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| Company type | Division |
|---|---|
| Industry | Home entertainment |
| Founded | 1978; 47 years ago (1978) |
| Founder | Charles Band |
| Defunct | 1993; 32 years ago (1993) |
| Fate | Ceased operations, absorbed intoFox Video andVestron Video |
| Successor | Embassy Home Entertainment Fox Video Lionsgate Home Entertainment |
| Headquarters | Culver City, California |
| Products | VHS |
| Parent | Heron Communications |
| Subsidiaries | Hi-Tops Video (1986–1991) Fox Hills Video (1986–1990) The Nostalgia Merchant (1985–1988) |
Media Home Entertainment Inc. was ahome video company headquartered inCulver City, California, originally established in 1978 by filmmakerCharles Band.
Media Home Entertainment also distributed video product under additional labels —The Nostalgia Merchant (old or classic films; Media bought this company in 1984),[1]Hi-Tops Video (children's videos), Condor Video (Spanish-language titles, including Spanish dubs of films Media owned video rights to),[2] and Fox Hills Video (a sell-through label, devoted to special-interest videos including NFL Films Video releases, some obscure B-movies and low-profile Cannon pictures). The "Fox Hills" name was derived from a geographical location near the company's headquarters at 5700 Buckingham Parkway.
Videos from the Media Home Entertainment library were also distributed overseas in theUnited Kingdom,Australia andNew Zealand by VPD (Video Program Distributors) andVideo Classics and inJapan byTohokushinsha Film, respectively. Some releases by Media Home Entertainment and its associated sublabels were distributed inCanada by Astral Video, a now-defunct subsidiary of the present-dayAstral Media (now part ofBell Media).
The company got off to a rocky start whenABKCO Records successfully sued them for releasingThe Rolling Stones'Hyde Park concert onBetamax andVHS,[3] followed by a successful suit against it,VCI Home Video, and Video Tape Network filed byNorthern Songs for releasingBeatles material (Media's tapes includedAround The Beatles—featuring the Beatles and theRolling Stones as backup singers, with performers such asLong John Baldry—aJohn Lennon solo concert,Magical Mystery Tour, aShea Stadium concert,Sextette—featuring Beatles memberRingo Starr—and aTokyo concert),[4] but would eventually become one of the largest independent video distributors in the U.S., relying on acquired films, television programs, and children's programs to establish a library of product. Some releases from the company included the originalHalloween, the majority of thePeanuts specials (up to 1984),[5]The Adventures of the Wilderness Family,Enemies, A Love Story,I Come in Peace, some films from theCannon Films library,[6]Cinetel Films releases,[7]Troma Entertainment films likeTroma's War,[8] the theatrical releases of rival video labelTrans World Entertainment,[9][10] and content fromNew Line Cinema, namely all of theNightmare on Elm Street films in the 1980s (1984–1989), the first twoTexas Chain Saw Massacre films (1974's original and 1986's second, "2", bothTobe Hooper's direction) and 1976'sAssault on Precinct 13.Santa Claus: The Movie was licensed by Media directly from the Salkind family.[11]
In December 1983, Media Home Entertainment was bought byHeron Communications Inc., a subsidiary ofGerald Ronson'sHeron International; Heron had previously expanded into the British video market earlier in the year by way of the UK video company Videoform, which Heron purchased controlling interest in earlier that year.[12][13]
Rumors swirled throughout 1987 that Media Home Entertainment was for sale by Heron (Carolco, part-owners of rival video labelInternational Video Entertainment, were interested), but ultimately no sale happened at the time.[14][15]
In March 1988, Heron forged a licensing deal with budget distributorVideo Treasures to release sell-through copies of Media releases.[16] Not long after, Media picked up the home video rights to theMorgan Creek Productions library.[17] Media also picked up rights toViacom Pictures telefilms in early 1990, by which point the deal with Video Treasures had expanded.[18]
The death knell for Media came in early 1991, when parentHeron International opted to put Media up for sale, having already begun to sell Hi-Tops Video toWestern Publishing;[19][20] Heron indicated a reason for the sale was because it saw the video operations as not being relevant to either Heron's European operations or the gradual wind-down of Heron's other US assets (which largely consisted of financial and real-estate businesses). As a result, Media formed a distribution pact withFoxVideo, with the latter company handling distribution of Media's non-sell-through titles (Video Treasures continued to handle sell-through titles from Media's catalog).[21] In hindsight, the sale may have been motivated by Heron's financial issues after Ronson was convicted in theGuinness share frauds scandal, which sent Heron into a financial tailspin by 1994.[22]
Media Home Entertainment ceased final operations in 1993, described as being under "caretaker management"; Video Treasures retained rights to portions of the Media library for several years afterwards.[23][24] After it shut down, MHE'sKathy Smith titles moved toA*Vision Entertainment under the then-new BodyVision label.[25]
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