK, Magnetic Video Australia, and a South Pacific branch. Magnetic Video was also a tape duplicator for early releases by Creator/{{Paramount}} Home Video and MCA Videocassette Inc.

Magnetic Video Corporation was purchased by Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox in 1979. After Andre Blay left the company in late 1981 to form Blay Video, Magnetic Video adopted the name of its parent company and became 20th Century-Fox Video. Around the same time, it began a rental program called the Video Rental Library which grew to include titles in the ''Franchise/StarWars'', ''Franchise/{{Rocky}}'', ''Franchise/JamesBond'', and ''Dollars Trilogy'' franchises. Like many home video distributors, 20th Century-Fox Video distinguished its sale and rental titles by their packaging. Titles for rent were packaged in black, boxy Amaray clamshells; titles for sale used a unique packaging which became colloquially known as the "Fox Box".

In the summer of 1982, CBS Video Enterprises had recently split from Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer[[labelnote:MGM]](causing their former joint venture, MGM/CBS Home Video, to be renamed MGM/UA Home Video)[[/labelnote]] CBS and Fox merged their home video distribution to form CBS/Fox Video.

The name changes caused a wee bit of confusion with reprints, packaging, and labeling well into 1988. This confusion happened ''again'' when they began using the name [=FoxVideo=].

They established two sub-labels, both discontinued by 1991: [[labelnote:after 1991]](Key Video was briefly relaunched as Key DVD in the early-2000's, and many Playhouse titles from Fox and CBS were released again in the mid-to-late 90s under the Creator/FoxKids Video label)[[/labelnote]]

In March 1991, a major reorganization gave Fox greater control over the company's operations, and [=FoxVideo=] was launched to handle the distribution of the company's library. Meanwhile, CBS began releasing their own products under the CBS Video label, with [=FoxVideo=] handling distribution. The CBS/Fox name and logo [[DemotedToExtra continued to be used on non-theatrical, third-party products]], including those from Creator/{{BBC}} Video.

The first public demonstration of the "Disco-Vision" [[labelnote:hyphen]](it used to be hyphenated)[[/labelnote]] format took place at Universal Studios in Universal City, California, on December 12, 1972, with a seven-minute screening of clips from Universal motion pictures.[[labelnote:Universal?]]Remember, MCA owned Universal Pictures since 1962. They'd also owned Universal Studios since 1958.)[[/labelnote]] Philips representatives who attended were impressed. They were developing their own videodisc system while RCA was developing a competing vinyl-based videodisc system, the UsefulNotes/CapacitanceElectronicDisc (CED). Philips entered a merger (of sorts) with MCA in September 1974. Two companies were assigned different tasks; MCA would remain in charge of the videodiscs themselves, and Philips would take charge of the playback systems for said videodiscs.

Between 1976 and 1977, several test pressings took place, with three purposes:
# To demonstrate that Disco-Vision was capable of producing actual discs and the product was ready to begin consumer replication,
# To provide actual products for MCA executives to show off the technology, and
# To provide products to test and calibrate players.

These prototype discs were [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness a bit different]]; they were single-sided, ran for only 25 minutes, and were thinner and more flexible, which could make it harder for players to clamp and hold them correctly. Due to these problems, MCA spent the next 18 months developing a dual-sided disc, which helped eliminate the tracking problems inherent on these test pressings. Later in 1977, Pioneer entered into a joint venture called Universal Pioneer to handle the potential industrial applications of Disco-Vision.

In May 1980, MCA entered the videocassette business under the name MCA Videocassette, Inc. and distributed both VHS and Betamax releases. They launched with just over two dozen titles from Creator/{{Universal}} Studios, many of which were part of the [=DiscoVision=] Silver Catalog at one point or another.

Recognizing early on that Fotomat's program had problems, Paramount decided to self-release its formerly rental-only titles for consumer purchase on videotape. It previewed several dozen titles at the Consumer Electronics Show. They later released their titles on laser videodisc.

In 1981, ''WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}'' became the first Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon movie to hit home video, followed shortly after by ''WesternAnimation/AliceInWonderland'' and the anthology movies ''WesternAnimation/TheThreeCaballeros'', ''WesternAnimation/FunAndFancyFree'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh''. The Disney management at the time were initially reluctant to release the rest of the Canon anywhere but in theaters out of concern that they would lose their value if they were to be released on tape. They marked the Canon's 15 most lucrative movies [[labelnote:the 15]](''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'', ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'', ''WesternAnimation/LadyAndTheTramp'', ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'', ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians'', ''WesternAnimation/TheSwordInTheStone'', ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967'', ''WesternAnimation/TheAristocats'', ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood'', ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuers'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound'')[[/labelnote]] off-limits from home video by compiling them into a list of "Untouchables". However, this was during the DorkAge of the studio when the Disney brand was associated with children's fluff and attempts to create DarkerAndEdgier fare failed miserably at the box office, so the idea of unleashing the Untouchables on home video eventually caught on.

Disney previously vowed that their crown jewels (''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'') would ''never'' be released on video, but they relented with ''Fantasia'' in 1991, followed by ''Snow White'' in 1994 as the first in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection line. Some time after this, the term "Untouchable" was apparently abandoned at Disney.[[note]]It probably didn't help that five of the Untouchables found their revenue exceeded by the biggest hits of UsefulNotes/TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation.[[/note]] With VHS sales eating up revenue from theatrical reissues, Disney eventually only did the latter on special occasions.

!!Early home video distributors
!!!'''Fotomat Video'''
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fotomat_video_1745.jpg]]

Fotomat was a photography pioneer, video rental innovator, and originator of the "manufacture-on-demand" concept.

In mid-1979, Fotomat had entered into an agreement with Creator/{{Paramount}} to rent and sell 43 feature films on videocassette. Among the first offered through Fotomat were ''Film/SaturdayNightFever'', ''Film/TheGodfather'', and ''The Godfather Part II''. Fotomat partnered with Chicago-based Bell & Howell Video Systems on a new manufacture-on-demand rental venture, "Fotomat Drive-Thru Movies"; Bell & Howell duplicated the Fotomat catalog for the entire run of this service. It was initially tested in Los Angeles before spreading nationwide in December 1979. Customers browsed through a small catalog, called a toll-free number to order the movie or movies of their choice, then the video(s) would arrive the next day for pickup at a Fotomat drive-thru kiosk.[[labelnote:catalog]](a sample list can be found [[https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/688/23591504961_64744a939e_b.jpg here]])[[labelnote]] Renting a title on videocassette was relatively cheap compared to purchasing; rentals were $12 for five days (later reduced to $9.95) compared to purchasing a tape between $40 and $70.[[labelnote:inflation]](For perspective, run those through [[https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm an inflation calculator]]. Brace yourself for sticker shock.)[[/labelnote]] In 1980, Fotomat entered into a rental arrangement with Creator/{{Disney}} for ten feature films and three episodes of Disney's anthology series, kicking off the distribution of Walt Disney Home Video.

The service didn't last long. Seeing Fotomat's problems, Paramount decided to start their own distributor. Those problems included tapes getting lost in transit and resold by less innocuous interests, and competition from local video rental stores that offered cheaper prices without the overnight wait. Fotomat ended the rental service in 1982.

!!!'''MGM/CBS and MGM/UA Home Video'''
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mgm_cbs.PNG]]

Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer (MGM) established their home video division in 1979 as MGM Home Video, but did not release any videocassettes under this name; instead, MGM Home Video formed a partnership with Creator/{{CBS}} Video Enterprises-- MGM/CBS Home Video. Their first releases in October 1980 were packaged in brown leather cases with gold lettering, but later printings of those tapes, as well as all future releases, were packaged in oversized gray cardboard cases that opened up like a book, similar to Warner Home Video.

In 1981, MGM merged with the bankrupt Creator/UnitedArtists and formed MGM/UA Entertainment Co. At the end of the year, MGM/CBS introduced its rental program, First Run Home Video Theater; its first title was ''Tarzan, the Ape Man''. In 1982, MGM and CBS split and the company was renamed MGM/UA Home Video. CBS partnered with 20th Century-Fox Video to form CBS/Fox Video. This caused a problem with MGM's rental-only program as one of the titles, ''S.O.B.'', was a CBS release that was yet to become a sale title at the time of the split. However, pre-1981 United Artists releases were licensed to CBS/Fox for a while due to a previous agreement between United Artists and Fox from back when the company was known as Magnetic Video.

In 1986, Ted Turner acquired the pre-1986 MGM library, and MGM/UA signed a deal with Turner Entertainment to continue releasing the library on video. In 1990, after MGM's purchase by shady Italian financier Giancarlo Paretti's Pathé Communications [[note]](the former [[Creator/TheCannonGroup Cannon Films]]; he had renamed it in anticipation of acquiring famed French movie studio Path&eacute, which didn't happen after the French government essentially determined he was too shady)[[/note]], the company signed a distribution deal with Warner Home Video. It was originally set to end in 2003, but ended in 2000 instead. The company was renamed MGM Home Entertainment in 1998.

After MGM's purchase by Sony in 2005, the MGM library was released through Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. In 2006, MGM struck a new deal with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, and twice renewed it-- until Disney acquired Fox's parent company. When the deal expired in June 2020, MGM's home media distribution moved to Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.

* Hi-Tops Video (childrens' videos, including handling the first VHS releases of the majority of the ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' specials and of ''Series/PeeWeesPlayhouse'', along with ''Literature/{{Babar}}'', ''Franchise/{{Barbie}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Inhumanoids}}'', ''WesternAnimation/LadyLovelyLocks'', and ''WesternAnimation/{{Madeline}}'')

!!!'''Wizard Video -- TBD!'''
Legendary among all genre distributors on home video is '''Wizard Video''', a home video venture started by Creator/CharlesBand in 1980 after leaving Creator/MediaHomeEntertainment, which he co-founded with colleague Irwin Yablans and a few others. He had taken one of his own blue movies, ''Auditions'', with him when he left, and it ended up being the second tape his new company offered, after a French drama called ''Don Juan (or, If Don Juan Were a Woman)'', which he released under the name ''Ms. Don Juan''. He also released a 3D Music/WillieNelson concert film (in 2D) called ''Willie Nelson's 4th of July Picnic'', which was pulled after a complaint was filed by the rightsholders in 1983; an Australian avant-garde surfing film called ''Crystal Voyager'' (featuring a climactic voyage through the eye of the wave set to the music of Music/PinkFloyd); ''Film/PinkFlamingos'', the biggest grossout of its time; a {{Brucesploitation}} film; and a few VideoNasties.

Then, in 1982, came Wizard Video's first blockbuster, and the title that really put it on the map: ''Film/{{The Texas Chain Saw Massacre|1974}}''.

Soon, Wizard became an independent sensation in the realm of home video, and it also started a couple of subsidiaries, Cult Video and Force Video. In late 1982, Wizard released three films in the book box packaging style that Creator/WarnerHomeVideo and Creator/MGMUAHomeVideo had earlier popularized and also briefly dabbled in 3D.

The second phase of Wizard Video began in 1984, when Wizard released four films in the now-infamous big box style that contemporaries Creator/USAHomeVideo and Creator/MagnumEntertainment, among other companies, used at the time. Later that year, they released a Video Nasty by the name of ''S.S. Experiment'', which turned out to not be as [[{{Pun}} nasty]] as it seemed (to the point where the UK unbanned it nearly two decades later, with the BBFC admitting to having overreacted to the content). The company turned out some more exploitation and action titles in 1985 and 1986 and also released their first direct-to-video film, ''Breeders''. They also reactivated their Force Video label. Around the Halloween season, they released two films that would've been (and, in one case, actually ''was'') rated X for their gory horror content: the DTV film ''Dreamaniac'', about a succubus who crashes a metalhead's party and kills the guests one by one, and the 1970s slasher film ''The Headless Eyes'', about a burglar who loses an eye to one of his victims and starts stealing eyes from women in a killing spree that baffles the police. The two films were promoted in an ad that invites the viewer to take the Total Terror Test (which is absolutely ''not'' for the squeamish). Wizard's last releases in the classic era were DTV films.

Later, Wizard Video was relaunched three times: once in 1998 (which went nowhere), once in 2005 (as a label for Full Moon's catalog releases), and again in 2014 (as Wizard Studios). In 2013, Band made an obvious attempt to cash in on the popularity of the classic era by re-releasing several mid-'80s Wizard and Force titles in a variation on the original packaging and created 13 imaginary posters, each for a classic era Wizard or Force release.

Home video, as a medium, encompasses pre-recorded videos owned or rented by consumers for viewing in their homes on their own schedule-- to put it laconically, video at home. Thanks to home video, viewers no longer have to visit the cinema during a film's theatrical run or stay by the television during a broadcast controlled by the network.

Creator/SonyPictures acquired and merged Columbia Pictures and Creator/TriStarPictures together in 1989, but RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video got into a legal spat with Creator/{{NBC}}. NBC's parent company, General Electric (GE), had acquired RCA in 1986. In 1990, NBC accused Columbia and Sony of attempting to subvert the joint home video venture by picking up international video rights to Creator/OrionPictures films. Ultimately, GE opted to sell its share of RCA/Columbia (50%) to Sony, ending the litigation.

In 2020, Warner Bros. entered into a physical media joint venture with Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, to take effect in 2021.

In 1981, ''WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}'' became the first Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon movie to hit home video, followed shortly after by ''WesternAnimation/AliceInWonderland'' and the anthology movies ''WesternAnimation/TheThreeCaballeros'', ''WesternAnimation/FunAndFancyFree'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh''. The Disney management at the time were initially reluctant to release the rest of the Canon anywhere but in theaters out of concern that they would lose their value if they were to be released on tape. They marked the Canon's 15 most lucrative movies [[labelnote:the 15]](''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'', ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'', ''WesternAnimation/LadyAndTheTramp'', ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'', ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians'', ''WesternAnimation/TheSwordInTheStone'', ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967'', ''WesternAnimation/TheAristocats'', ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood'', ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuers'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound'')[[/labelnote]] off-limits from home video by compiling them into a list of "Untouchables". However, this was during the DorkAge of the studio when the Disney brand was associated with children's fluff and attempts to create DarkerAndEdgier fare failed miserably at the box office, so the idea of unleashing the Untouchables on home video eventually caught on.

Disney previously vowed that their crown jewels (''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'') would ''never'' be released on video, but they relented with ''Fantasia'' in 1991, followed by ''Snow White'' in 1994 as the first in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection line. Some time after this, the term "Untouchable" was apparently abandoned at Disney.[[note]]It probably didn't help that five of the Untouchables found their revenue exceeded by the biggest hits of UsefulNotes/TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation.[[/note]] With VHS sales eating up revenue from theatrical reissues, Disney eventually only did the latter on special occasions.

After Disney's buyout of Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox in 2019, they began distributing former 20th Century Studios and Creator/SearchlightPictures [=DVDs=], Blu-Rays and 4K [=UHDs=] as 20th Century Studios Home Entertainment. Thanks to a deal [=iTunes=] struck two years earlier to sell 20th Century movies in 4K, their library marks the first Disney-owned movies that [=iTunes=] carries in such a high resolution; 4K digital copies of Disney movies previously remained exclusive to Movies Anywhere and Vudu.

