Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

• 1. Introduction

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  Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released its first twenty titles in November 1979, not under the Sony name but under the banner of Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment. The company that would eventually carry the Sony brand into living rooms around the world began modestly, with those initial releases licensed and distributed by Time-Life Video. That arrangement did not last long. What followed was more than four decades of mergers, lawsuits, joint ventures across multiple continents, and a revolving cast of studio partners, each chapter reshaping how films found their way from the theater to the home.

  How did a small Columbia Pictures offshoot become one of the most significant home entertainment distributors on the planet? What happened when Sony tried to hold MGM's vast library and found the numbers would not add up? And how did the company come to distribute films for rivals as storied as Lionsgate and Walt Disney?

• 2. The RCA Years

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  In March 1981, Columbia Pictures entered a joint venture with RCA, creating RCA/Columbia Pictures International Video to push tapes into overseas markets. The partnership extended to North America the following year, partly to provide a consistent supply of titles for RCA's CED videodisc format. The venture also took on NBC titles, since NBC was a subsidiary of RCA at the time.

  When Tri-Star Pictures came together in 1982, RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video stepped in as one of three primary distributors of Tri-Star product for home video. CBS/Fox Video and Thorn-EMI/HBO Video were the other two, reflecting the fact that CBS and HBO both held original stakes in Tri-Star. The venture also distributed titles from other Columbia-adjacent companies, including most of New Line Cinema's theatrical releases, though Media Home Entertainment and Family Home Entertainment handled several New Line films that fell outside the Columbia arrangement.

  New Line formed its own video label in 1990 after acquiring Nelson Entertainment, which had itself descended from Embassy Home Entertainment, once a Columbia subsidiary. New Line kept going through RCA/Columbia for distribution until 1994, when Turner Broadcasting acquired New Line and Turner Home Entertainment absorbed that function. Other companies that passed through RCA/Columbia's distribution network included Weintraub Entertainment and 21st Century Distribution.

  In 1987, once existing deals had run their course, Tri-Star announced it would launch a dedicated home video unit called Tri-Star Video, naming Saul Melnick, a former MGM/UA Home Video employee, as president. That independence was short-lived. After Coca-Cola sold its entertainment holdings in 1988, Tri-Star Video folded back into RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video, and full distribution of TriStar titles shifted to the venture in the early 1990s.

• 3. Lawsuit and a New Name

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  In March 1990, NBC filed a lawsuit against Columbia and its new parent company Sony, alleging that the two had violated the terms of the joint venture. The trigger was Columbia's purchase, the previous month, of foreign video rights to Orion Pictures titles. NBC said it had no knowledge of that transaction and believed Columbia was setting up its own video operation in direct defiance of the partnership, which was contractually set to expire in 1992.

  Sony and Columbia denied the claims. The litigation continued into 1991, when General Electric, which was the parent of both NBC and RCA, announced it was divesting its interest in RCA/Columbia. The deal closed in August of that year, and with the litigation settled, Sony renamed the company Columbia TriStar Home Video.

  In 1998, Columbia TriStar Home Video signed a deal with The Jim Henson Company to launch Jim Henson Home Entertainment, with Columbia TriStar handling distribution. The arrangement mirrored a simultaneous theatrical alliance between Columbia Pictures and the Jim Henson Pictures venture. The following year, on the 28th of February 1999, Columbia TriStar Home Video and Universal Studios Home Video signed a multi-year agreement allowing Columbia TriStar to distribute Universal products on DVD outside North America.

• 4. Becoming Sony Pictures

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  April 2001 brought a new name, Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment, before a final rebrand to Sony Pictures Home Entertainment took effect in November 2004. The company carried that name forward as it extended its footprint across physical and digital platforms.

  In 2002, the home video division revived the Destination Films name, logo, and intellectual property from a defunct film distributor, repurposing it as a production label for most direct-to-video titles. Some releases went out under the TriStar Pictures and Triumph Films names as production arms. The entire direct-to-video production unit was then spun off as Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions in 2007.

  On the 23rd of April 2012, Mill Creek Entertainment announced a deal to acquire the rights to distribute 250 films from the Sony Pictures catalog on DVD and Blu-ray. That relationship deepened: on the 27th of August 2013, Mill Creek signed another deal with SPHE to cover 665 Sony Pictures Entertainment films and 54 television series on DVD.

