Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (abbreviated as SPHE) is the home video distribution division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony Corporation.
Background[]
SPHE is responsible for the distribution of the Sony Pictures library for home entertainment, mainly releases from the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group (Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, Sony Pictures Classics, and Screen Gems) as well as releases from Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (Triumph Films, Destination Films, Stage 6 Films and Affirm Films). SPHE also releases products from Revolution Studios. Since June 20, 2007, SPHE has handled distribution of children's content formerly handled by Sony BMG's Sony Wonder label.
SPHE is also responsible for distribution of television shows from the Sony Pictures Television library, including those produced by Screen Gems, Columbia Pictures Television, TriStar Television, Tandem Productions, TOY Productions, ELP Communications (shows include from T.A.T. Communications to ELP Communications), Four D Productions, Columbia TriStar Television and Sony Pictures Television; and will take over the home video distribution duties of Funimation (as Sony Pictures Television acquired a 95% stake in Funimation back in 2017) once Funimation's current deal with Universal Pictures Home Entertainment expires. On some occasions, the company has distributed television titles not owned by Sony, such as the Animorphs series from Scholastic Productions, and Rovio Entertainment's Angry Birds Toons, Angry Birds Stella and Piggy Tales.
In Canada, Columbia TriStar Home Video helped distribute tapes from Astral Video in the 1990s. It also has an Australian deal with Hoyts.
History[]
Early history[]
Sony Pictures Homes Entertainment was established in June 1978 as Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment, and released 20 titles in November 1979.
In March 1981, Columbia Pictures established a joint venture with RCA, RCA/Columbia Pictures International Video, to distribute tapes in overseas markets. The partnership expanded to North America as RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video the following year. The venture distributed NBC titles, as it was a subsidiary of RCA at the time.
In March 1990, NBC filed a lawsuit against Columbia and its then-new parent company Sony under the perception that the latter two parties were violating their joint pact. Columbia purchased the foreign video rights to Orion Pictures titles a month earlier. NBC alleged that they were unaware of this transaction and had become convinced that Columbia was forming their own video unit in strict defiance of the joint venture, which was set to expire in 1992. Sony/Columbia denied NBC's claims. As the lawsuit continued into 1991, General Electric, the parent of NBC and RCA, announced that it was divesting its interest in RCA/Columbia. In August 1991, General Electric sold its 50% share of the company to Sony Corporation, and the litigation officially ended with Sony renaming the company as Columbia TriStar Home Video. It was named Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment from April 2001 until a name change to Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in November 2004.
SPHE had a three-year deal with Starz's Anchor Bay Entertainment for worldwide DVD releases, with the exceptions of North America, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer[]
In 2005, when Sony and four partners acquired Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from Kirk Kerkorian, SPHE held the domestic home entertainment rights to MGM's 4,000 film and 10,400 TV episode library, though the releases used the MGM DVD label. On May 31, 2006, MGM ended its distribution deal with SPHE and transferred most of its output to 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
In 2006, long time SPHE president Ben Feingold left the company and was replaced by MGM Home Entertainment executive Dave Bishop, who brought along numerous MGM employees to replace Sony staffers.
In February 2011, Sony regained full distribution rights to MGM Home Entertainment library under a deal that pays SPHE 8% in distribution fees (industry norm is 10%).
Recent history[]
On February 21, 2010, The Weinstein Company made a home video distribution deal with SPHE through Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions. On August 31, 2010, SPHE partnered with Image Entertainment in a multi-year agreement, marketing and distributing DVDs and Blu-rays by Image. Image retains its own sales and marketing.
On April 23, 2012, Mill Creek announced that they had signed a home video distribution deal with SPHE, acquiring the rights to distribute 250 films from the Sony Pictures catalog on DVD and Blu-ray. On August 27, 2013, Mill Creek Entertainment signed a deal with SPHE to distribute 665 SPE films and 54 television series on DVD.
Anime News Network reported in February 2013 that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's Australian joint venture with Universal Pictures Home Entertainment licensed anime television series from NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan for distribution in Australia, with its initial titles, A Certain Magical Index, Shakugan no Shana and Armitage III, scheduled for release on April 24, 2013.
On December 18, 2013, SPHE president David Bishop, who had served since 2006, announced he would leave when his contract expired in March 2014. It was announced that Man Jit Singh would replace Bishop.
On July 22, 2015, SPHE and Transmission Films reached a multi-year distribution pact to release the Transmission Films library in Australia (through Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Australia Pty Limited) and in New Zealand. On November 20, 2015, SPHE announced that it would release Ultra HD Blu-ray releases.
On March 15, 2016, SPHE partnered with eOne to distribute films Momentum Pictures across the globe except for Canada on physical and digital home entertainment platforms. In January 2017, SPHE expanded its distribution deal with Genius Brands to include all properties and acquired an equity stake in company.
On February 6, 2018, Man Jit Singh stepped down as president of SPHE and was replaced by Keith LeGoy.
Sub-labels[]
During this time, the company also has and had some sub-labels, including:
- Magic Window - Children's titles (including He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and The Real Ghostbusters, as well as classic Columbia/UPA cartoons).
- RCA-Columbia Pictures International Video - International films (some of these were released by CEL in Australia).
- SVS-Triumph - Some low-profile Columbia, TriStar, New Line, CineTel Films and Epic Productions releases, and releases from Triumph Films (it was founded in 1979 as Sony Video Services and was renamed after the formation of Sony Pictures Entertainment, to be used briefly in-between the ending of the RCA joint venture and the formation of Columbia-TriStar).