!!Other major home video distributors

!!!Fotomat Video

!!!MGM/CBS and MGM/UA Home Video

!!!FHE, IVE, and Artisan Entertainment

In 1986, IVE was nearing bankruptcy when Creator/CarolcoPicture bought a majority stake in IVE, a deal that was finalized in 1987. Carolco brought in former RCA executive Jose Menendez to help stem IVE's massive losses. Bloom did not get along with Menendez and soon left to start another video firm. IVE quickly began making money again, and expanded into distribution of video titles for pay-TV.

The next few years were rough as the company struggled with a large debt load, a revolving door of executives, and buying all sorts of stuff, including the remains of rival Vestron Video and several regional record and video store chains. By 1994, the company began to sell or spin-off its unprofitable parts (including the retail operations and Lieberman assets). The changing video market led LIVE to invest in film production. They also nearly merged with old partner Creator/CarolcoPictures, itself nearly at death's door due to several box-office flops-- but fortunately for LIVE, this plan was averted and they escaped Carolco's fate. They continued to distribute Carolco titles on video after striking a deal with the owner of Carolco's remnants, the French firm [=StudioCanal=].

!!!Media Home Entertainment

* Hi-Tops Video (childrens' videos, including handling the first VHS releases of the majority of the ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' specials and of ''Series/PeeWeesPlayhouse'', along with ''Literature/{{Babar}}'', ''Franchise/{{Barbie}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Inhumanoids}}'', ''WesternAnimation/LadyLovelyLocks'', and ''WesternAnimation/{{Madeline}}'')

The good times didn't last as long. In the early 1990s, Media Home Entertainment began folding its operations after Gerald Ronson was convicted of securities fraud. By 1994, Media Home Entertainment fully ceased to exist. Many of its last releases were co-distributed by 20th Century Fox (through the [=FoxVideo=] and CBS/Fox Video labels) or by Video Treasures. The rights to the majority of the Media Home Entertainment library were later held by Anchor Bay Entertainment (successor to Video Treasures, and owned by the Creator/{{Starz}} premium cable network). A few years later, Creator/{{Lionsgate}} bought the whole Creator/{{Starz}} premium cable network, including the Anchor Bay Entertainment and Media Home Entertainment libraries.

!!!Vestron Video

Creator/{{Lionsgate}} eventually got their hands on the LIVE/Vestron assets in the mid-2000s. In 2016, began offering the ''Vestron Video Collector's Series'' on DVD and Blu-ray, a lineup composed of horror tiles from Vestron's heyday and other B-movies owned by Lionsgate, beginning with ''Film/ChoppingMall''. Vestron content is also offered through the Lionsgate-operated Vidmark service on Roku.

Home video, as a medium, encompasses pre-recorded videos owned or rented by consumers for viewing in their homes on their own schedule-- to put it laconically, video at home. Thanks to home video, viewers no longer have to visit the cinema during a film's theatrical run or stay by the television during a broadcast controlled by the network.

When Universal Studios hit its 75th anniversary in 1990, MCA Home Video started a streak of name changes beginning with [=MCA/Universal=] Home Video, then continuing through Universal Studios Home Video, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

Creator/{{Paramount}} Pictures first attempted to enter the industry in 1976 [[labelnote:failure]](through a pact with S/T Videocassette Duplicating Corporation to release certain films on videocassette, but nothing came of that deal)[[/labelnote]], but their movies remained unavailable on videocassette until they joined forces with Fotomat in 1979. Fotomat offered video rental from a catalog with next-day pickup at Fotomat kiosks. Following an early test run, the program was expanded nationwide; however, the program faced numerous problems during the test run, not the least of which was tapes getting lost in transit or resold by less innocuous interests. By 1982, it was already over and replaced by local video rental stores.

Recognizing the problem, Paramount decided to self-release its formerly rental-only titles for consumer purchase on videotape. It previewed several dozen titles at the Consumer Electronics Show. They later released their titles on laser videodisc.

Paramount Home Video is now known as Paramount Home Entertainment.

!!RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video

[[caption-width-right:250:Current logo as Sony Pictures Home Entertainment]] %%Examples are not recent: needs "since XXXX" instead%%

RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video is the former name of a home video division presently known as Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

After Columbia and Tri-Star Pictures were acquired by Creator/SonyPictures, RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video got into a legal spat with Creator/{{NBC}} in 1990. NBC's parent company, General Electric (GE), had acquired RCA in 1986. NBC accused Columbia and Sony of attempting to subvert the joint home video venture by picking up international video rights to Creator/OrionPictures films. Ultimately, GE opted to sell its share of RCA/Columbia (50%) to Sony, ending the litigation.

Sony renamed the company Columbia [=TriStar=] Home Video in 1991.[[labelnote:New Line]](Another Sony video division, Sony Video Services, was merged into the former RCA/Columbia and became SVS-Triumph. The name was used for "low-profile" New Line, Columbia, and [=TriStar=] releases during the transition from RCA/Columbia to Columbia [=TriStar=]).
New Line eventually established its home video division from the remnants of Nelson Entertainment in 1991, but distribution continued to go through RCA-Columbia/Columbia [=TriStar=] until 1994, when NLC was bought by [[UsefulNotes/TedTurner Turner Broadcasting]] and switched to their in-house label Turner Home Entertainment. In 1996, Turner merged with Time Warner, resulting in Turner Home Entertainment being absorbed into Warner Home Video and New Line Home Video going solo until NLC was merged directly into Creator/WarnerBros in 2009.)[[/labelnote]] Columbia [=TriStar=] continued to evolve, eventually taking on the Sony name in 2005 as Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

[[caption-width-right:250:The company's 1985-1997 logo.]]

[[caption-width-right:250:The company's current logo.]]%%Examples are not recent: needs "since XXXX" instead%%

In 2020, Warner entered into a physical media joint venture with Universal Pictures Home Entertainment to be effective in 2021.

In 1981, ''WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}'' became the first Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon movie to hit home video, followed shortly after by ''WesternAnimation/AliceInWonderland'' and the anthology movies ''WesternAnimation/TheThreeCaballeros'', ''WesternAnimation/FunAndFancyFree'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh''. The Disney management at the time were initially reluctant to release the rest of the Canon anywhere but in theaters out of concern that they would lose their value if they were to be released on tape. They marked the Canon's 15 most lucrative movies [[labelnote:the 15]](''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'', ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'', ''WesternAnimation/LadyAndTheTramp'', ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'', ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians'', ''WesternAnimation/TheSwordInTheStone'', ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967'', ''WesternAnimation/TheAristocats'', ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood'', ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuers'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound'')[[/labelnote]] off-limits from home video by compiling them into a list of "Untouchables". However, this was during the DorkAge of the studio when the Disney brand was associated with children's fluff and attempts to create DarkerAndEdgier fare failed miserably at the box office, so the idea of unleashing the Untouchables on home video eventually caught on.

Disney previously vowed that their crown jewels (''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'') would ''never'' be released on video, but they relented with ''Fantasia'' in 1991, followed by ''Snow White'' in 1994 as the first in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection line. Some time after this, the term "Untouchable" was apparently abandoned at Disney.[[note]]It probably didn't help that five of the Untouchables found their revenue exceeded by the biggest hits of UsefulNotes/TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation.[[/note]] With VHS sales eating up revenue from theatrical reissues, Disney eventually only did the latter on special occasions.

In 2004, Disney became one of the first studios to announce their support of the high definition UsefulNotes/BluRay Disc format.[[labelnote:Blu-ray]](commissioned by the Blu-ray Disc Association, which consists of Sony (the primary maker and Disney semi-ally), Panasonic, Pioneer (who developed LD), Philips, Thomson/Technicolor SA, LG (Lucky-Goldstar) Electronics, Hitachi, Sharp, and Samsung Electronics)[[/note]]. This poised Blu-ray to enter and ultimately win a format war with HD-DVD from Toshiba. They officially started releasing new films to Blu-ray discs in 2006. In 2008, Disney began releasing their traditionally-animated movies on Blu-ray, starting with ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty''.

If you haven't been keeping track, that means Disney now owns what was once Magnetic Video, the one that started it all.

Home video as a medium encompasses pre-recorded videos owned or rented by consumers for viewing in their homes on their own schedule-- to put it laconically, video at home. Thanks to home video, viewers no longer have to visit the cinema during a film's theatrical run or stay by the television during a broadcast controlled by the network.

[[caption-width-right:250:Current logo as Sony Pictures Home Entertainment]]

In 1981, Columbia and Creator/{{RCA|Records}}, the creator of the UsefulNotes/{{CED}} videodisc format, entered into a joint venture as RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video. In addition to titles from RCA and Columbia, they released works from Columbia's Creator/TriStarPictures and "mini-major" Creator/NewLineCinema, as well as a variety of smaller firms.[[note]](Cinema 5, Films Incorporated, Picture Source Associates, SFM Entertainment, Cantina Blues Films, Pentagon Releasing, IFI Films, Crown International, and Cinetel Films, among others. Later, they picked up the video rights to the Epic Productions library, which they held for a few years in the early '90s, and certain early Creator/AmericanInternationalPictures releases.)[[/note]] During the 1980s, RCA/Columbia had a children's subsidiary called Magic Window.[[note]](It specialized in childrens' entertainment, including classic Creator/ColumbiaCartoons and current AnimatedSeries, along with occasional live action programs.)[[/note]] It also had a music subsidiary, [=MusicVision=], which issued titles from Creator/RCARecords along with others like Creator/IslandRecords, Creator/{{Motown}}, and [=PolyGram=] Music Video.

[[caption-width-right:250:The company's current logo.]]

In addition to Warner Bros. and Warner-Elektra-Atlantic titles, Warner Home Video distributed works from other companies [[labelnote:others]](Creator/{{NBC}}, Creator/OrionPictures, Filmways Pictures, New World Pictures, and The Ladd Company, plus Creator/NewLineCinema over a decade before Warner's corporate parent Time Warner purchased the company, and just under three decades before it was merged into Warner Bros. itself)[[/labelnote]]. They currently release [=DVDs=] and Blu-rays for outside companies [[labelnote:outside]](including Creator/TheBBC in North America only, [[Series/SesameStreet Sesame Workshop]], wrestling content from Wrestling/{{WWE}}, Creator/VizMedia, Creator/{{Mattel}} (most notably their ''Literature/AmericanGirl'' made-for-TV and theatrical movies along with their ''Franchise/MastersOfTheUniverse'' theatrical movie), and select Creator/{{Paramount}} backlog titles)[[/labelnote]], as well as sister [=WarnerMedia=] companies.[[labelnote:sisters]](Creator/{{HBO}}, Creator/{{TNT}}, Creator/{{TBS}}, and Creator/CartoonNetwork. The latter three had their videos distributed under the in-house video arm Turner Home Entertainment, along with New Line releases, beginning in 1994. They'd previously gone through RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video and its successors until the merger, at which point New Line's video arm became separate until New Line Cinema was merged with WB itself. Cartoon Network, Creator/AdultSwim), TBS, and TNT-related titles were immediately merged into Warner Home Video.)[[/labelnote]]

Home video as a medium encompasses pre-recorded videos owned or rented by consumers for viewing in their homes on their own schedule-- to put it laconically, video at home. Thanks to home video, viewers no longer have to visit the cinema during a film's theatrical run or stay by the television during a broadcast controlled by the network.

UsefulNotes/TheBlockbusterAgeOfHollywood first brought videos into viewers' homes on [[UsefulNotes/{{VCR}} videocassettes]] [[note]](yes, one word)[[/note]] containing video recordings on magnetic tape. In the videotape [[DuelingProducts format war]], Video Home System (VHS) eventually won out over Betamax. At first, videocassette recorders ([=VCRs=]) weren't widely adopted by the average consumer; they were expensive in the mid-1970s, but that changed by the late [[UsefulNotes/TheEighties 1980s]].

!!Magnetic Video

Without Magnetic Video Corporation, home video likely wouldn't have gotten off the ground. Magnetic Video was the first home video distributor for theatrical motion pictures that consumers could purchase, not just rent, on Betamax or [=VHS=].

The company was established in 1968 as an [[NonIndicativeName audio duplication facility]] in the Detroit suburb of Farmington Hills, Michigan by an ambitious guy named Andre Blay. Blay wanted to duplicate movies on videocassette, but not only was the technology not advanced enough yet, the major studios were skeptical because of possible analog piracy. However, one fateful day in August 1977, Blay reached an agreement with the financially-strapped Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox to license and distribute 50 of their films.

There were international branches-- Magnetic Video UK, Magnetic Video Australia, and a South Pacific branch. Magnetic Video was also a duplicator for early tapes released by [[Creator/{{Paramount}} Paramount Home Video]] and MCA Videocassette Inc.

The CBS/Fox Company, better known as simply CBS/Fox Video, was the successor to 20th Century-Fox Video [[labelnote:rename]](originally Magnetic Video)[[/labelnote]] and CBS Video Enterprises.

In the summer of 1982, CBS Video Enterprises had recently split from Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer.[[labelnote:MGM]](causing their former joint venture, MGM/CBS Home Video, to be renamed MGM/UA Home Video)[[/labelnote]] CBS and Fox merged their home video distribution to form CBS/Fox Video.

In addition to many of Magnetic Video's earlier clients, CBS/Fox Video made a deal with Creator/TriStarPictures, a joint venture between CBS, Creator/ColumbiaPictures, and Creator/{{HBO}}.[[labelnote:that is...]](until CBS and HBO dropped out of the partnership in 1985 and 1987, respectively)[[/labelnote]] In the mid-'80s, CBS/Fox Video was fairly aggressive with markdowns, beginning with their "Five Star Collection" promotions in 1986. For a brief period in 1987, they were the official duplicator for future parent company [[Creator/{{Disney}} Walt Disney's home videos]] before VCA/Technicolor acquired their duplication facilities that July.

!!Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/disney_home_entertainment.png]]

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment is the home video branch of [[Creator/{{Disney}} The Walt Disney Company]].

Disney first released its library into the home market in 1978 through a distribution agreement with [[Creator/{{MCA}} MCA DiscoVision]] to release live-action Disney movies and animated episodes of ''Series/WaltDisneyPresents'' onto UsefulNotes/LaserDisc (LD). The agreement expired in December 1981, but Disney's films and programs were later released on the revamped version of LD by Pioneer Entertainment and Philips.[[labelnote:LD releases]](they quietly stopped LD releases in 1999 with ''Film/InspectorGadget'')[[/labelnote]]

In March 1980, Disney formed its own home video arm, a division of Walt Disney Telecommunications and Non-Theatrical Company (renamed Buena Vista Home Video in late 1987), with Jim Jimirro as its first president. Thirteen titles [[labelnote:the 13]](''Film/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'', ''Series/DavyCrockett: King of the Wild Frontier'', ''Film/TheLoveBug'', ''Film/BedknobsAndBroomsticks'', ''Film/EscapeToWitchMountain'', ''Film/TheAppleDumplingGang'', ''Film/PetesDragon1977'', ''Film/HotLeadAndColdFeet'', ''The North Avenue Irregulars'', ''Film/TheBlackHole'', and the ''Walt Disney Presents'' episodes "On Vacation With WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse and Friends", "Kids is Kids, Starring WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck", and "The Adventures of WesternAnimation/ChipAndDale")[[/labelnote]] were released on VHS and Betamax.[[labelnote:format note]](VHS was developed by Victor Company of Japan/Japan Victor Company, or JVC, while Betamax was developed by Sony, a semi-ally of Disney who later co-developed DVD and became the first Blu-ray maker)[[/labelnote]] They were licensed to Fotomat for rental, with a four-city test (in UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}, UsefulNotes/{{Houston}}, UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} and UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco) before a nationwide expansion by the end of the year. During 1981-1984, Disney expanded its reach by having video stores sign up to be "authorized rental dealers".