  On the 20th of November 2015, SPHE announced it would release Ultra HD Blu-ray titles. On the 18th of December 2013, SPHE president David Bishop, who had been in the role since 2006, announced he would leave when his contract ended in March 2014; Man Jit Singh was named as his replacement. Singh himself stepped down on the 6th of February 2018 and was replaced by Keith LeGoy.

• 5. The MGM Miscalculation

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  In 2005, Sony and four partners acquired Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from Kirk Kerkorian, and SPHE took on domestic home entertainment rights to MGM's library of 4,000 films and 10,400 television episodes. The releases still carried the MGM DVD label rather than the Sony name. A cooling DVD market meant sales fell short of projections, and that shortfall became one of several factors that pushed MGM out from under Sony Pictures' control.

  On the 31st of May 2006, MGM ended its distribution deal with SPHE and transferred most of its output to 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The fallout from the MGM episode led directly to the departure of long-serving SPHE president Ben Feingold in the fall of 2006. His replacement was Dave Bishop, who had been an executive at MGM Home Entertainment, and Bishop brought a number of MGM employees with him to fill positions previously held by Sony staffers.

  In February 2011, Sony entered negotiations with MGM for a co-financing arrangement that would have included full distribution rights to the MGM Home Entertainment library. That deal ultimately did not include home media rights to MGM's catalog, which remained with Fox, though Sony did distribute some of the films it co-financed on video as part of the agreement.

• 6. Global Reach and Sub-Labels

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  Australia has been a persistent thread in SPHE's international story. RCA/Columbia Pictures/Hoyts Video Pty. Ltd. was formed there in August 1983 as a joint venture with Hoyts Distribution, releasing products from Hoyts, Cannon Films, Columbia Pictures, TriStar, and Triumph Films. In September 2011, the Australian division of SPHE announced it would merge its video operations with Universal Pictures International Entertainment's local arm to form Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

  On the 22nd of July 2015, SPHE and Transmission Films signed a multi-year pact covering Transmission's library in Australia and New Zealand. The Australian joint venture with Universal also licensed anime television series from NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan, with its initial titles including A Certain Magical Index, Shakugan no Shana, and Armitage III, scheduled for release on the 24th of April 2013. From 2017 to 2018, Funimation distributed a select number of its anime titles in Australia and New Zealand through that same joint venture, before Funimation transferred distribution to Madman Entertainment in September 2018.

  Across its history, SPHE has operated several distinct sub-labels. Magic Window covered children's titles, including He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and The Real Ghostbusters along with classic Columbia and UPA cartoons. Musicvision was a short-lived music video label within RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video in the mid-1980s, releasing artists connected to RCA Records. Columbia Classics released archival Columbia Pictures films on DVD, building on earlier VHS and LaserDisc releases under the same name. Screen Classics by Request offered obscure classic films manufactured on demand through a web service, modeled loosely on Warner Bros.' Warner Archive line. In France, Gaumont-Columbia-RCA Video, formed in 1982, released Gaumont, Columbia, TriStar, and Triumph products on VHS; it was renamed Gaumont/RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video in 1986 and then Gaumont/Columbia TriStar Home Video in 1992.

• 7. New Partners, New Decades

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  On the 21st of February 2010, The Weinstein Company struck a home video distribution deal with SPHE through Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions. On the 31st of August 2010, SPHE partnered with RLJ Entertainment in a multi-year agreement to market and distribute DVDs and Blu-rays, with RLJ retaining its own sales and marketing operations.

  On the 26th of February 2021, SPHE entered a multi-year home entertainment distribution deal with Lionsgate Studios, after Lionsgate's existing arrangement with 20th Century ended. Sony began distributing Lionsgate titles in July of that year, with Lionsgate keeping its own independent sales and marketing teams while using Sony's supply chain and distribution infrastructure.

  In February 2024, it was reported that SPHE had entered a multi-year deal with The Walt Disney Company, under which Sony would manufacture, market, and distribute all Disney new releases and catalog titles on physical media in the United States and Canada. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment had previously handled that function, and Disney retained control of its own digital media. Since the 20th of June 2007, SPHE has also handled distribution of children's content formerly managed by Sony BMG's Sony Wonder label, a line that stretches back to a segment of the business that predates SPHE's current name by nearly three decades.