Universal Pictures Home Entertainment LLC (UPHE, formerly known as Universal Studios Home Video (USHV) from 1997 until 2005 and Universal Studios Home Entertainment (USHE) from 2005 until 2016) is the home video distribution unit of Universal Pictures, an American film studio owned by Comcast (through NBCUniversal). The unit was founded in 1980.
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment is the home video distributor of all of the Universal Pictures film library, all of the Focus Features film library, most of the 1929–1949 Paramount Pictures film library held by EMKA, Ltd., and all of the shows of the NBCUniversal Syndication Studios library (NBC and Bravo).
The division also had distribution deals with United Artists Releasing (including select Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Orion Pictures films), The Film Arcade, Aviron Pictures, STX Entertainment (excluding all of the films from EuropaCorp Films USA, which Lionsgate holds the home video distribution rights to), Mattel Television (for the longest-running Barbie direct-to-video film series), 101 Studios, Sovereign Films, Open Road Films, Briarcliff Entertainment, Pinnacle Peak Pictures, Picturehouse, Blumhouse Tilt, Neon and Bleecker Street (until 2021), Funimation (in the United States and Canada; until 2018, after which Sony Pictures Home Entertainment took over) and Entertainment One (in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Spain, Germany and the United States; until 2024, after which Lionsgate Home Entertainment took over).
Starting in 2021, their releases are currently distributed in North America by Studio Distribution Services, originally a joint venture between Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment which was acquired by Conectiv Supply Chain Solutions (formerly owned by Vantiva) on August 4, 2026. Select titles are also distributed by Allied Vaughn through its Manufacture-on-demand (MOD) solutions.
History The company was founded in 1980 as MCA Videocassette, Inc. with Gene Giaquinto as president of the division. It released 24 films on Betamax and VHS in May 1980, including Jaws, Animal House and The Deer Hunter as well as classic films such as Dracula, Animal Crackers, and Scarface. Jaws 2 and 1941 were also released that year. Before 1980 Castle Films (known as Universal 8 after 1977) had served as Universal's home film distribution unit. In late 1983, both the LaserDisc sister label MCA Videodisc and the MCA Videocassette label were consolidated into a single entity, MCA Home Video, alternating with the MCA Videocassette, Inc. name until December 1983.
By the mid-1980s, MCA Home Video began to license catalog titles to smaller, independent video firms with a focus on sell-through product. The first was in 1986 with Kartes Video Communications. The deal was followed with a similar agreement with GoodTimes Home Video in 1987.
In 1986, the company made agreements with Motown Productions and with children's book publisher Price Stern Sloan. Both deals were intended to expand MCA's non-theatrical product, 1987 was a busy year for MCA Home Video; the company underwent an executive shuffle, signed an exclusive three-year deal with International Video Entertainment for video distribution, and began offering new content from Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus.
In 1990, with the 75th anniversary of Universal Studios, MCA Home Video became MCA/Universal Home Video and used that name alternating with the MCA Home Video name from 1990 until 1997. On December 9, 1996, the company was renamed Universal Studios Home Video when MCA was reincorporated as Universal Studios, which would then later be part of Vivendi Universal Entertainment in 2000.
Universal's first titles on DVD releases in 1997 were licensed to Image Entertainment for distribution. Those early bare-bones editions quickly fell out-of-print when Universal started making their own DVD releases.
When Universal's then-parent company (Seagram) purchased PolyGram Filmed Entertainment in 1998, Universal gained not only the Post-March 1996 PolyGram library, but also a brand new genre for Universal, in a form of Stand-up comedy from the likes of Roy Chubby Brown, Jethro, Jim Davidson, Billy Connolly and Lee Evans, Universal additionally gained distribution rights to some classic British television content as well, such as the Smallfilms library, The Vicar Of Dibley, Fun Song Factory and the then-upcoming Lock, Stock... television series, just to name quite a few, as well as the UK home video rights to Barney & Friends (until 2001, when HIT Entertainment purchased Lyrick Studios, after which, HIT immediately started self-releasing Barney titles).
In March 2001 when French media congolomate Vivendi had acquired Universal Studios Home Video's parent Universal Studios and its owner Seagram, Universal Studios established a new subsidiary that would handle, manage and expand Universal Pictures' key intellectual properties across multiple platforms entitled Universal Pictures Franchise Development with Universal Pictures Home Video including its animation production division Universal Cartoon Studios & London-based British production division Universal Pictures Visual Programming being placed into the new subsidiary alongside Universal Studios' consumer products & licensing division Universal Pictures Consumer Products which also became division of the new subsidiary while Louis Feola became president of the new subsidiary.
In 2004, due to the merger of Universal Studios and NBC to form NBCUniversal, Universal started releasing Universal DVD releases of shows from the newly established NBCUniversal Television Distribution. Before 2004, NBC shows were distributed on VHS and DVD by Lions Gate Home Entertainment and A&E Home Video under the label NBC Home Entertainment (formerly NBC Home Video under Trimark until it was bought by Lions Gate). NBC's home entertainment on-screen logo was simply the NBC Enterprises syndication logo.
