Universal Studios Home Entertainment (formerly Universal Studios Home Video, MCA/Universal Home Video and MCA Home Video) is the home video distribution division of Universal Pictures. The company is owned by NBCUniversal, the entertainment division of Comcast and General Electric.
The company was founded in 1978 as MCA DiscoVision with the Beta and VHS label MCA Videocassette, Inc. in 1980, with the release of films on Beta and VHS, including Jaws, Jaws 2, and 1941. In late 1983, both the Laserdisc sister label MCA Videodisc and the VHS/Beta label MCA Videocassette were consolidated into a single entity, MCA Home Video, alternating with the MCA Videocassette name until December 1983. In 1990, with the 75th anniversary of Universal Studios, it became MCA/Universal Home Video, alternating with the MCA Home Video name from 1990 until 1997. The company later went by various company names, including Universal Studios Home Video (1998–2005), and Universal Studios Home Entertainment (2005–present).
In 1980, they released two '50s 3-D motion pictures, Creature From the Black Lagoon and It Came From Outer Space, in anaglyphic format on Beta and VHS.
This company was the video distributor for DreamWorks titles until DreamWorks was sold to Paramount Pictures' parent company, Viacom, in 2006, at which point Paramount took over distribution. After Viacom sold DreamWorks in 2008, Universal Studios Home Entertainment was planned to resume distributing DreamWorks' movies, but this deal fell through.
In addition to DVDs, Universal was a major supporter of the HD DVD format until March 2008, when Toshiba discontinued manufacturing of HD DVD players. Since July 22, 2008, Universal released Blu-ray discs; it was the last major Hollywood movie studio to do so. The label's first Blu-ray releases were The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, and The Scorpion King.
Universal is the US video distributor for Summit Entertainment releases (but instead shows Summit logo on all releases) and Open Road Films releases.
Read more about Universal Studios Home Entertainment: Internationally, List of Direct-to-video Films
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