In 1981, ''WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}'' became the first Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon movie to hit home video, followed shortly after by ''WesternAnimation/AliceInWonderland'' and the anthology movies ''WesternAnimation/TheThreeCaballeros'', ''WesternAnimation/FunAndFancyFree'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh''. The Disney management at the time were initially reluctant to release the rest of the Canon anywhere but in theaters out of concern that they would lose their value if they were to be released on tape. They marked the Canon's 15 most lucrative movies [[labelnote:the 15]](''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'', ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'', ''WesternAnimation/LadyAndTheTramp'', ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'', ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians'', ''WesternAnimation/TheSwordInTheStone'', ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967'', ''WesternAnimation/TheAristocats'', ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood'', ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuers'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound'')[[/labelnote]] off-limits from home video by compiling them into a list of "Untouchables". However, this was during the DorkAge of the studio when the Disney brand was associated with children's fluff and attempts to create DarkerAndEdgier fare failed miserably at the box office, so the idea of unleashing the Untouchables on home video eventually caught on.

The idea for Walt Disney Classics, the video line for the Disney Animated Canon, was adopted by Michael Eisner after its originator (then-studio head Ron Miller) was ousted in a boardroom takeover. The first Classics title was ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood'' in 1984, followed by ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'' in 1985. As a compromise to the more conservative members of the board, both titles were priced for rental; one could technically buy the tapes, but they were priced at the very steep $79.95. Also in 1984, Disney launched another home video branch, Buena Vista Home Video (later Buena Vista Home Entertainment), to release productions without Disney's name.

In August 1985, Bill Mechanic moved to Disney Home Video. He was the former head of Paramount Home Video, and the move reunited him with his former Paramount bosses, Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg. While he was with Paramount, Mechanic had embraced the growing video collector's market and priced ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' at the easily-affordable $39.95, giving birth to what became known as the "sell-through" market. Sensing an opportunity for Disney, Mechanic lowered the price for ''Pinocchio'' to $29.95, eventually breaking records in the video market, and Disney subsequently debuted new releases in the collection in a similar price range. Other video distributors embraced sell-through for children's and family titles. Mechanic also created the so-called "The Disney Vault," making most Disney Classics only available for a limited time before going "back into the vault". Disney's ''Robin Hood'' was the first Classics title reissued on home video in 1991, followed by ''Pinocchio'' in 1993.[[note]]There were talks about never releasing ''Pinocchio'' on video again after its initial release, but the box-office failure of its 1992 theatrical re-release scuttled those plans.[[/note]]

For the first few years of the Walt Disney Classics collection, Disney traditionally re-released an "Untouchable" in theaters, then shortly afterwards "opened the vault" to make it available to own on home video. Brand-new entries to the Disney Animated Canon didn't come to home video at first in hopes that their theatrical re-releases would still make money. However, after 1989's ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}'' became Disney's biggest success in years, it was released to home video only six months after its theatrical premiere. Canon entries following ''Mermaid'' had progressively shorter gaps between their theatrical premieres and their first home video release dates.

Disney previously vowed that their crown jewels (''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'') would ''never'' be released on video, but they relented with ''Fantasia'' in 1991, followed by ''Snow White'' in 1994 as the first in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection line. Some time after this, the term "Untouchable" was apparently abandoned at Disney.[[note]]It probably didn't help that five of the Untouchables found their revenue exceeded by the biggest hits of UsefulNotes/TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation.[[/note]] With VHS sales eating up revenue from theatrical reissues, Disney eventually only did the latter on special occasions.

Towards the end of 1997, Disney began releasing their live action movies on UsefulNotes/{{DVD}}. Within the next couple of years, the studio kicked off their efforts to make the Disney Animated Canon available on the format, beginning with ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}''. In lieu of the Untouchables, Disney compiled the 14 movies that sold the most videotapes [[labelnote:the 14]](''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'', ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'', ''WesternAnimation/LadyAndTheTramp'', ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'', ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians'', ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967'', ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'', ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'')[[/labelnote]] into a collection of films each remained available for only a limited time before going into moratorium for many years. They initially referred to these films as the "Platinum" collection, but proceeded to change the name whenever the DAC's oldest entry, ''Snow White'', entered a new media format. Other Disney movies only disappeared from stores if the studio decided to re-release them with more bonus features.

In 2004, Disney became one of the first studios to announce their support of the high definition UsefulNotes/BluRay Disc format.[[labelnote:Blu-ray]](commissioned by the Blu-ray Disc Association, which consists of Sony (the primary maker and Disney semi-ally), Panasonic, Pioneer (who developed LD), Philips, Thomson/Technicolor SA, LG (Lucky-Goldstar) Electronics, Hitachi, Sharp, and Samsung Electronics)[[/note]]. This poised Blu-ray to enter and ultimately win a format war with HD-DVD from Toshiba. They officially started releasing new films to Blu-ray discs in 2006. In 2008, Disney began releasing their traditionally-animated movies on Blu-ray, starting with ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty''.

Also in 2006, Disney began venturing into non-physical releases. They became the first studio to make their movies available to purchase and download through Apple's [=iTunes=], which at the time was run by Creator/{{Pixar}} CEO and Disney shareholder Creator/SteveJobs. In 2014, Disney launched a website and mobile app especially for downloading and streaming their movies called Disney Movies Anywhere, which launched the same day that the Canon's highest-grossing movie, ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'', hit digital platforms.

In 2017, Disney began releasing their library on 4K [=UltraHD=] Blu-ray and Digital formats, starting with Creator/MarvelStudios' ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2''. ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales'' became the first Disney-branded film with 4K home media releases, Pixar's ''WesternAnimation/Cars3'' the first Disney-owned animated film to receive such treatment, and Creator/TouchstonePictures' ''Film/ThePrestige'' [[note]](distributed internationally by Creator/WarnerBros, one of the first studios to support UHD)[[/note]] the first Disney-owned 4K catalog title. The same year, Disney Movies Anywhere became Movies Anywhere, and started offering other studios' works in addition to Disney's. The following year, ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'' became the Animated Canon's first [=UltraHD=] title (as a tie-in with ''WesternAnimation/RalphBreaksTheInternet''), and ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'' their first traditionally-animated UHD release.

After Disney's buyout of Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox, Buena Vista Home Entertainment began distributing 20th Century Studios and Creator/SearchlightPictures [=DVDs=], Blu-Rays and 4K [=UHDs=], starting with
''Film/TheCallOfTheWild2020'' and ''Downhill''. Thanks to a deal [=iTunes=] struck two years earlier to sell 20th Century movies in 4K, their library marks the first Disney-owned movies that [=iTunes=] carries in such a high resolution; 4K digital copies of Disney movies previously remained exclusive to Movies Anywhere and Vudu.

Meanwhile, Disney VHS tapes (particularly the animated ones) have become collectibles and part of a niche market.

!!MCA Home Video

In 1978, Creator/{{MCA}} [[labelnote:acronym]](formerly Music Corporation of America, then MCA Records)[[/labelnote]] branched out of music and began their videodisc division, MCA [=DiscoVision=]. They were the first company to release laser videodiscs to the consumer market-- even marketing the format as "MCA [=DiscoVision=]" (or simply "[=DiscoVision=]"). After Pioneer Electronics bought out the rights and patents to the format in the 1980s, it was renamed to "[=LaserVision=]", then again to its most recognizable name: "UsefulNotes/LaserDisc". We'll get to the unified division once known as MCA Home Video-- but first, we go back to the beginning.

David Paul Gregg, an employee of Gauss Electrophysics, conceived a revolutionary idea for video storage called "optical video disc" back in the 1950s. Nearly a decade later, MCA took interest in this idea and purchased Gauss Electrophysics. Like Magnetic Video, MCA saw potential in the home video revolution; however, MCA's focus at the time was on video''discs'' rather than the video''cassettes'' that We''interested Magnetic Video. MCA spun off MCA Laboratories to develop this revolutionary new system. They purchased a defunct furniture factory and converted it to a full-scale mastering and replication facility which became the largest manufacturer of laser videodiscs in the United States.

The first public demonstration of the "Disco-Vision" [[labelnote:hyphen]](it used to be hyphenated)[[/labelnote]] format took place at Universal Studios in Universal City, California, on December 12, 1972, with a seven-minute screening of clips from Creator/{{Universal}}'s motion pictures. Philips representatives who attended were impressed. They were developing their own incompatible videodisc system while RCA was developing their own competing vinyl-based videodisc system, the UsefulNotes/CapacitanceElectronicDisc (CED). Philips entered a merger (of sorts) with MCA of their systems in September 1974. Two companies were assigned different tasks; MCA would remain in charge of the videodiscs themselves, and Philips would take charge of the playback systems for said videodiscs.

In 1978, the year of its official launch, Disco-Vision dropped the hyphen and simply became [=DiscoVision=]. Creator/{{Disney}}, Creator/{{Paramount}}, and Creator/WarnerBros, among other entities, signed distribution deals with MCA. [=DiscoVision=] was quickly riddled with a lot of problems on many fronts. MCA and Philips scrambled trying to solve them, but this ultimately failed. [=DiscoVision=] went bust by the end of 1981. It's considered an OldShame by MCA and its successors, but a CultClassic among collectors.

In the spring of 1980, MCA entered the videocassette business under the name MCA Videocassette, Inc. They launched with just over two dozen titles, many of which were part of the [=DiscoVision=] Silver Catalog at one point or another. Early releases included films from Creator/{{Universal}} Studios. MCA Videocassette distributed both [=VHS=] and Betamax releases.

----
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:Content of former index page]]
An index of home video companies with Wiki/TVTropes articles.

!!!Major Studios (The Big Five)

* Universal
** Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
** Dreamworks Home Entertainment
*** Dreamworks Classics
*** Golden Book Video
** Creator/MCAVideoDistributingCorporation
* Paramount
** Creator/ParamountHomeVideo
** CIC Video (International territories)
** Republic Pictures Home Video
*** NTA Home Entertainment
*** Creator/WorldvisionHomeVideo
* Sony
** Creator/SonyPicturesHomeEntertainment
*** Gaumont/Columbia Films/RCA Video (France)
*** RCA/Columbia Pictures International Video
%% *** Creator/RCAColumbiaPicturesInternationalVideo
*** RCA/Columbia Pictures/Hoyts Video Pty. Ltd. (Australia)
%% *** Creator/RCAColumbiaPicturesHoytsVideoPtyLtd
*** Creator/MagicWindow
** Sony Video Software
** Sony Wonder
* Disney
** Creator/WaltDisneyHomeVideo
** 20th Century Fox
*** Creator/MagneticVideo
*** Creator/TheCBSFoxCompany
*** Key Video
*** Playhouse Video
* Warner
** Turner Home Entertainment
*** Hanna-Barbera Home Video
** Warner Archive Collection
%% ** Creator/WarnerArchiveCollection
** Creator/WarnerHomeVideo

!!!Australian Companies

* ABC Video Australia
* CEL Home Video
** Australian Video
** Playaround Video
** Star Video
* Creator/RoadshowHomeVideo
** Applause Home Video
** Palace Home Video
** Premiere Home Entertainment
* Syme Home Video
* Video Classics

!!!British companies

* BBC Video
* Derann Video
* Entertainment in Video
* Guild Home Video
%% * Creator/GuildHomeVideo
* Hokushin
* Intervision Video
* Odyssey
* Palace Video
* The Video Collection
* Virgin Video
** Virgin Vision (US)

!!!Canadian Companies

* Astral Video
* Creator/CineplexOdeonVideo
** Pan-Canadian Video Presentations
* Entertainment One
** Alliance Home Entertainment
*** Alliance Vivafilm (Quebec)
*** Aurum (Spain)
*** Momentum Pictures (UK)
* Interglobal Home Video
* Malofilm Video
* Marquis Video

!!!Greek Companies

* Audio Visual Enterprises
* Hellas Kosmos Home Video
* Home Video Hellas
* Creator/ModernTimes
* Videosonic

!!!Japanese Companies

* Columbia Music Video
* Daiei Video
* Eion
* Funai
* Nippon Herald
* Pack-In-Video
* Shochiku Home Video
* Toei Video
* Toho Video
* Tohokushinsha Home Video
* Tokuma Japan Communications
* Toshiba
** Herald Videogram
* Towa Video
* VAP Video
* Victor (JVC)

!!!Budget Companies

* Alpha Video Distributors
* Anchor Bay Entertainment
%% * Creator/AnchorBayEntertainment
** HGV Video Productions (Canada)
** Video Treasures
%% ** Creator/VideoTreasures
* Congress Video Group
* Goodtimes Home Video
%% * Creator/GoodtimesHomeVideo
** Kids Klassics
* Creator/MillCreekEntertainment
* Star Classics
* Starmaker Entertainment
%% * Creator/StarmakerEntertainment
* United American Video

!!!Anime Companies

* Creator/ADVFilms
* Creator/AnimeLimited
* Creator/AniplexUSA
* Creator/BandaiEntertainment
* Creator/CentralParkMedia
* Creator/{{Funimation}}
* Creator/{{Geneon}}
* Creator/{{GKIDS}}
* Creator/MadmanEntertainment (Australia)
* Creator/MangaEntertainment
* Creator/MediaBlasters
* Creator/MVMEntertainment (UK)
* Creator/SentaiFilmworks
* Creator/{{Tokyopop}}
* Creator/VizMedia

!!!Other Companies

* Creator/AlliedArtistsVideo
* Creator/TheCriterionCollection
* Embassy Home Entertainment
%% * Creator/EmbassyHomeEntertainment
** Charter Entertainment
* Creator/FotomatVideo
* Creator/FredLevineProductions
* Image Entertainment
%% * Creator/ImageEntertainment
* Creator/LionsGate
** Creator/InternationalVideoEntertainment
*** Creator/AvidHomeEntertainment
*** Family Home Entertainment
*** Monterey Home Video
*** U.S.A. Home Video
*** Creator/VistaHomeVideo
** Creator/VestronVideo
*** Children's Video Library
*** Lightning Video
** Vidmark Entertainment
%% ** Creator/VidmarkEntertainment
* Creator/KinoLorberStudioClassics
* Lorimar Home Video
%% * Creator/LorimarHomeVideo
* Creator/LyrickStudios
* Magnum Entertainment
%% * Creator/MagnumEntertainment
* Heron Home Entertainment
** Fox Hills Video
** Hi-Tops Video
** Creator/MediaHomeEntertainment
** Video Form Pictures (UK)
* Kartes Video Communications
* Mogul Communications
%% * Creator/MogulCommunications
* Creator/MPIHomeVideo
* MGM
** Creator/MGMCBSHomeVideo
** Orion Home Video
*** Filmways Home Video
* Olive Films
%% * Creator/OliveFilms
* Creator/PBSHomeVideo
* Creator/RandomHouseHomeVideo
* [[Creator/RhinoRecords Rhino Home Video]]
* Creator/ShoutFactory
** Creator/ScreamFactory
* Creator/ThornEMIVideo
** ThornEMIVideo/USLibrary
* Creator/TwilightTime
* Creator/VCIHomeVideo
* Vidamerica
* Creator/WizardVideo
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Actual pages]]

