| Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, Inc. | |
| Trade Name: | Warner Bros. Home Entertainment |
| Type: | Division |
| Industry: | Home entertainment |
| Hq Location: | 4000 Warner Boulevard |
| Hq Location City: | Burbank, California |
| Hq Location Country: | U.S. |
| Key People: | David Decker (president) |
| Products: | Home video releases |
| Parent: | Warner Bros. Discovery |
Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, Inc.[1] (doing business as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment;[2] formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the American home video distribution division of Warner Bros. Discovery.
It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video (as a division of Warner Communications, Inc.). The company launched in the United States with twenty films on Betamax and VHS videocassettes in late 1979. The company later expanded its line to include additional titles throughout 1979 and 1980.[3]
It is responsible for distributing the film and television library of Warner Bros. Discovery and other companies on various home media formats, such as DVD, Blu-ray, Ultra HD Blu-ray, Digital, and streaming platforms. Some of the companies that Warner Bros. Home Entertainment distributes include Max, Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Animation, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, DC Entertainment, DC Studios, Viz Media, HBO, CNN, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, TBS, TNT, TruTV, Turner Classic Movies, Rooster Teeth (until its closure in May 2024), Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, TLC, HGTV, Food Network and among others.
The company was founded in 1978 and launched in the United States with twenty films on Betamax and VHS videocassettes in late 1979. The company later expanded its line to include additional titles throughout 1979 and 1980.
Warner Bros. began to branch out into the videodisc market, licensing titles to MCA DiscoVision and RCA's SelectaVision videodisc formats, allowing both companies to market and distribute the films under their labels.[4] [5] By 1985, Warner was releasing material under their own label in both formats. Titles from Warner Home Video were and continue to be distributed and manufactured by Roadshow Home Video worldwide except for Australia and New Zealand because of its film counterpart's films released by Village Roadshow.[6]
Warner also experimented with the "rental-only" market for videos, a method also used by 20th Century Fox for their first release of Star Wars in 1982. Two known films released in this manner were Superman II and Excalibur. Other films released for rental use include Dirty Harry, The Enforcer, Prince of the City, and Sharky's Machine.
In 1990, Warner Home Video acquired the worldwide home video rights to the MGM/UA catalog. The $125 million purchase was used to finance MGM/UA's acquisition by the Pathé Communications Corporation.[7] The intended 12½-year-long deal was cut short in February 2000, with MGM paying Warner Home Video $225 million to regain video rights to a number of its films. In exchange, Warner Home Video gained full control over the video rights to MGM's pre-May 1986 library, an asset the studio had acquired outright from Turner Entertainment Co., but due to a pre-existing licensing deal with MGM, was originally expected to expire in 2001.[8]
On December 20, 1996, Warner Home Video was one of the first major American distributors for the then-new DVD format, by releasing the films Assassins, Blade Runner: Director's Cut, Eraser, and The Fugitive on DVD in Japan and on March 24, 1997, in the United States with Blade Runner also being a launch title for the region there.[9] Warner Bros. executive Warren Lieberfarb is often seen as "the father of DVD". Lieberfarb's successor, Warner Bros. executive James F. Cardwell was recognized in paving the way for WHV's strategic positioning in next generation technologies such as High Definition DVD (HD DVD), electronic sell-through and portable video. In 2003, Warner Home Video became the first home video releasing company to release movies only on DVD with no VHS equivalent.
In 2009, Warner Home Video introduced the Warner Archive Collection, which allows the public to order custom-made DVDs of rarely seen films and TV series from the Warner and Turner libraries. The films are also available as digital downloads. Warner Archive DVDs and downloads can be ordered online on Warner's website, on Amazon.com or one-time Turner Classic Movies-affiliated DVD website MoviesUnlimited.com.[10]
On January 14, 2020, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment announced that they would partner on a 10-year multinational joint-venture, merging their physical operations in North America.[11] On April 7, 2020, the European Commission approved the merger and a year later, WBHE started distributing Universal's home media releases in the UK, Italy (until 2024) and Benelux.[12] The company was later named Studio Distribution Services, LLC.[13] It is unknown whenever SDS uses an on-screen logo; as where Warner releases by SDS use the 2017–present Warner Bros. Home Entertainment logo.
Starting in 2022, due to the finalization of the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, WBHE will distribute the television libraries of Discovery-owned networks including the flagship Discovery Channel and Animal Planet.