Columbia House

Columbia House was an umbrella brand for Columbia Records' mail-order music clubs, the primary iteration of which was the Columbia Record Club, established in 1955. The brand was introduced in the early 1970s and had a significant market presence during the mid and late 1970s, as well as the 1980s and early 1990s.

History
In 1981, Columbia Records' parent company, CBS Inc., formed the CBS Video Library, which not only released content from CBS Productions, CBS Inc.'s television division, but also had licensing agreements with other motion picture and television companies. The following year, in 1982, the CBS Video Library officially became part of the Columbia House family. Later in 1982, it began a duplication contract with The CBS/Fox Company's duplication division, which was later sold to VCA/Technicolor, itself later renamed to Technicolor Videocassette, Inc., in July 1987. In late 1987, the CBS Video Library began a new duplication contract with West Coast Video Duplicating. In January 1988, CBS Inc. sold its CBS Records Group division, which included the Columbia House brand, to Sony Corporation, a Japanese-based electronics conglomerate. The following year, in 1989, the CBS Video Library was renamed to the Columbia House Video Library, or simply known as Columbia House Video. In 1991, the CBS Records Group was renamed to Sony Music Entertainment Inc. and Sony Corporation itself sold a 50% stake in Columbia House to Time Warner, then-parent company of Time-Life. By late 1991, membership was over 10 million, and in early 1992, home video divisions of various motion picture and television companies began selling their own releases through the Columbia House Video catalog, and the company began another new duplication contract with Rank Video Services America. Columbia House-catalogued copies of various VHS releases from the following distributors are identifiable by a red-orange seal sticker placed between the packaging and the tape itself that says "CHC." Sometimes, the tapes would not have previews at the beginning, nor the end, at all, but there may be surprises where some actually have them. However, the regular distributor's packaging, stock number and product labels are retained as always. In 1996, club membership was at 16 million and Columbia House launched their website, and the following year, in 1997, Columbia House launched the re-tv video library.

In 2002, Columbia House exited the video business, and in 2004, Sony Music Entertainment Inc. was merged with Bertelsmann Music Group to form Sony-BMG Music Entertainment Inc. The following year, in 2005, Columbia House was merged with BMG Direct Marketing, Inc., an Indianapolis-based mail-order subsidiary of Sony-BMG Music Entertainment Inc., to form BMG-Columbia House, Inc. In 2008, Sony-BMG Music Entertainment Inc. was renamed back to Sony Music Entertainment Inc. and its subsidiary BMG-Columbia House, Inc. was renamed back to Columbia House. Technically, Sony Music Entertainment, Inc. still owns the Columbia House brand, but as of 2016, it is used under license by Edge Line Ventures LLC, which is assumed to be a joint venture between Filmed Entertainment Inc. and Sony Music Entertainment Inc.

List of licensing distributors

 * Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (1988-2002)
 * 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (1987-2002)
 * Paramount Home Entertainment (1988-2002)
 * Universal Studios Home Video (1995-2002)
 * MGM/UA Home Video (1996-1999)
 * Warner Home Video (1992-2002)
 * Turner Home Entertainment (1992-1997)
 * New Line Home Video (1996-2002)

Locations

 * New York City, New York