!!!Major Studios (The Big Five)
* Universal: Creator/MCAVideoDistributingCorporation
* Paramount:
** Creator/ParamountHomeVideo
** Creator/WorldvisionHomeVideo
* Sony:
** Creator/SonyPicturesHomeEntertainment
** Creator/MagicWindow
* Disney:
** Creator/WaltDisneyHomeVideo
** 20th Century Fox:
*** Creator/MagneticVideo
*** Creator/TheCBSFoxCompany
* Warner: Creator/WarnerHomeVideo

!!! Countries
* Australian Company: Creator/RoadshowHomeVideo
* Canadian Company: Creator/CineplexOdeonVideo
* Greek Company: Creator/ModernTimes
* Budget Company: Creator/MillCreekEntertainment

!!!Anime Companies

* Creator/AnimeLimited
* Creator/MadmanEntertainment (Australia)
* Creator/MVMEntertainment (UK)

!!!Other Companies

* Creator/AlliedArtistsVideo
* Creator/FotomatVideo
* Creator/FredLevineProductions
* [=LionsGate=]
** Creator/InternationalVideoEntertainment
*** Creator/AvidHomeEntertainment
*** Creator/VistaHomeVideo
** Creator/VestronVideo
* Creator/KinoLorberStudioClassics
* Creator/LyrickStudios
** Creator/MediaHomeEntertainment
* Creator/MPIHomeVideo
* MGM: Creator/MGMCBSHomeVideo
* Creator/PBSHomeVideo
* Creator/RandomHouseHomeVideo
* Creator/ShoutFactory
** Creator/ScreamFactory
* Creator/ThornEMIVideo
* Creator/TwilightTime
* Creator/VCIHomeVideo
* Creator/WizardVideo
[[/folder]]

----

[[folder:Descriptions]]
!Major Studios (The Big Five)

!!!MCA Video Distributing Corporation
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mca_videocassette.jpg]]
[[quoteright:323:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mca_discovision1.gif]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mca_videodisc.jpg]]

Sure, that may not have been the actual name, but for the purposes of this article, MCA's two videodisc divisions, MCA [=DiscoVision=] and MCA Videodisc, and MCA's videocassette division, MCA Videocassette, Inc., shall be collectively known as MCA Video Distributing Corporation.

Before the unified division called MCA Home Video, MCA Distributing Corporation, known as a distributor of Creator/{{MCA}}'s music product, had separate videocassette and videodisc divisions. The videodisc division, MCA [=DiscoVision=], came first, in 1978, and was the first company to release laser videodiscs to the consumer market. Laser videodisc had its roots in the '50s when David Paul Gregg, an employee of Gauss Electrophysics, conceived a revolutionary idea for video storage, called "optical video disc". Nearly a decade later, the company's development work was brought to the attention of MCA president Lew Wasserman by his assistant, Don Wynn. MCA purchased Gauss Electrophysics the next year. Like Creator/MagneticVideo, MCA saw some potential in the home video revolution; however, MCA's focus at the time was on videodisc product. Kent Broadbent was assigned to the project, which came to be known as Disco-Vision, and MCA Laboratories was spun off for the purpose of developing this revolutionary new system from their headquarters in Torrance, California. MCA Laboratories also purchased a defunct furniture factory in Carson, California, and converted it to a full-scale mastering and replication facility which would become the largest manufacturer of laser videodiscs in the United States. The first public demonstration of the Disco-Vision format took place at Universal Studios in Universal City, California, on December 12, 1972, with a seven-minute screening of clips from Creator/{{Universal}}'s motion pictures.

Philips representatives, who attended this demonstration, were impressed and, due to the development of their own incompatible videodisc system and the continuing development of RCA's own competing vinyl-based videodisc system, the UsefulNotes/CapacitanceElectronicDisc, began talks with MCA about a merger (of sorts) of their systems, which took place in September 1974. Some time later, the tasks of the two companies involved were assigned: MCA would remain in charge of the videodiscs themselves, and Philips would take charge of the playback systems for said videodiscs. Between 1976 and 1977, several test pressings took place, with three purposes:

# To demonstrate the fact that Disco-Vision was capable of producing actual discs and the product was ready to begin consumer replication;
# To provide actual products for MCA executives to show off the technology; and
# To provide products to test and calibrate players.

In an example of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, these prototype discs were single-sided and ran for only 25 minutes, and were also thinner and more flexible (though any player can read those discs, even if they have a hard time clamping and holding them correctly). The thinness of the discs caused a lot of problems, and MCA spent the next 18 months developing a dual-sided disc, which helped eliminate the tracking problems inherent on these test pressings. Later in 1977, Pioneer entered into a joint venture called Universal Pioneer to handle the potential industrial applications of Disco-Vision. In 1978, the year of its official launch, Disco-Vision dropped the hyphen and simply became [=DiscoVision=]. Also, Creator/{{Disney}}, Creator/{{Paramount}}, and Creator/WarnerBros, among other entities, signed distribution deals with MCA.

However, [=DiscoVision=] was quickly riddled with a lot of problems on many fronts, and MCA and Philips scrambled to try to solve them; however, this ultimately failed, and [=DiscoVision=] went bust by the end of 1981 and today is considered an OldShame by MCA and its successors, though a CultClassic among collectors. Pioneer then began marketing the system as ''[=LaserVision=]'', or as simply the UsefulNotes/LaserDisc. (Philips maintained European rights to the [=LaserVision=] name and marketed it themselves through the 80s.)

Meanwhile, in the spring of 1980, MCA entered the videocassette business under the name '''MCA Videocassette, Inc.''' and released a launch slate of just over two dozen titles, many of which were part of the [=DiscoVision=] Silver Catalog at one point or another. Magnetic Video and Bell & Howell Video Systems were contracted to duplicate MCA's VHS and Betamax product; however, by 1981, S/T Videocassette Duplicating Corporation bought out Magnetic's distribution contract for MCA. Many more titles soon followed.

In 1982, MCA decided to take a second stab at the videodisc business and launched a more successful division called '''MCA Videodisc'''. This label was used for both [=LaserVision=] and CED releases. In 1983, MCA Videodisc and MCA Videocassette merged to become '''MCA Home Video''', though videocassette product continued to use the old logo in some form until later that year. The division is now known as '''Universal Pictures Home Entertainment'''.

In January 2020, UPHE and Creator/WarnerHomeVideo announced a 10-year joint venture that will effectively combine their physical home media divisions, set to launch in 2021 pending regulatory approval.


!!!Paramount Home Video
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/paramount.jpg]]
Paramount Home Video is one of the earliest players in the video industry.

Creator/{{Paramount}} Pictures first attempted to enter the industry in 1976 when it entered into a pact with S/T Videocassette Duplicating Corporation to release certain of its films on videocassette. Nothing came of that deal, however, and Paramount's movies would remain unavailable for three more years, until Paramount joined forces with Creator/{{Fotomat| Video}} to release many of its films on videocassette for rental. Following an early test run, the program was expanded nationwide; however, the program faced numerous problems during the test run, not the least of which was tapes getting lost in transit or resold by less innocuous interests. Recognizing the problem, Paramount decided to self-release its tapes for sale, initially through Sound and Video Unlimited, and the next January made its CES debut along with Creator/ColumbiaPicturesHomeEntertainment and Creator/WCIHomeVideo. It's known that at least 46 titles were previewed at that year's CES, all of which had previously been rental-only offerings via Fotomat. Later that year, in October, they debuted a new logo which drew heavily, it was later discovered, from that of sister company Paramount Television Service. The next year, they simply stopped using a logo on most releases, opting to not use any logo at all when they started releasing their titles on laser videodisc that same year.

In 1982, they released a title that would change the home video game forever: ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan''. The title was priced directly for the consumer, and from that moment on, home video would never be the same again.


!!!Worldvision Home Video
'''Worldvision Home Video''' was the video distribution division of Worldvision Enterprises (not to be confused with the charitable organization World Vision International).


!!!Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/edf072c95683bb814cd0a1326cbc18a8.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Their logo during the '80s]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sonyhome.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Current logo]]

'''RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video''' is the home video division of Creator/ColumbiaPictures, presently known as '''Sony Pictures Home Entertainment'''.

It began life in 1979 as '''Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment''', with a launch set of 20 titles on VHS and Betamax and several others on Super 8. Though Columbia had already been releasing its films, as well as those of fellow Hollywood studio Creator/WarnerBros, on Super 8, Columbia's entry into the videocassette market is generally regarded as the beginning of the company, as it was around this time that Columbia introduced the blue and white package design that would feature on the first wave of videocassette titles, as well as their later Super 8 releases. Over the next few videocassette waves, the packaging would undergo significant redesigns, eventually maturing into the design which would be seen for much of the following decade.

In 1981, Columbia and RCA, the creator of the UsefulNotes/{{CED}} videodisc format, entered into a joint venture (partially to provide product for CED), and its North American video division would be renamed to reflect the joint venture one year later (international markets were already using the RCA/Columbia name by that time). Columbia was also a pioneer in closed captioning for home video, with early releases being stickered for closed captioning. In addition to RCA and Columbia product, RCA/Columbia also released product from Columbia's Creator/TriStarPictures and "mini-major" Creator/NewLineCinema, as well as a variety of smaller firms, including Cinema 5, Films Incorporated, Picture Source Associates, SFM Entertainment, Cantina Blues Films, Pentagon Releasing, IFI Films, Crown International, and Cinetel Films, among others. Later, they picked up the video rights to the Epic Productions library, which they held for a few years in the early '90s, and certain early Creator/AmericanInternationalPictures releases. After Columbia was acquired by Sony and became part of Creator/SonyPictures, along with Tri-Star, they got in a spat with GE (which had acquired RCA in 1986) accusing Columbia of attempting to subvert the joint venture by picking up international video rights to Creator/OrionPictures films. Ultimately, GE opted to leave the joint venture instead of pursing further litigation; shortly thereafter, the name was changed to '''Columbia [=TriStar=] Home Video''', and Sony's own video division was merged into the company and became '''SVS/Triumph Home Video''' (which was used for New Line and "low-profile" Columbia and [=TriStar=] releases during the transition from RCA-Columbia to Columbia [=TriStar=]). Columbia [=TriStar=] continued to evolve, eventually taking on the Sony name in 2005. (New Line eventually established its home video division from the remnants of Nelson Entertainment in 1991, but distribution continued to go through RCA-Columbia/Columbia [=TriStar=] until 1994, when NLC was bought by [[UsefulNotes/TedTurner Turner Broadcasting]] and switched to their in-house label Turner Home Entertainment; in 1996 Turner merged with Time Warner, resulting in THE being absorbed into Creator/WarnerHomeVideo and NLHV going solo until NLC was merged directly into Creator/WarnerBros in 2009.)

During TheEighties, RCA/Columbia had a children's subsidiary called Creator/MagicWindow which has its own page. It also had a music subsidiary, [=MusicVision=], which issued titles from Creator/RCARecords along with Creator/IslandRecords, Creator/{{Motown}} and [=PolyGram=] Music Video, among others.


!!!Magic Window
[[quoteright:262:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/magic_window_logo.jpg]]

Magic Window was a sublabel of Creator/RCAColumbiaPicturesHomeVideo that was active in TheEighties. It specialized in childrens' entertainment, including classic Creator/ColumbiaCartoons and current AnimatedSeries, along with occasional live action programs.


!!!Walt Disney Home Video
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/disney_home_entertainment.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:From the magic within our hearts...to the adventure beyond the horizon...there is only one Disney.]]

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment is the home video branch of [[Creator/{{Disney}} The Walt Disney Company]].

Disney first released its library into the home market in 1978, through a distribution agreement with Creator/MCADiscoVision to release live-action Disney movies and animated episodes of ''Series/WaltDisneyPresents'' onto UsefulNotes/LaserDisc. The agreement would expire in December 1981, but Disney would later begin supplying films and programs on the revamped version of LD by Pioneer Entertainment and Philips (the latter of whom helped develop DVD) along with Image Entertainment.

In March 1980, Disney would form its own home video arm, a division of Walt Disney Telecommunications And Non Theatrical Company (renamed Buena Vista Home Video in late 1987), with Jim Jimirro as its first president. A list of 13 titles[[note]]''Film/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'', ''Series/DavyCrockett: King of the Wild Frontier'', ''Film/TheLoveBug'', ''Film/BedknobsAndBroomsticks'', ''Film/EscapeToWitchMountain'', ''Film/TheAppleDumplingGang'', ''Film/PetesDragon1977'', ''Film/HotLeadAndColdFeet'', ''The North Avenue Irregulars'', ''Film/TheBlackHole'', and the ''Walt Disney Presents'' episodes "On Vacation With WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse and Friends", "Kids is Kids, Starring WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck", and "The Adventures of WesternAnimation/ChipAndDale"[[/note]] were released on the [[UsefulNotes/{{VCR}} VHS and Betamax magnetic tape formats]] in March 1980 [[note]] The former was developed by Victor Company of Japan/Japan Victor Company, or JVC, while Betamax was developed by Sony, a semi-ally of Disney who would go on to co-develop DVD and be the first maker of Blu-ray [[/note]] licensed to [[Creator/FotomatVideo Fotomat]] for rental, with a four-city test (in UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}, UsefulNotes/{{Houston}}, UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} and UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco) before a planned nationwide expansion by the end of the year. Initial duplication was handled by Bell & Howell/Paramount Pictures Video Services before Disney moved on to self-distribution, after which it joined forces with S/T Videocassette Duplicating Corp. and U.S. Video Corp. During 1981-1984, Disney expanded its reach by having video stores sign up to be "authorized rental dealers". In the mid-'80s, Disney experimented with licensed content, acquiring product from Bill Burrud Productions, Henson Associates, Dargaud Films, the BBC, HBO, Weiss Global Enterprises, the U.S. Television Office, KCET, Nickelodeon, and the Hubley Studio, among others.

In 1981, ''WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}'' became the first Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon movie to hit home video; ''WesternAnimation/AliceInWonderland'' and the anthology movies ''WesternAnimation/TheThreeCaballeros'', ''WesternAnimation/FunAndFancyFree'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'' shortly followed. The Disney management at the time were initially reluctant to release the rest of the Canon anywhere but in theaters out of concern that they would lose their value if they were to be released on tape. They marked the Canon's 15 most lucrative movies[[note]]''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'', ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'', ''WesternAnimation/LadyAndTheTramp'', ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'', ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians'', ''WesternAnimation/TheSwordInTheStone'', ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967'', ''WesternAnimation/TheAristocats'', ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood'', ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuers'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound''[[/note]] off-limits from WDHV by compiling them into a list of "Untouchables". However, this was during the DorkAge of the studio that saw the Disney brand being associated with children's fluff and attempts to create DarkerAndEdgier fare failed miserably at the box office, so the idea to unleash the Untouchables for home use eventually caught on with some if not all of the executives.