- Musicvision - A short-lived music video division of RCA/Columbia Pictures HV in the mid-1980s.
- Columbia Classics - A label releasing classic films on DVD by Columbia Pictures; it was previously used for VHS and LaserDisc releases as well.
- Screen Classics by Request- A service available on the web, where classic films are pressed and ordered directly from Sony, similar to Warner Bros.' "Warner Archive" brand. A similar service called "Choice Collection" also exists, but is pressed and ordered directly from Warner, via the systems used for the "Warner Archive" titles.
- Superbit
International sub-labels[]
- Gaumont-Columbia-RCA Video - A French home video label that released films by Gaumont, Columbia Pictures, TriStar, and Triumph Films originally formed in 1982. It was later renamed as Gaumont/RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video in 1986 and Gaumont-Columbia TriStar Home Video in 1992.
- RCA/Columbia Pictures/Hoyts Video Pty. Ltd. - An Australian home video label that released films by Hoyts Distribution, Cannon Films, Columbia Pictures, TriStar and Triumph Films originally formed in 1984.
- First Release Home Entertainment - A mixture of B-movies, Magic Window, music videos, TriStar, top TV shows, re-releases, Thames Video and some mainstream Hoyts/Columbia/Cannon/Triumph/other film releases in Australia and The Netherlands.
- Video Box Office - a mixture of B-movies, HBO and some mainstream releases in Australia.
- 20/20 Vision - A British rental home video label that released films by TriStar Pictures, Goldcrest Films International, New Line Cinema, Triumph Films and Columbia Pictures.
- VideoServis - A Russian home video label with Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment that released films by Columbia Pictures, Monumental Pictures, TriStar and Screen Gems, created in 1994. After VideoServis sold Sony to CP Distribution (through Warner Home Video) in August 2014.
- France Télévisions Home Entertainment - A french joint-venture with France Télévisions, made for distribute DVD releases from France TV channels shows and movies, since when was named Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment, Sony distributes France TV DVDs.
- Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Distribution UK Ltd. - A British home video label that distributes Fox Pathé Home Entertainment (including MGM Home Entertainment releases) and Universal Studios Home Entertainment (including DreamWorks Home Entertainment and PolyGram Video releases).
- Delta Pictures is an Italian Home video distributor
During the time that Consolidated Press Holdings, and later Publishing and Broadcasting Limited and West Australian Newspapers owned Hoyts, they re-established the Hoyts Distribution arm of the company. SPHE Australia releases Hoyts titles, including the recent hit, Twilight. They also released the handful of films from the Nine Network's film arm, Nine Films and Television.
SPHE also handles the Australian DVD distribution of Lionsgate titles (via Hoyts), after that company was unsuccessful in purchasing Magna Pacific, and the subsequent collapse of the successful bidder, Destra Entertainment.
Criticism[]
- Sony has been criticized by many DVD consumers for business practices they find bothersome; for instance, several films (ranging from Guess Who's Coming to Dinner to Moscow on the Hudson) that were made available with a widescreen and pan-and-scan version on either side were reissued as pan-and-scan only titles. There was also discontent over their decision to release pan-and-scan-only versions of Annie, Matilda and Castle Keep, but only in the case of the final film did the director, Sydney Pollack, intervene and get a widescreen version issued. John Huston, director of Annie, died in 1987, and Danny DeVito did not comment on the DVD of his film Matilda. Annie in particular has a strange DVD history; the original 2000 DVD featured both widescreen and pan-and-scan versions of this 1982 Panavision musical, but the widescreen version was misframed, but later repressed. However, the corrected version was pulled and replaced with a pan-and-scan only "Special Anniversary Edition" (with a DTS soundtrack) in 2004, while other countries received widescreen versions of the reissue. Similarly, Ghostbusters II and White Nights were released on Laserdisc letterboxed to an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, even though both titles were shot in anamorphic 2.35:1. The DVD of Ghostbusters II corrects this problem, but White Nights is still incorrectly displayed at 1.85:1. Annie was eventually released on Blu-ray in 2012 for its 30th Anniversary Edition, resolving the issue with the 2004 DVD. Matilda was eventually released on Blu-ray in 2013, resolving the issues with the 1997 and 2005 DVDs.
- In another incident, the third-season DVD set of Married... with Children did not feature the Frank Sinatra theme song "Love and Marriage" due to a licensing dispute between SPHE and the publishers of the song. Many fans were upset that the theme had to be replaced, and it has been replaced on all subsequent sets.
- Also, some episodes of TV series the studio has released on DVD have been edited syndication versions, though most episodes are the unedited versions. One recent offense is a whole story point missing from volume 1 of Norman Lear's satirical soap opera Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.
- Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is also known to release older TV shows very slowly and then go into hiatus, e.g. All in the Family, One Day at a Time, Mad About You, Fantasy Island, Silver Spoons, The Jeffersons, Maude, Hart to Hart, Who's The Boss?, 227, and others, either because of poor sales or difficulties securing music rights. However, some shows went into release limbo but have since reappeared such as The Partridge Family, Barney Miller, Charlie's Angels and The Nanny. For other shows such as Designing Women, The Facts of Life, Diff'rent Strokes and Mad About You, the rights have been acquired by Shout! Factory, under SPHE's license, for further DVD releases.
- Apple and iTunes offered a credit to consumers who purchased the season pass to season five of the Sony-produced AMC series Breaking Bad after Sony treated the show's final 16 episodes as one season for cast-and-crew contractual reasons, but as two seasons to consumers, resulting in high consumer costs.