Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment LLC (UPHE) is the home video division of Universal Pictures, an American film studio owned by NBCUniversal, the entertainment unit of Comcast.

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, E!, Syfy, USA Network, and Oxygen).

The division also had distribution deals with United Artists Releasing, 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, a joint venture between Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, with select titles distributed by Allied Vaughn through its Manufacture-on-demand (MOD) solutions.

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.

In 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.

Also 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.