The idea for giving the Disney Animated Canon its own video line, the Walt Disney Classics, from then-studio head Ron Miller, and subsequently adopted by Michael Eisner after the former was ousted in a boardroom takeover. The first title in the Classics line was ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood'' in 1984, followed by ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'', in 1985. As a compromise to the more conservative members of the board, both titles were priced for rental (one could technically buy the tapes, but they were priced at the very steep $79.95). Also in 1984, Disney launched another home video branch, Buena Vista Home Video (later Buena Vista Home Entertainment), to release productions without Disney's name.

In August 1985, Bill Mechanic, former head of Paramount Home Video, moved to Disney Home Video, reuniting him with his former Paramount bosses, Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Under Paramount, Mechanic embraced the growing video collector's market and priced ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' at the easily-affordable $39.95, giving birth to what became known as the "sell-through" market. Sensing an opportunity, Mechanic lowered the price for ''Pinocchio'' to $29.95, eventually breaking records in the video market, and Disney would subsequently debut new releases in the collection in that range or slightly lower. Soon other video distributors would embrace sell-through for children's and family titles. Mechanic was also responsible for creating "The Disney Vault," where most of Disney's Classics titles would only be available for a limited time, then go on moratorium, before re-releasing the most popular films to theaters. Disney's ''Robin Hood'' was the first Classics title to be reissued on video in 1991, followed by ''Pinocchio'' in 1993.[[note]]There were talks about never releasing ''Pinocchio'' on video again after its initial release, but the box-office failure of its 1992 re-release scuttled those plans.[[/note]]

For the first few years of the Walt Disney Classics collection, Disney would traditionally re-release an "Untouchable" in theaters, then make it available to own on home video shortly afterwards. Brand-new entries to the Disney Animated Canon wouldn't come to home video, in hopes that their theatrical re-releases would still make money. However, after 1989's ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}'' became Disney's biggest success in years, it reached video stores in 1990, only six months after its theatrical premiere. Canon entries following ''Mermaid'' would have progressively shorter gaps between their theatrical premieres, and their first home video release dates. Throughout the early 1990s, Disney vowed that their crown jewels, ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'', would never be released on video, though they relented (''Fantasia'' was released in 1991, ''Snow White'' in 1994 as the first in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection line). Some time after this, the term "Untouchable" apparently became abandoned at Disney.[[note]]It probably didn't help that five of the movies Disney gave this title to in the '80s found their revenue exceeded by the biggest hits of UsefulNotes/TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation.[[/note]] With VHS sales eating up revenue from theatrical reissues, Disney would eventually only hold the latter on special occasions.

Towards the end of 1997, Disney began releasing their movies on Toshiba/Philips/Panasonic/Sony's UsefulNotes/{{DVD}} (Digital Versatile Disc), including ''Film/MaryPoppins''. Within the next couple of years, the studio kicked off their efforts to make the Disney Animated Canon available on the format, beginning with ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}''. In lieu of the Untouchables, Disney would compile the 14 movies that sold the most videotapes[[note]]''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'', ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'', ''WesternAnimation/LadyAndTheTramp'', ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'', ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians'', ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967'', ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'', ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'', and ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994''[[/note]] into a collection of films that would each remain available for only a limited time, before going into moratorium for many years. They initially referred to these films as the "Platinum" collection, but would proceed to change the name whenever the DAC's oldest entry, ''Snow White'', would enter a new media format. Other Disney movies would only disappear from stores if the studio decided to re-release them with more bonus features. (Meanwhile, [=LaserDisc=] releases quietly ceased with the final Disney LD, ''Film/InspectorGadget'', released in 1999.)

In 2004, Disney announced that they became one of the first studios to support the high definition UsefulNotes/BluRay Disc format [[note]] commissioned by the Blu-ray Disc Association, which consists of Sony (the primary maker), Panasonic, Pioneer (who developed LD), Philips, Thomson/Technicolor SA, LG (Lucky-Goldstar) Electronics, Hitachi, Sharp, and Samsung Electronics [[/note]], poised at the time to enter a format war with (the ultimately short-lived) HD-DVD from Toshiba. They officially started releasing Blu-ray Discs in 2006, with ''WesternAnimation/{{Dinosaur}}'' becoming the Canon's first movie sold on BD. ''Film/EightBelow'' became the first live-action Disney movie available on Blu-ray, and ''Film/TheHauntedMansion'' the first catalog title.[[note]]Ignoring Creator/{{Miramax| Films}} movies that Disney distributed on Blu-ray and DVD, as Disney doesn't own Miramax anymore.[[/note]] After Blu-ray won the HD format war, in 2008, Disney began releasing their traditionally-animated movies on BD, starting with ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty''.

Also in 2006, Disney ventured into releasing their library on non-physical formats, by becoming the first studio to make their movies available to download through Apple's [=iTunes=] (at the time, Apple was run by Creator/{{Pixar}} CEO and Disney shareholder Creator/SteveJobs). Seven movies from the Animated Canon apparently share the title of its initial entry sold through them.[[note]]According to [[http://www.dvdizzy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=261890#p261890 this post]] from an unofficial Disney forum, some of the titles Disney released during their first day of [=iTunes=] support included ''WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'', ''WesternAnimation/TheAristocats'', ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'', and ''WesternAnimation/ChickenLittle''. The exact dates that quite a few other Disney movies first hit [=iTunes=] feel hard to confirm, since Disney's advertising downplayed this option for many years.[[/note]] Other digital retailers also eventually obtained distribution rights to their works, and in 2014, Disney launched a website and mobile app especially for downloading and streaming their movies - Disney Movies Anywhere, which launched the same day that the Canon's highest-grossing movie, ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'', hit digital platforms.

In 2017, Disney began releasing their library on 4K [=UltraHD=] Blu-ray and Digital formats, starting with Creator/MarvelStudios' ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2''. ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales'' would become the first Disney-branded film with 4K home media releases, Pixar's ''WesternAnimation/Cars3'' the first Disney-owned animated film to receive such treatment, and Creator/TouchstonePictures' ''Film/ThePrestige''[[note]]distributed internationally by Creator/WarnerBros, one of the first studios to support UHD[[/note]] the first Disney-owned 4K catalog title. The same year, Disney Movies Anywhere became Movies Anywhere, and started offering other studios' works in addition to Disney's. The following year, ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'' became the Animated Canon's first [=UltraHD=] title (as a tie-in with ''WesternAnimation/RalphBreaksTheInternet''), and ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'' their first traditionally-animated UHD release. Meanwhile, Disney VHS tapes (particularly the animated ones) have become collectibles and part of a niche market.

After Disney's buyout of Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox, Buena Vista Home Entertainment began to distribute 20th Century Studios and Creator/SearchlightPictures [=DVDs=], Blu-Rays and 4K [=UHDs=], starting with
''Film/TheCallOfTheWild2020'' and ''Downhill'' (both of which had their menus changed to those of Disney's style). Thanks to a deal [=iTunes=] struck two years earlier to sell 20th Century movies in 4K, their library marks the first Disney-owned movies that [=iTunes=] carries in so high a resolution; 4K digital copies of Disney movies previously remained exclusive to Movies Anywhere and Vudu.

Most Disney releases have been duplicated by Technicolor; however, the earliest non-Fotomat releases were also duplicated at U.S. Video Corp, with a few releases afterwards, including Touchstone's ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'' and at least a few marked-down tapes for their 1987 "Classic Disney at a Goofy Price" promotion, being duplicated at Bell & Howell/Columbia Pictures/Paramount Video Services and its successor entities from time to time.


!!!Magnetic Video
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mvc.PNG]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"By special arrangement with [[MainPage Television Tropes and Idioms]], Magnetic Video Corporation is proud to offer the following major trope page, via the internet."]]

Without Magnetic Video Corporation, home video would likely never have gotten off the ground.

The company was established in 1968 as an [[NonIndicativeName audio duplication facility]] in the Detroit suburb of Farmington Hills, Michigan by an ambitious guy named Andre Blay (1937-2018). Blay had wanted to duplicate movies on videocassette, but not only was the technology not advanced enough yet, the majors were skeptical because of something called analog piracy ([[DigitalPiracyIsEvil the predecessor vice to digital piracy]]). However, one fateful day in August 1977, Blay managed to reach an agreement with Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox, represented by their telecommunications director Steve Roberts (who would later carve out his own niche in the home video market by acquiring the New World library for home video in 1990), to distribute 50 films from the company for a down payment of between $250,000 and $500,000 plus royalties. Interestingly, the home video revolution actually had its roots as an anti-piracy system; after all, why pay upwards of triple digits for a pirated film that's a third generation dupe at best with commercials and any edits the network censors might've made when you could own a legal copy with none of that crap for only $50? Also of note is that in the early days, a motion picture had to have already been broadcast on television before being released on home video--so no recent hits such as ''Franchise/StarWars'' for you geeks! (Don't worry, you'll have your time of day in just less than five years.)

Fox wasn't the only company Magnetic had dealings with. They also distributed films released/distributed by Creator/{{Viacom}} International (including seven featuring Music/ElvisPresley, three featuring Creator/JerryLewis, as well as [[Creator/{{Terrytoons}} Terrytoon]] cartoon compilations and sports tapes), RBC Films (specifically, their Creator/CharlieChaplin library), and Avco-Embassy Pictures Corporation in 1978, Brut Productions, Bill Burrud Productions, and Pathé in 1979, Creator/{{ABC}} Video Enterprises, Creator/ITCEntertainment, and the American Film Theatre in 1980, and Creator/UnitedArtists Corporation (including films that were originally distributed by Creator/WarnerBros) in 1981. Magnetic was purchased by Fox themselves in 1979, and in January 1982, after Andre Blay left the company to form Blay Video (which would, ironically, become Embassy's home video division), Magnetic received a new name: '''[[Creator/TheCBSFOXCompany Twentieth Century-Fox Video]]'''. Since then, they have taken on the names '''Creator/{{CBS}}/Fox Video''' (during that era, they also utilized the sublabels '''Key Video'''[[note]]which concentrated on B-movies, archive titles, direct-to-video releases and TV movies[[/note]] and '''Playhouse Video'''[[note]] which focused on kids and families, releasing Fox-owned titles, [[Franchise/TheMuppets Muppet Video]] titles, CBS-owned Creator/DrSeuss projects, and even ''Series/DoctorWho''[[/note]]) and '''[=FoxVideo=]''' (utilizing the [=FoxVideo=] name for Fox movies, while CBS/Fox was relegated to [[Creator/TheBBC BBC Video]] and other miscellaneous titles), before settling on their final name, '''20th Century Fox Home Entertainment''', in 1998. During the company's final year, they also had a short-lived sports division called "Magnetic Video Sports", and a short-lived [=LaserDisc=] division. There were also international branches in the UK, the South Pacific, and Australia. Magnetic Video was also a duplicator for early tapes released by [[Creator/{{Paramount}} Paramount Home Video]] and Creator/MCAVideocassetteInc.

In the United States alone, over 400 different releases were produced by Magnetic Video Corporation over the course of 5 years from 1977 to 1982. Below is a guide to the "series" of films, followed by the films themselves. Unless otherwise specified, all films were strictly USA productions.


!!!The CBS/Fox Company
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cbs_fox.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The famous "marble" logo, which began usage on tapes in December 1984.]]

The CBS/Fox Company, better known as simply '''CBS/Fox Video''', was the successor to Creator/MagneticVideo.

After Andre Blay left Magnetic in late 1981, it was decided that the company would adopt the name of its parent company, Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox, and so it became '''Twentieth Century-Fox Video'''. Around the same time, it began a rental program, which it called the Video Rental Library, which would go on to include titles in the ''Franchise/StarWars'', ''Franchise/{{Rocky}}'', ''Franchise/JamesBond'', and ''Dollars Trilogy'' franchises. Like many in the industry, Fox distinguished its sale and rental titles by their packaging: rental titles were packaged in black, boxy Amaray clamshells, while sale titles used a unique packaging which became colloquially known as the "Fox Box". Strangely, the videos themselves often lacked in identification for the company; Fox movies merely used their own logo, while UA and other assorted releases had the TCF logo of the time with a voiceover (much like the ones from the Magnetic Video logo) telling viewers the feature was "brought to you by Twentieth Century-Fox Video" (and only UA was ever identified by name, out of all the third parties).

In the summer of that year, the company allied itself with CBS Video Enterprises, which had just recently split with Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer (causing their former joint venture, Creator/MGMCBSHomeVideo, to be renamed as MGM/UA Home Video), and formed CBS/Fox Video, with the name change taking place in the fall, by which time they had ended their rental program.[[note]][[TheArtifact The Magnetic and TCF Video names and logos would persist on reprints of earlier titles]]-- some with CBS/Fox packaging and/or labeling, or inversely Magnetic packaging and labeling but with CBS/Fox branding on the tape itself-- well into 1988; some of the last releases under the TCF Video name like ''Revenge of the Pink Panther'' bore CBS/Fox logos on the tape as well. This situation would repeat itself somewhat when the [=FoxVideo=] name began usage, as reprints of older titles would have CBS/Fox packaging and labels but have the FV logo on the tape. Even afterwards the alternation between the FV name and the TCF Home Entertainment name was scattershot into 1998 when the former name was phased out along with CBS/Fox.[[/note]] In addition to many of Magnetic's earlier clients, CBS/Fox also pacted with other companies, most notably Creator/TriStarPictures, a joint venture between CBS, Creator/ColumbiaPictures, and Creator/{{HBO}} (as a result of said split ownership, Tri-Star's releases tended to alternate between CBS/Fox, Creator/RCAColumbiaPicturesHomeVideo and [[Creator/ThornEMIVideo HBO's various video labels]], even after CBS and HBO dropped out of the partnership in 1985 and 1987, respectively). In the mid-'80s, CBS/Fox was fairly aggressive with markdowns, beginning with their "Five Star Collection" promotions in 1986. Also, CBS/Fox was the official duplicator for future parent company Creator/WaltDisneyHomeVideo for a brief period in 1987, before VCA/Technicolor acquired their duplication facilities that July.

Also during that time, CBS/Fox established two sub-labels; '''Key Video''' handled the release of drive-in/B-movie fare, as well as classic and made-for-TV movies and "low-profile" films from Fox, UA and Creator/{{Lorimar}}, while '''Playhouse Video''' handled children's/family titles, including the ''Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes'' films and the first ''Franchise/DoctorWho'' tapes released in America. Both labels were discontinued by 1991, though Key Video was briefly relaunched as '''Key DVD''' in the early-2000's, and much of the Playhouse titles from Fox and CBS were released again in the mid-to-late 90s under the '''Creator/FoxKids Video''' label.

In March 1991, a major reorganization of the company took place. Fox gained greater control over the company's operations, and '''[=FoxVideo=]''' was launched to handle the distribution of the company's library. Meanwhile, CBS began releasing their own product under the CBS Video label, with [=FoxVideo=] handling distribution. The CBS/Fox name and logo [[DemotedToExtra continued to be used on non-theatrical, third-party product]], including those from [[Creator/{{BBC}} BBC Video]]. In 1995, [=FoxVideo=] was renamed 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment; the [=FoxVideo=] and CBS/Fox labels continued to be used until 1998, when Fox acquired CBS' remaining stake in the venture.


!!!Warner Home Video
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/warner_home_video.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The company's 1985-1997 logo.]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/currentlogo.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The company's current logo.]]

