CBS Home Entertainment - The New Division

The New Division

The CBS/Viacom merger was completed in 1999, but then were split again at the end of 2005. However, both companies are still controlled by National Amusements. As such, distribution for all releases by CBS DVD (the new branding for CBS Video) is handled by Paramount Home Entertainment. On September 26, 2006, CBS Home Entertainment was joined with CBS Paramount Domestic Television, CBS Paramount International Television, and King World to form CBS Television Distribution.

This includes:

• Programs owned by CBS Studios, with certain exceptions such as:
  • Until 2001, CBS owned the rights to several Dr. Seuss animated specials produced by the network in association with DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. The last video releases made by CBS were in 2000, with distribution by Paramount. CBS sold the rights to the specials to Universal Studios (which has a theme park license for the Dr. Seuss universe, and which also made several feature-length film versions of Seuss stories) in 2001. Universal (ironically now a sister company to CBS rival NBC), and later Warner Bros. Television Animation, has released the specials on VHS and DVD in the following years, even though the copyrights remain with CBS.
  • Until 2004, CBS owned the rights to the animated Garfield cartoon specials and the show Garfield and Friends. CBS sold the rights to the specials and Garfield and Friends to 20th Century Fox. (which produced the live-action Garfield movies.)
• The video rights to the television holdings of Republic Pictures (which CBS now owns distribution rights and partial copyright to)
• The library of theatrical films owned by CBS (such as those produced by Cinema Center Films, and several features produced in the 1980s that were originally distributed theatrically by Warner Bros.)
  • Until 2009, the only exception was My Fair Lady, whose video rights were controlled by WB, though a VHS edition was released by Paramount. CBS/Paramount regained video rights in 2009.

CBS Corporation formed CBS Home Entertainment as a new home entertainment arm in 2007. However, Paramount continues to distribute a majority of CBS DVDs as of 2010. There are some exceptions. For example, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment won the right to release material from the newly formed incarnation of CBS Films beginning in 2010, under license from CBS Home Entertainment. Image Entertainment holds the video license for the original Twilight Zone series. Many Viacom-produced miniseries (such as the 1981 remake of East of Eden) which are now owned by CBS, as well as material from CBS News, have been issued through different video labels (though some more recent CBS News productions have been issued on DVD by CBS/Paramount).