In March 2005 (by which point Universal Studios Home Video was renamed to Universal Studios Home Entertainment), the group was restructured; Universal 1440 Entertainment was formed as an internal production arm, while the London-based Universal Pictures Visual Programming (formerly PolyGram Visual Programming) unit was folded into Universal Pictures International; Universal Cartoon Studios was absorbed into the Family Productions unit. The year after, UPHE acquired distribution rights to the Barbie film series after negotiations between Mattel and their previous domestic distributor, Lionsgate Home Entertainment, fell through (Universal had already been distributing these films internationally).
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment was also the worldwide home video distributor for DreamWorks Pictures titles (through DreamWorks Home Entertainment) until 2006, when DreamWorks Pictures was sold to Paramount Pictures' parent company, Viacom, and as a result, Paramount Home Entertainment took over distribution. After Viacom spun-off DreamWorks Pictures in 2008, Universal Studios Home Entertainment planned resuming distributing DreamWorks Pictures' movies, but this deal fell through. Until Lionsgate formed their home video division, Universal distributed their releases with the exception of Dogma, which was distributed by Columbia TriStar Home Video. In 2007, it was signed on as home video distributor of releases by Summit Entertainment (ironically, Summit was later bought by Lionsgate).
In addition to Universal DVD releases, Universal was a major supporter of the HD DVD format until Toshiba discontinued the format. Starting on July 22, 2008, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has released Blu-ray Discs, and it was the last main major Hollywood movie studio to do so. The first three Blu-ray Disc releases to release in the United States were The Mummy, its sequel The Mummy Returns, and The Scorpion King. Starting on August 9, 2016, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has released 4K Ultra HD Blu-rays.
In September 2013, Universal Pictures' digital distribution division was merged into Universal Studios Home Entertainment as the combined entity under the Universal Studios Home Entertainment name would oversume all home entertainment distribution of NBCUniversal's film and television content, Michael Bonner continued leading the domestic digital distribution team, overseeing domestic distribution for film and television across all platforms under Universal Studios Home Entertainment.
In 2014, Universal Studios Home Entertainment took over releasing HIT Entertainment/Mattel titles from Lionsgate Home Entertainment (this would end in 2020, although Universal Studios Home Entertainment continues to distribute the Barbie direct-to-video titles for Mattel).
In 2015, Funimation (now known as Crunchyroll, LLC), formed a multi-year home video distribution deal with UPHE. Two years later, Sony Pictures Television acquired a 95% stake in Funimation, which resulted in Sony Pictures Home Entertainment taking over distribution after the UPHE deal expired.
In 2016, Universal Studios Home Entertainment was renamed to Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
Starting on June 5, 2018, because Comcast (through NBCUniversal) acquired DreamWorks Animation in 2016, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment re-distributed all of DreamWorks Animation's back catalogue film library on home video after DreamWorks Animation's previous home video distribution deal with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (through DreamWorks Animation Home Entertainment) expired, resulting in DreamWorks Animation Home Entertainment being folded into Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
Internationally
Distribution deals Outside North America, before 1999, Universal releases were distributed by CIC Video, their international home video joint-venture with Paramount Pictures. When Universal nearly pulled out of UIP in 1999 following their then-parent Seagram's purchase of PolyGram, they would pull out of CIC and renamed PolyGram's home video unit (PolyGram Video) as Universal Pictures Video.
In the Netherlands, UPHE distributed most DVDs of films released theatrically by Independent Films and TV shows and films from Studio 100 until 2006, although this is now limited to catalog releases, as more recent films are now released through Warner Home Video and later on, Belga Home Video.
In South Africa, UPHE distributes films on DVD and VHS through CIC Video in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1999, the company was moved to Ster-Kinekor Home Entertainment after CIC Video was dissolved in the same year. In 2007, it was moved later to Nu Metro Home Entertainment on DVDs and Blu-Ray discs until 2013, when Next Entertainment took over until at least 2019.
UPHE also formerly distributed StudioCanal titles on home media in France (until 2024 when distribution moved to ESC Distribution), most of the Republic Pictures library in the UK and most of the Carolco Pictures library in Australia, Latin America, and several European countries (along with other StudioCanal properties) until StudioCanal's global distribution deal with Universal expired in January 2022. In the 1980s until the late 1990s, they also distributed tapes released by Cineplex Odeon in Canada.
In the UK, UPHE previously distributed its films on video internationally through CIC Video (a division of Cinema International Corporation, later United International Pictures) alongside Paramount Pictures. In Japan, releases from both Universal and Paramount appeared on CIC-Victor Video, Ltd. (a joint venture between CIC Video and JVC) for VHS and on Pioneer LDC, Inc. for Laserdisc.