One of the most controversial early home video releasing companies to which TheRuleOfFirstAdopters didn't apply, Warner Home Video started out as the video releasing division of Warner-Elektra-Atlantic, dedicated to releasing the Creator/WarnerBros library on videocassette. Under the name WCI Home Video (as in '''W'''arner '''C'''ommunications, '''I'''nc., which evolved into today's Creator/WarnerMedia), the company was founded in late 1979 and released its first tapes, including an independent's Chinese culinary how-to video, in January of the following year. The name was changed to its familiar form before the company was a year old; however, they still used the WCI name on the videograms until midway through 1981.

The company attracted controversy that year when they started a rental program which took effect on October 15. Starting on that day, all Warner tapes would be offered for rental only in selected markets. Texas was the first to sign on to the program, followed by San Francisco and Denver, then Oklahoma and Louisiana, among other territories. Many video dealers opposed the plan, and Music/{{Queen}} was also a vocal opponent; the rental program caused Queen to gradually switch its American label affiliation from WEA to EMI (who had already been their British distributors from the outset), starting with the contested product, ''Queen: Greatest Flix''; it was the first Queen product EMI would release in America, and the band wouldn't return to WEA in the US until 1991 (and even that wouldn't last for long, with Creator/HollywoodRecords shifting distributors from Creator/ElektraRecords to [=PolyGram=] in 1995). It was because of this opposition that Warner's rental program didn't last more than a year, and the damage had largely been done to rental-only for the foreseeable future; the year 1983 started with all the other rental programs, by Disney, MGM/UA, and 20th Century-Fox, having already been largely terminated.

Also of note is that early videograms were sometimes sped up to fit tapes of a certain length. ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'' is the poster child of this practice, though with all dialogue scenes presented at the correct speed, it was lucky compared to most of the other affected titles. Fortunately, the music was seldom, if ever, presented at a higher pitch as a result of the time compression going on, making Warner an early innovator in the art of efficient time compression (unfortunately, the same could not be said of its contemporaries, Creator/MGMCBSHomeVideo and Creator/WaltDisneyTelecommunicationsAndNonTheatricalCompany).

Warner Bros. and WEA titles, of course, weren't the only product from Warner Home Video. There was also product from such entities as Creator/OrionPictures (which had a joint venture with Warner Bros. that ran until 1982; most Orion product released before fall of that year is still owned by Warner to this day), Filmways Pictures, New World Pictures, The Ladd Company, Creator/NewLineCinema (over a decade before Warner's corporate parent Time Warner purchased the company, and just under three decades before it was merged into Warner Bros. itself), and Creator/{{NBC}}, among others. Warner Home Video currently releases [=DVDs=] and Blu-rays for outside companies including Creator/TheBBC (North America only), [[Series/SesameStreet Sesame Workshop]], Wrestling/{{WWE}} (Wrestling content only, WWE Studios content is licensed by RLJ Entertainment), Creator/VizMedia, Creator/{{Mattel}} (most notably their ''Literature/AmericanGirl'' made for TV and theatrical movies along with their ''Franchise/MastersOfTheUniverse'' theatrical movie), and select Creator/{{Paramount}} backlog titles, as well as sister [=WarnerMedia=] companies Creator/{{HBO}}, Creator/{{TNT}}, Creator/{{TBS}}, and Creator/CartoonNetwork {the latter three had their videos distributed under the in-house video arm Turner Home Entertainment, along with New Line releases beginning in 1994 {they'd previously gone through Creator/RCAColumbiaPicturesHomeVideo and its' successors} until the merger, at which point New Line's video arm became separate until NLC was merged with WB itself; CN (as well as Creator/AdultSwim), TBS, and TNT-related titles were immediately merged into WHV).

In 1997, Warner became the first major studio to release motion pictures on DVD, with an initial batch of 33 titles (including Creator/MGMUAHomeVideo titles, New Line titles, and a few music titles). For a time, certain early Warner [=DVDs=] were priced higher than retail at Best Buy locations due to a contract breach, according to the [=LaserRot=] fansite. They were also among the first, through sister label [=WarnerVision Entertainment=], to distribute the ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' franchise on videocassette, taking over from [=PolyGram Video=].

In 2017, it changed its name to '''Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.'''

In 2020, Warner entered into a physical media joint venture with [[Creator/MCAVideoDistributingCorporation Universal Pictures Home Entertainment]], effective the next year.

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!Countries

!!!Australian Company: Roadshow Home Video
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/roadshow_home_video.png]]
->''Since their beginning in the early fifties, our Parents have shown the world how to successfully market "THE MOVIE".''\\
''Our Parents are, of course, ROADSHOW DISTRIBUTORS, Australia's largest theatrical distributor/importer, and VILLAGE THEATRES, the second largest cinema chain in Australia.''\\
''Now we have taken our twenty years of movie EXPERIENCE in entertaining Australian audiences into a new and exciting field—ROADSHOW HOME VIDEO.''\\
''We offer you the ultimate package in HOME ENTERTAINMENT, and a continuing future supply of multi million dollar Australian and overseas movies.''\\
''ROADSHOW HOME VIDEO, a new dimension in the home entertainment market.''
-->--Announcement seen on some early releases

''[[SelfDemonstratingArticle Welcome to Roadshow Home Video. Before the movie, we'd like to show you previews of some of our films.]]''

This is it, the house that Max built. Roadshow Home Video is an Australian home video company, and a subsidiary of Village Roadshow Corporation.

It began life in 1982 as the largest independent home video releasing company in Australasia, based in New South Wales. Its first offerings, on May 10, 1982, were a blend of 20 Australian and international titles, including homegrown science fiction action film ''Film/MadMax'', X-rated ''Insatiable'', graphically scary horror film ''[[Film/{{Phantasm}} The Never Dead]]'', driving film ''Film/KingOfTheMountain'', and the king of BodyHorror and [[YourHeadAsplode asploding heads]] itself, ''Film/{{Scanners}}''. Apart from titles from Roadshow and sister studio Greater Union, the firm also released titles from Creator/OrionPictures, Creator/EmbassyPictures, Creator/PolyGramFilmedEntertainment, Creator/NewWorldPictures, Creator/CarolcoPictures, Creator/VirginVision, and Creator/ProducersSalesOrganization, among others. It was also the Australian distributor of titles from Creator/WaltDisneyHomeVideo.

Crisis struck in the mid-'80s when the ACB decided to implement the brilliant idea suggested by the BBFC to deal with UsefulNotes/VideoNasties on their own home turf and require home video releases to be certified separately from cinematic releases. As this was a lot of work to implement, even higher-profile independents like Roadshow were severely affected, and numerous titles, including ''The Never Dead'', went out of print overnight. It's also no coincidence that Roadshow released fewer titles at a time around that time than they used to.

Towards the end of 1985, Roadshow adopted a new identity in the form of several V's gathered together, and this carried over to their cinematic distribution and home video units, as well as its new television (Roadshow Television) and film production (Creator/VillageRoadshowPictures) units. In 1988, they celebrated Australia's bicentennial by releasing the Aussie Six-Pack, a commemorative re-release of six classic Australian movies (''Mad Max'', ''Film/{{Gallipoli}}'', ''Film/FarEast'', ''Film/PicnicAtHangingRock'', ''Film/{{Rebel}}'', and ''Film/{{Stone}}'').

The company still operates today, distributing not just its own titles but also those from Creator/TheBBC, Creator/FremantleMedia, Creator/{{Lionsgate}}, Creator/WarnerBros (mainly co-productions with Village Roadshow), and others.

''For more movie previews, keep watching after the end of this film.''


!!!Canadian Company: Cineplex Odeon Video
Cineplex Odeon Video was the home video division of Canadian theatre chain Cineplex Odeon Corporation and one of the major video distributors in Canada.

Cineplex Odeon's video division began operations in the early 1980's as '''Pan-Canadian Video Presentations''', before changing to its current name in 1986, and continued well into the late 1990's until Alliance Atlantis purchased the assets of Cineplex Odeon's film distribition unit along with its home video division.


!!!Greek Company: Modern Times
Modern Times was once one of the major entertainment companies in Greece. It was founded in 1996 by Kostas Giannikos as a comic book company, their first issue probably being ''ComicBook/SpiderMan Adventures''. Between then and 2002, they were important in the comic industry in Greece, and they also released books, [=CDs=] and audiotapes, as well as videotapes and [=DVDs=], which were initially under the "Nextworks S.A." brand name. The company closed in late 2011, when Kostas Giannikos was arrested for debts.


!!!Budget Company: Mill Creek Entertainment
[[quoteright:330:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mill_creek_logo_2_2912.jpg]]

[[http://www.millcreekent.com/ Mill Creek Entertainment]] is a low-budget home video company based in Golden Valley, Minnesota that specializes in reissuing films and TV series from major studios' catalogs (mostly Creator/{{Disney}} and Creator/{{Sony}}), although they've also released some original content.

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!Anime Companies

!!!Anime Limited
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/anime_ltd.png]]

[[http://www.alltheanime.com/ Anime Limited]] is a UK anime distributor established in 2013. However, they have sub-licensed from several companies, including Creator/{{Funimation}}, Creator/VizMedia and Creator/AniplexUSA. They are known for their collector's and ultimate editions of many of their releases.

They've also made use of studio Creator/NYAVPost to dub some of their select titles that they've licenced first and haven't been dubbed elsewhere, such as ''[[Manga/Cyborg009 009 Re:Cyborg]]'', ''Mai Mai Miracle'' and ''Anime/PsychicSchoolWars''.

In 2017, their licensed shows began airing in late-night on Viceland UK.


!!!Madman Entertainment (Australia)
[[quoteright:351:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Madman.JPG]]
[[caption-width-right:351:Best. Logo. Ever.]]

->''"Running a team of vigilante {{bounty hunter}}s is something that I've always aspired to do."''\\
--Madman co-founder '''Tim Anderson''', from an extra on the Australian DVD release of ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis 2032'', the company's first acquisition

Originally beginning in 1996 solely to distribute anime in Australia, [[http://www.madman.com.au Madman Entertainment]] has grown into one of the largest entertainment companies in UsefulNotes/{{Australia}} and UsefulNotes/NewZealand, accounting for 97 percent of all anime DVD sales in Australia, with an annual turnover of around $50 million AUD.

Madman has secured the local release rights to a number of very popular franchises including ''Manga/OnePiece'', ''Manga/DragonBall'', ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', ''Manga/{{Akira}}'', ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', and almost all of Creator/StudioGhibli's catalogue. In addition to DVD sales, Madman also manages the theatrical release of some of their titles, particularly the Studio Ghibli movies.

Madman also sub license anime from Creator/AnimEigo, Creator/BandaiEntertainment, Creator/{{Funimation}}, Creator/HarmonyGold, Creator/SentaiFilmworks, Creator/VizMedia, and formerly Creator/ADVFilms and Creator/{{Geneon}}. Madman has always acted as the distributor for Manga's products until 2003 when Creator/MangaEntertainment Australia Ltd merged with Madman. This happened so if Manga lost a license in Australia, Madman would pick it up. If Madman Entertainment lost the license for anime from American companies, Manga UK would sub-license anime to Madman.

In May 2014, they officially opened the streaming service [[https://www.animelab.com/ AnimeLab]]. Offering up over 200 of their (and fellow licencors Hanabee and Siren Visual's) titles from their back catalog as well as entering the simulcast game. The site is exclusively for Australian and New Zealand residents notably, something they love to point out the irony of considering how [[NoExportForYou many services in the U.S. have geoblocked them]].

In addition to anime and manga, Madman also distribute various other genres such as Australian television (mostly from Creator/{{SBS}}), Asian cinema, UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}}, action sports and even independent films. They also have the distribution rights to original Creator/CartoonNetwork and Creator/AdultSwim series. And if that's not enough, they've started their own studio, [[http://www.madmanproductions.com.au/ Madman Productions]].

Seriously, Madman distributes a ''ton'' of product, and only part of it is anime and manga (although they have a near monopoly on both mediums in their part of the world). There's way too much to list it all here, so we refer you to these pages:

* MadmanEntertainment.AnimeAndManga
* MadmanEntertainment.DirectorsSuite (a sublabel focusing on films by well-known directors)
* MadmanEntertainment.EasternEye (a sublabel focusing on Asian cinema)
* MadmanEntertainment.{{Film}}
* MadmanEntertainment.LiveActionTV
* MadmanEntertainment.WesternAnimation

Anime News Network's [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/company.php?id=1372 listing of Madman anime and manga]] is also worth checking out.

They're really Aussie. [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Madman_Entertainment#Notes Dodgy, but enthusiastic.]]


!!!MVM Entertainment (UK)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/7ebf6669c27a545106d04145fe7bf614.jpg]]

[[http://www.mvm-films.com/ MVM Entertainment]], a British {{anime}} distributor, is the UK licensee for select titles from Creator/AnimEigo, Creator/CentralParkMedia, {{Creator/GONZO}}, Creator/{{Geneon}} USA, Creator/MediaBlasters, [[Creator/NipponIchi NIS America]], Creator/NozomiEntertainment, Creator/SentaiFilmworks, Urban Vision and Creator/VizMedia. They also distributed Creator/{{Funimation}} titles until 2007, lost the license to Revelation Films for a while, then started getting some Funi titles again when Revelation left the anime business. (However, Funimation's main British distributor is Creator/MangaEntertainment.) MVM also releases one British animated series, ''WesternAnimation/AaaghItsTheMrHellShow'', as well as Asian cinema and live action horror films from both Asia and the English-speaking world.

-----

!Other Companies

!!!Allied Artists Video
[[quoteright:274:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/5d9b6a3a68f3d01dfa6ec8def2242a0b.png]]

One of the most short-lived early home video companies, Allied Artists Video was set up in 1978 as a joint venture between ailing Hollywood veteran Creator/AlliedArtists and Bell & Howell Video Systems. The company had some successes from its launch in October, including ''Papillon'', ''The Man Who Would Be King'', ''The Betsy'', ''The Story of O'', and ''The Wild Geese'', but its parent company's financial troubles would soon catch up to them, eventually resulting in its 1979 bankruptcy and purchase by Creator/{{Lorimar}}. Lorimar shut down the company the next year, knocking the entire library out of print overnight. [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes Even today, some titles that had been released on video by Allied Artists are still hard to find.]] The last videocassette releases by Allied Artists was the complete Rathbone-Bruce series of ''Franchise/SherlockHolmes'' films.

!!!Fotomat Video
[[quoteright:302:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fotomat_video_1745.jpg]]

Photography pioneers. Video rental innovators. Originators of the "manufacture-on-demand" concept.

However you choose to see the company, '''Fotomat''' was a legend of its time.

This article, though, is about its videocassette division.

In mid-1979, Fotomat entered into an agreement with Creator/{{Paramount}} to rent and sell 43 feature films on videocassette. Among the first to be offered through Fotomat were ''Film/SaturdayNightFever'', ''Film/TheGodfather'', and ''The Godfather Part II''. For six months, the new venture, a partnership with Chicago-based Bell & Howell Video Systems, was tested out at the Fotomat booths in Los Angeles. It wasn't until December 1979 that Fotomacs and Fotomates nationwide would get to offer their customers anything from the catalog, by then expanded to 132 titles (a full list of which can be found [[https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/688/23591504961_64744a939e_b.jpg here]]). In 1980, Fotomat entered into a rental arrangement with Creator/{{Disney}} for ten feature films and three episodes of Disney's anthology series, kicking off the distribution of Creator/WaltDisneyHomeVideo. Bell & Howell would duplicate the Fotomat catalog for the entire run until the video service stopped in 1982.

Fotomat's manufacture-on-demand approach involved customers calling a toll-free number belonging to the company, then the video would be there the next day. Rentals were cheap, at $12 a rental; however, sales were often between $40 and $70. The tapes were packaged in simple die-cut silver cases with black markings and the Fotomat logo on the case. The labels were black with white text.


!!!Fred Levine Productions
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/focus_video_productions.png]]
Fred Levine Productions[[note]]formerly Focus Video Productions[[/note]] is a home video company founded by Fred Levine. The company produced the ''Series/LittleHardhats'' Direct-To-Video series.


!!!International Video Entertainment
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ive_7.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"For the best on cassette, International Video Entertainment is the source."]]

One of the most important independents of the home video scene in the '80s and the '90s, '''International Video Entertainment''' has one of the most interesting histories of them all.

IVE had its roots in '''Family Home Entertainment''', founded by adult filmmaker Noel Christopher Bloom Sr. in 1981, a year after his adult firm, Caballero Control Corporation, entered the home video market. FHE's initial lineup, which included ''Theatre/{{Pippin}}'', ''Music/TomJones Live in Las Vegas'', a trio of early Creator/ToeiAnimation features (''Anime/TheAdventuresOfSindbadTheSailor'', ''Anime/TheLittlestWarrior'', and ''Anime/PandaAndTheMagicSerpent''), and several animated programs, including ''Anime/CaptainHarlock'', ''[[Anime/HanaNoKoLunlun Angel]]'', ''Literature/CaptainFuture'', ''[[Anime/{{Starzinger}} Force Five: Spaceketeers]]'', ''[[Anime/LittleLulu Little Lulu and Tubby]]'', ''[[Anime/RockyChuckTheMountainRat Fables of the Green Forest]]'', ''Manga/CandyCandy'', ''WesternAnimation/SpaceAngel'', ''WesternAnimation/TheUnderseaAdventuresOfCaptainNemo'', and ''WesternAnimation/{{Gumby}}'', was introduced at that year's Summer CES in Chicago. Most, if not all, of the initial offerings were licensed from ZIV International, which would later be absorbed by [[Creator/{{Lorimar}} Lorimar-Telepictures]]. From there, FHE had nowhere to go but up, acquiring such lucrative properties as ''WesternAnimation/StrawberryShortcake'', ''Franchise/CareBears'', ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'', ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'', ''WesternAnimation/GIJoe'', and others, including several from Creator/{{Filmation}}. On some tapes, various ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' shorts, mainly from the AAP library, were included as padding if the content fell short of an hour.

Not wanting to restrict his mainstream programming to children's entertainment, Bloom entered into a joint venture with Scott Mansfield to form '''Monterey Home Video'''; its first release was Mansfield's own ''Film/DeadlyGames''. The next year, Bloom started a third mainstream division, '''U.S.A. Home Video''', with three releases: ''Film/{{Fiona}}'', a biography of adult star Fiona Richmond; ''Film/{{Ms 45}}'', Creator/AbelFerrara's second feature-length film; and ''Thin Thighs in Thirty Days'', an exercise video. Starting out with just ten titles, U.S.A. Home Video would expand vigorously the next year, acquiring films from producer Creator/AlexanderSalkind, Creator/{{Viacom}}, Creator/ITCEntertainment, Tomorrow Entertainment, Alan Landsburg Productions, and Lorimar, among others. Its biggest hits were ''Film/{{Supergirl}}'' and ''Film/NineteenEightyFour'', the former a theatrical flop which ended up doing better business on home video, and the latter a faithful adaptation of the great Creator/GeorgeOrwell's dystopian novel which happened to be filmed in the exact timeframe in which the story takes place.

In late summer 1984, FHE, up to then the name of Caballero's mainstream division, changed its name to International Video Entertainment, with FHE becoming a sublabel along with Monterey and U.S.A. Around the same time, they signed a deal with Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, to host a series of horror titles under the [=ThrillerVideo=] label (Elvira stayed away from the more adult titles, as well as those that included scenes of animal cruelty, out of concern for her own image); the next year, they entered into a similar pact with Creator/SybilDanning for a series of cult action titles under the Adventure Video label and additionally started releasing sports titles. Around 1986, Creator/CarolcoPictures took a majority stake in IVE, which would release most of its subsequent product on home video. By this point the IVE name had largely replaced the U.S.A. Home Video label on mainstream releases. Carolco brought in former RCA executive Jose Menendez to help stem IVE's massive losses. Bloom did not get along with Menendez and quickly left to start another video firm. IVE quickly began making money again, and also expanded into distribution of video titles for pay-TV.

1989 saw the merger of IVE with Lieberman Enterprises, a wholesale distribution firm based in Minneapolis that handled videos, records, and computer software. This resulted into a renaming to '''LIVE Entertainment''', though the IVE name continued to be used for another year or so. They also established more sub-labels, including Carolco Home Video and the budget label Creator/AvidHomeEntertainment (which distributed cheaper EP/SLP versions of tapes from Live and the other labels).

On a darker note, Jose Menendez found himself murdered that year in one of America's most infamous criminal cases, by his own sons Lyle and Erik.

The next few years were rough as the company struggled with a large debt load and a revolving door of executives. It didn't help when they bought all sorts of stuff, including the remains of rival Creator/VestronVideo, and several regional record and video store chains. By 1994 the company had begun to sell or spin-off its' unprofitable parts (including the retail operations and Lieberman assets), while a changing video market meant that LIVE had begun to invest in film production. They also nearly merged with old partner Carolco-- itself nearly at death's door due to several box-office flops-- but fortunately for Live, this plan was averted and they escaped Carolco's fate. They continued to distribute Carolco titles on video after striking a deal with the owner of Carolco's remnants, the French firm [=StudioCanal=].

1997 saw the company taken private by Bain Capital, and another renaming, to '''Artisan Entertainment'''. By 2000 they were distributing the Creator/RepublicPictures back catalog (under license from Creator/{{Paramount}}), as well as ''Series/HallmarkHallOfFame'' and other Hallmark Entertainment titles, and Creator/DiscoveryChannel Video too. They'd had a major theatrical success with the FoundFootage horror film ''Film/TheBlairWitchProject''. They also struck a deal with Creator/MarvelComics to develop films based on their characters, although this deal ultimately bore little fruit.

In 2003, after a string of flops, Artisan was put up for sale and various consortiums began to bid, among them the aforementioned Marvel Comics (which had the backing of Creator/MiramaxFilms, somewhat ironically). Ultimately, Canadian film house Lions' Gate Films wound up the winner and merged with Artisan in 2004. Since then, Creator/{{Lionsgate}} (as it's known now) has become a major Hollywood player-- but it hasn't forgotten about the Artisan side of things, as it's been tapping the Artisan and Vestron library for their Vidmark Roku channel (Vidmark being the name of one of Lionsgate's predecessor companies) and the ''Vestron Video Collector's Series'' on Blu-Ray.


!!!Avid Home Entertainment
'''Avid Home Entertainment''' was a sub-label of [[Creator/InternationalVideoEntertainment LIVE Entertainment]] established in 1991; it handled low-budget re-releases of titles LIVE held the rights to in the low-cost EP and SLP tape formats. These ranged from the flagship LIVE label (including movies from Creator/CarolcoPictures), to the Vestron Video library (then recently bought by LIVE), to even content from Family Home Entertainment and Creator/ITCEntertainment. Towards the end of the label's run, it began releasing tapes recorded in SP as part of the "Super 7" promotional deals. The label was discontinued in the summer of 1997 (with the Live Home Video label taking over the "Super 7" promotions), though weirdly, Creator/{{Lionsgate}} (successor to Live/Artisan) reused the logo for a DVD boxset of some of the ''Film/SilentNightDeadlyNight'' films released in 2009.


!!!Vista Home Video
Vista Home Video was the home video division of The Vista Organisation.


!!!Vestron Video
'''Vestron Video''' was founded in 1981 by former HBO executive Austin Owen Furst Jr., who was hired to dismantle the assets of Time-Life's film division. In 1991, the company was acquired by LIVE Entertainment, and eventually folded into said company the following year.

Vestron Video also has three sublabels: '''Children's Video Library''' (which handles family/children's titles), '''Lightning Video''' (which handles extreme B and made-for-TV movies), and '''Wonderlust Video''' (which handles adult titles).


!!!Kino Lorber Studio Classics
[[quoteright:225:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kl_studio_classics.png]]

[[http://www.klstudioclassics.com Kino Lorber Studio Classics]] is a home video company that specializes in reissuing classic films on UsefulNotes/{{DVD}} and UsefulNotes/BluRay from the catalogs of major studios, including Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer, Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox, Creator/{{Paramount}}, Creator/{{Disney}}, Creator/{{Universal}} and Creator/StudioCanal.


!!!Lyrick Studios
Lyrick Studios was a production and distribution company that oversaw the release of children's TV shows, home videos, audio albums, books, games and toys based on various franchises, most famously ''Series/BarneyAndFriends'' and ''Series/{{Wishbone}}''. The company was created in 1994 as an umbrella for their two main production companies: '''The Lyons Group''' and '''Big Feats Entertainment''', the creators of Barney and Wishbone respectively. Lyrick was acquired by Creator/HITEntertainment in 2001 and was folded into the company later that year.

All properties released by Lyrick are currently owned by [=HiT=] except for ''Groundling Marsh'', owned by Portfolio Entertainment, ''Joe Scruggs'', owned by Shadow Play, ''Shelley Duvall'', owned by KOCH, ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTales'', which is owned by [=NBCUniversal=] through Creator/BigIdea and Creator/DreamWorksAnimation.


!!!Media Home Entertainment
'''Media Home Entertainment, Inc.''' was once a leading independent home video distributor in its time, as one of the earliest home video distributors. It was founded by Charles Band and his colleague Irwin Yablans and a few others in 1978. Band himself would leave the company in 1980 to establish his own home video label, Creator/WizardVideo. Until 1981, Media Home Entertainment was styled as "MEDA", named after Charles Band's wife Meda.

Throughout its history, Media Home Entertainment was a leader as one of the four "mini-majors" of the new home video boom of the early 1980s. They were known for distributing several B-movies, including ''Film/{{Halloween 1978}}'' (and other Creator/JohnCarpenter films), ''Film/TheTexasChainSawMassacre1974'', and ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968''. It also signed an agreement with Creator/NewLineCinema to distribute the original VHS releases of the first five ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet'' films in the U.S. and Canada. Other companies Media Home Entertainment signed deals with included Creator/TheCannonGroup and, for a time, Creator/{{Troma}}.

In 1984, Media Home Entertainment was purchased by Gerald Ronson and his company, the British property developer Heron International. Media Home Entertainment was organized into a newly formed division, '''Heron Communications, Inc.''' After the acquisition, Media Home Entertainment had six sublabels. They were:

* '''Hi-Tops Video''' (childrens' videos, including handling the first VHS releases of the majority of the ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' specials and of ''Series/PeeWeesPlayhouse'' among a few videos such as ''WesternAnimation/LadyLovelyLocks'', ''Franchise/{{Barbie}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Madeline}}'', ''WesternAnimation/MyPetMonster'', ''Literature/{{Babar}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Inhumanoids}}'').
** The ''Peanuts'' specials were released with the '''Snoopy's Home Video Library''' label.
* '''Fox Hills Video''' (special interest videos)
* '''The Nostalgia Merchant''' (releases of very rare old films, including several made by Creator/RKOPictures)
* '''Cinematheque Collection''' (foreign language films)
* '''Condor Video''' (Spanish language dubs of films)
* '''Music Media''' (music videos)

Sadly, the good times didn't last as long. In the early 1990s, Media Home Entertainment began to be in the process of folding its operations after Gerald Ronson was involved in securities fraud, which he was convicted of in 1990. By 1994, Media Home Entertainment would fully cease to exist. Many of its last few releases were co-distributed by Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox (through it's Fox Video or CBS/Fox Video labels) or by Video Treasures. The rights to the majority of the Media Home Entertainment library is currently held by Anchor Bay Entertainment (successor to Video Treasures, and currently owned by the Creator/{{Starz}} premium cable network), with a few exceptions. Creator/{{Lionsgate}} bought the whole Creator/{{Starz}} premium cable network (including the Anchor Bay Entertainment library) a few years later, absorbing the Media Home Entertainment backlog into their infrastructure.

In addition, as of 2014, The Nostalgia Merchant still exists. It operates as a site selling [=DVDs=] of vintage films at http://www.nostalgiamerchant.biz/.


!!!MPI Home Video
[[quoteright:264:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mpi_home_video_logo_3.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:264:One of the logos]]

'''MPI Home Video''' is a home video distributors by MPI Media Group. It was known to release classic television shows on VHS, Betamax, Laserdisc, DVD, and Blu-Ray.


!!!MGM/CBS Home Video
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mgm_cbs.PNG]]

The home video division of Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer was established in 1979 as '''MGM Home Video'''. No cassettes were released under this name; instead, MGM Home Video formed a partnership with Creator/{{CBS}} Video Enterprises, called '''MGM/CBS Home Video''', the first releases under the name were released in October 1980. The first MGM/CBS releases were packaged in brown leather cases with gold lettering, but later printings of those tapes, as well as all future releases, were packaged in oversized gray cardboard cases that opened up like a book, similar to Creator/WarnerHomeVideo.

In 1981, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer merged with the bankrupt Creator/UnitedArtists and formed MGM/UA Entertainment Co. At the end of the year, MGM/CBS introduced its rental program, First Run Home Video Theater; its first title was ''Tarzan, the Ape Man''. In 1982, MGM and CBS split and the company was renamed '''MGM/UA Home Video''', while CBS partnered with Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox Video to form CBS/Fox Video. (This caused a problem with MGM's rental-only program, as one title in the program, ''S.O.B.'', was a CBS release that was yet to become a sale title at the time of the split.) However, pre-1981 United Artists releases were licensed to CBS/Fox for a while due to a previous agreement between United Artists and Fox from back when the company was known as Creator/MagneticVideo.

In 1986, Ted Turner acquired the pre-1986 MGM library, and MGM/UA signed a deal with Turner Entertainment to continue releasing the library on video. In 1990, after MGM's purchase by shady Italian financier Giancarlo Paretti's Pathé Communications[[note]]the former [[Creator/TheCannonGroup Cannon Films]]; he had renamed it in anticipation of acquiring famed French movie studio Path&eacute, which didn't happen after the French government essentially determined he was too shady[[/note]], the company signed a distribution deal with Warner Home Video, a deal that ended in 2000 (it was originally to end in 2003). The company was renamed '''MGM Home Entertainment''' in 1998, which it is still called today, although the MGM/UA Home Video copyright screen continued to be seen at the beginning and end of tapes until they stopped releasing VHS tapes (the copyright screen began appearing in 1990 and featured the static MGM/UA Home Video logo). After MGM's purchase by Sony in 2005, their library was released through Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. A year later, MGM struck a new deal with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, a deal that expired in 2020.


!!!PBS Home Video
After years of selling cassettes to the educational market, Creator/{{PBS}} decided it needed to break into the realm of commercial home video. To accomplish that task, PBS joined forces with [[Music/TheMonkees Michael Nesmith]]'s Pacific Arts in 1990, forming '''PBS Home Video''' and releasing its first commercial tapes as the fall season commenced. Among the first releases were programs from ''The Frugal Gourmet'', ''Nature'', ''This Old House'', ''Wall Street Week'', and ''American Playhouse'' among others, and also at least a couple of specials. Over the next few years, PBS Home Video would become an emerging independent, releasing such programs as ''Series/ReadingRainbow'', ''Frontline'', ''Nova'', ''The Dinosaurs'', ''The Civil War'', ''The Astronomers'', and ''Masterpiece Theater'', among others, as well as a few pledge drive specials. Later, however, tensions grew between PBS and Pacific Arts, culminating in an acrimonious split that led to a lawsuit that lasted several years. In the meantime, PBS moved to Turner Home Entertainment for distribution. After Turner was acquired by Creator/WarnerHomeVideo, PBS distributed some tapes independently before joining up with Warner once more for a few years. Later, they went independent again for a time before joining up with Paramount Home Video, with whom they'd stay for several years, until they merged with WGBH's own home video unit to form PBS Distribution.


!!!Random House Home Video
[[quoteright:304:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/random_house_home_video_logo.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:304:The well known logo]]

'''Random House Home Video''' was, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the home video division]] of American book publisher Random House. Their focus was generally on children's programs, specifically those based off of popular book series. They also released ''Series/SesameStreet'' DirectToVideo titles, and were the first company to bring that series to home video.

In 1995, Sony Wonder entered a partnership with Random House to take over distribution of their videos. Consequently, Creator/SesameWorkshop signed an exclusive deal with Sony Wonder for future ''Sesame Street'' releases to make matters less complicated.

The company went dormant around 2001, though Sony Wonder still used their logos on releases as late as 2006.


!!!Shout Factory
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shout_factory_logo_6.jpg]]

Shout! Factory is an entertainment company founded in 2003 by Richard Foos (co-founder of Creator/RhinoRecords), Bob Emmer (former Creator/WarnerMusicGroup and Rhino executive) and Garson Foos (former Rhino executive, and Richard's brother) initially as a specialty music label. It focuses on enriched music catalog reissues, home video/DVD projects, and television properties.

Conceived as a retro pop culture label, Shout! Factory DVD projects include live music shows (by acts such as Music/{{X}}, The Blasters, Music/{{Heart}} and Music/BarenakedLadies), music documentaries (''The Fearless Freaks'', about the Music/FlamingLips, and ''The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle'', about the Music/SexPistols), animation (including multiple ''WesternAnimation/HomeMovies'' seasons, ''Animation/{{Pucca}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/CodeMonkeys''), live-action television (''Series/FreaksAndGeeks'', ''Series/MySoCalledLife'', ''Inside The Actors' Studio'', ''Series/CaliforniaDreams'', ''Series/SmallWonder''), as well as productions by Creator/DICEntertainment (including the [[WesternAnimation/SuperMarioBros Mario]] television shows, ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda'', and the ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' television shows) and sports (including Major League Baseball and Warren Miller ski titles). They have also released [=DVDs=] of MerchandiseDriven Creator/{{Hasbro}} cartoons (including ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'', ''Franchise/GIJoe'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'', ''WesternAnimation/LittlestPetShop2012'' and ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'') and 1990s Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} programs (such as ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'', ''WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrys'' and ''Series/HeyDude'').[[note]]Rights to the Nickelodeon shows relapsed to Creator/{{Paramount}} starting in 2018.[[/note]] The company also has the home video rights to ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' (which was formerly distributed by Rhino). Creator/SabanBrands granted them the rights to distribute their {{tokusatsu}} adaptations, including the first 17 seasons of ''Franchise/PowerRangers''. When North American distribution of several Creator/StudioGhibli movies shifted from Creator/{{Disney}} to GKIDS, Shout! Factory distributed the home media re-releases. They even have the home video rights to a Disney series--specifically, ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' -- and in 2020 acquired the bulk of the Creator/StephenJCannell Productions catalog.

Shout! Factory CD and music DVD products are distributed by Creator/SonyMusicEntertainment. As of June 2007, their nonmusic DVD titles are distributed by Gaiam Vivendi Entertainment. They have a strong reputation for being able to put out the most obscure titles, even getting seemingly unreleasable episodes of ''[[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 MST3K]]''--such as the ''Film/{{Gamera}}'' films and others licensed from Sandy Frank--out on DVD.

It's also been [[http://deadline.com/2017/01/starcade-game-show-reboot-shout-factory-1201882385/ announced that]] they have purchased the rights to the 1980s game show ''Series/{{Starcade}}'', and will be planning a reboot/revival of the show in the near-future.

Due to the sheer amount of content they have, they have their own free streaming service, [[http://www.shoutfactorytv.com/ Shout! Factory TV]], which can be accessed through apps of its' own, and via other streaming services like Creator/PlutoTV.

The company also has a sublabel called Creator/ScreamFactory which specializes in {{Horror}} films. Due to its extensive catalog, it now has its own page.


!!!Scream Factory
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/scream_factory_logo.jpg]]

Scream Factory is a sublabel of home video distributor Creator/ShoutFactory that specializes in {{Horror}} films. It has an extensive catalog with several categories, including The All Night Horror Marathon, The ''Amityville'' Triple Feature, ''Franchise/{{Halloween}}'': The Complete Collection, and The Creator/VincentPrice Collection.


!!!Thorn EMI Video
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Thorn Creator/{{EMI}} Video was a British home video company, owned by the music/electronics conglomerate, that also released its product in North America and Australia. It started life in 1979 as EMI Videogram before taking on its more well-known name in 1981, expanding to the United States later that year with 14 titles, including three music titles and one of two licensed videos of the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana (the other being released by Creator/TheBBC). Thorn EMI later evolved into a mini-major in the North American video business, with such titles as ''Film/TheBurning'', ''Film/TheBushidoBlade'', and ''Film/FirstBlood''. They also distributed product from Creator/ThamesTelevision and some early Creator/NewLineCinema titles.

In November 1984, Thorn EMI Video entered into a joint venture with Creator/{{HBO}}, which boosted its mini-major status. At least in North America, the company was now called Thorn EMI-HBO Video, gaining access to HBO product and becoming the exclusive distributor for many unreleased Creator/OrionPictures films between the establishment of the joint venture and the foundation of Orion's video division (prior to the Thorn EMI/HBO joint venture, Creator/VestronVideo and Creator/EmbassyHomeEntertainment both released a bunch of films from Orion). Following Creator/TheCannonGroup's purchase of the Thorn EMI library in 1986, the company became Cannon Video in the UK and HBO/Cannon Video in North America. However, Cannon was soon forced to sell Thorn EMI's library to producer Jerry Weintraub thanks to financial issues, and the company became simply HBO Video in 1987. Orion dropped out soon after that to setup their own video label, though some Orion films (including ''Film/ThreeAmigos''-- a co-production of Orion and HBO) continued to be distributed by HBO Video. HBO also distributed Weintraub's Thorn EMI product in North America for the time he owned it, while Creator/WarnerHomeVideo distributed it in the UK. HBO Video continued releasing product from a variety of firms (including Creator/MiramaxFilms, Thames, De Laurentiis, Hemdale, and Samuel Goldwyn, among others) through the late 80s and into the 90s, but gradually began concentrating on HBO-produced material as these companies shut down or found other distributors, and was renamed as HBO Home Entertainment in 2010 (its operations have also been streamlined with sister firm Warner Home Entertainment).

Today, Thorn EMI's titles are handled by the likes of Creator/StudioCanal, Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer, and Creator/WarnerBros, among others.


!!!Twilight Time
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[[http://twilighttimemovies.com Twilight Time]] is a home video company that specializes in releasing limited edition classic films on UsefulNotes/{{DVD}} and UsefulNotes/BluRay from major studios' catalogs, mostly from Creator/{{Sony}} (including Creator/ColumbiaPictures and Creator/TriStarPictures), Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox, Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer (including Creator/UnitedArtists, Creator/OrionPictures and Creator/PolyGramFilmedEntertainment) and Creator/{{Universal}}.


!!!VCI Home Video
'''Video Communications, Inc.''' (also known as VCI Home Video) is one of the oldest American video distributors to exist, alongside Creator/MagneticVideo and Creator/FotomatVideo.


!!!Wizard Video
Legendary among all genre distributors on home video is '''Wizard Video''', a home video venture started by Creator/CharlesBand in 1980 after leaving Creator/MediaHomeEntertainment, which he co-founded with colleague Irwin Yablans and a few others. He had taken one of his own blue movies, ''Auditions'', with him when he left, and it ended up being the second tape his new company offered, after a French drama called ''Don Juan (or, If Don Juan Were a Woman)'', which he released under the name ''Ms. Don Juan''. He also released a 3D Music/WillieNelson concert film (in 2D) called ''Willie Nelson's 4th of July Picnic'', which was pulled after a complaint was filed by the rightsholders in 1983; an Australian avant-garde surfing film called ''Crystal Voyager'' (featuring a climactic voyage through the eye of the wave set to the music of Music/PinkFloyd); ''Film/PinkFlamingos'', the biggest grossout of its time; a {{Brucesploitation}} film; and a few VideoNasties.

Then, in 1982, came Wizard Video's first blockbuster, and the title that really put it on the map: ''Film/{{The Texas Chain Saw Massacre|1974}}''.

Soon, Wizard became an independent sensation in the realm of home video, and it also started a couple of subsidiaries, Cult Video and Force Video. In late 1982, Wizard released three films in the book box packaging style that Creator/WarnerHomeVideo and Creator/MGMUAHomeVideo had earlier popularized and also briefly dabbled in 3D.

The second phase of Wizard Video began in 1984, when Wizard released four films in the now-infamous big box style that contemporaries Creator/USAHomeVideo and Creator/MagnumEntertainment, among other companies, used at the time. Later that year, they released a Video Nasty by the name of ''S.S. Experiment'', which turned out to not be as [[{{Pun}} nasty]] as it seemed (to the point where the UK unbanned it nearly two decades later, with the BBFC admitting to having overreacted to the content). The company turned out some more exploitation and action titles in 1985 and 1986 and also released their first direct-to-video film, ''Breeders''. They also reactivated their Force Video label. Around the Halloween season, they released two films that would've been (and, in one case, actually ''was'') rated X for their gory horror content: the DTV film ''Dreamaniac'', about a succubus who crashes a metalhead's party and kills the guests one by one, and the 1970s slasher film ''The Headless Eyes'', about a burglar who loses an eye to one of his victims and starts stealing eyes from women in a killing spree that baffles the police. The two films were promoted in an ad that invites the viewer to take the Total Terror Test (which is absolutely ''not'' for the squeamish). Wizard's last releases in the classic era were DTV films.

Later, Wizard Video was relaunched three times: once in 1998 (which went nowhere), once in 2005 (as a label for Full Moon's catalog releases), and again in 2014 (as Wizard Studios). In 2013, Band made an obvious attempt to cash in on the popularity of the classic era by re-releasing several mid-'80s Wizard and Force titles in a variation on the original packaging and created 13 imaginary posters, each for a classic era Wizard or Force release.

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Home video as a medium encompasses pre-recorded videos owned or rented by consumers for viewing in their homes on their own schedule-- to put it laconically, video at home. Thanks to home video, viewers no longer have to visit the cinema during a film's theatrical run or stay by the television during a broadcast controlled by the network.

UsefulNotes/TheBlockbusterAgeOfHollywood first brought videos into viewers' homes on [[UsefulNotes/{{VCR}} videocassettes]][[note]](yes, one word)[[/note]] containing video recordings on magnetic tape. In the videotape [[DuelingProducts format war]], Video Home System (VHS) eventually won out over Betamax. At first, videocassette recorders ([=VCRs=]) weren't widely adopted by the average consumer; they were expensive in the mid-1970s, but that changed by the late [[UsefulNotes/TheEighties 1980s]].

!Names to know in home video distribution

Magnetic Video Corporation was purchased by Fox in 1979. After Andre Blay left the company in January 1982 to form Blay Video, Magnetic Video received a new, brief name: 20th Century-Fox Video. This soon merged with CBS Video Enterprises to become [=CBS/Fox=] Video. They used the name [=FoxVideo=] for Fox movie releases, and [=CBS/Fox=] video included the sublabels Key Video [[note]](concentrated on B-movies, archive titles, direct-to-video releases and TV movies)[[/note]] and Playhouse Video [[note]](focused on kids and families with Fox-owned titles, [[Franchise/TheMuppets Muppet Video]] titles, CBS-owned Creator/DrSeuss projects, and ''Series/DoctorWho'')[[/note]]. By the end of the century, they settled on their final name: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

! Sandbox for eventual UsefulNotes/HomeVideoDistribution
Per [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1598052607026629500 TRS]], HomeVideoDistributors will be UsefulNotes.

!!Major Studios (The Big Five)

!!Australian Companies

!!British companies

!!Canadian Companies

!!Greek Companies

!!Japanese Companies

!!Budget Companies

!!Anime Companies

!!Other Companies

!!Major Studios (The Big Five)

!! Countries

!!Anime Companies

!!Other Companies

!!MCA Video Distributing Corporation

!!Paramount Home Video

!!Worldvision Home Video

!!Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

!!Magic Window

!!Walt Disney Home Video

!!Magnetic Video

!!The CBS/Fox Company

!!Warner Home Video

!!Australian Company: Roadshow Home Video

!!Canadian Company: Cineplex Odeon Video

!!Greek Company: Modern Times

!!Budget Company: Mill Creek Entertainment

!!Anime Limited

!!Madman Entertainment (Australia)

!!MVM Entertainment (UK)

!!Allied Artists Video

!!Fotomat Video

!!Fred Levine Productions

!!International Video Entertainment

!!Avid Home Entertainment

!!Vista Home Video

!!Vestron Video

!!Kino Lorber Studio Classics

!!Lyrick Studios

!!Media Home Entertainment

!!MPI Home Video

!!MGM/CBS Home Video

!!PBS Home Video

!!Random House Home Video

!!Shout Factory

!!Scream Factory

!!Thorn EMI Video

!!Twilight Time

!!VCI Home Video

!!Wizard Video

Per [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1598052607026629500 TRS]], HomeVideoDistributors will become a UsefulNote.

* Creator/{{GKIDS}} (possibly)

!!GKIDS (possibly only a distributor)
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GKIDS (said to be an acronym for "Guerrilla Kids International Distribution Syndicate") is a New York-based film distribution studio founded in 2008 by Eric Beckman. It specializes in releasing foreign animated films from all over the world.

Although, as their name implies, they started out distributing foreign animated films aimed at children and families, [[ArtifactTitle they've since moved away from that]] releasing both the former and more adult oriented/mature works.

* Creator/LionsGate

* [[Creator/RhinoRecords Rhino Home Video]]

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* Creator/ADVFilms

* Creator/AniplexUSA
* Creator/BandaiEntertainment
* Creator/CentralParkMedia
* Creator/{{Funimation}}
* Creator/{{Geneon}}
* Creator/{{GKIDS}}

* Creator/MangaEntertainment
* Creator/MediaBlasters

* Creator/SentaiFilmworks
* Creator/{{Tokyopop}}
* Creator/VizMedia

* Creator/TheCriterionCollection

[[folder:Major Studios (The Big Five)]]

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