Columbia House
The Columbia House Company, simply known as Columbia House and formerly known as CBS Direct Marketing Services, was an umbrella brand for CBS Records' mail-order services. The brand had a significant market presence during the mid-to-late 1970s, as well as the 1980s and early 1990s. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Columbia House operated a joint venture with Disneyland/Vista Records (an umbrella music company formed in Q1 1971 from a merger between the labels Disneyland Records and Buena Vista Records; later known as Disneyland/Vista Records & Tapes and Walt Disney Records), called Vista Marketing, Inc., which sold albums from both the Disneyland and Buena Vista labels.
History[edit]
In 1981, CBS Records' then-corporate parent, CBS Inc., formed the CBS Video Club and the CBS Video Library, the latter which not only released content from CBS Productions, CBS Inc.'s television production 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. In January 1988, CBS Inc. sold CBS Records, 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. In 1991, CBS Records was renamed to Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Corporation itself sold a 50% stake in Columbia House to Time Warner, then-corporate parent of Time-Life. By late 1991, membership was over 10 million. In the interim, some of the leading home video labels/distributors began selling their own releases through the Columbia House Video Club. These copies of the various VHS releases are identifiable by an orange seal sticker placed between the packaging and the tape itself that says "CHC." Usually, the tapes do not have previews at the beginning, nor the end. However, the client's packaging (especially the ISBN and/or UPC codes), stock number and product labels are unaltered as always (unless otherwise noted). 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 line.
In 2005, Columbia House merged with BMG Direct Marketing, an Indianapolis-based mail-order division of Sony BMG Music Entertainment, to form BMG Columbia House. In 2008, Sony BMG Music Entertainment was renamed back to Sony Music Entertainment and BMG Columbia House was renamed back to Columbia House. Technically, Sony Music Entertainment still owns the trademark rights to the Columbia House brand, but as of 2016, it is currently used under license by Edge Line Ventures LLC.
List of Services[edit]
- Columbia Record Club/Columbia House Record Club/Columbia House Record & Tape Club/Columbia House Music Club (1955-20??)
- CBS Video Club/CBS/Columbia House Video Club/Columbia House Video Club (1981-2005)
- Columbia House Laserdisc Club (19??-200?)
- Columbia House DVD Club (1997-20??)
List of Sub-Divisions[edit]
- CBS Video Library/Columbia House Video Library (1981-2005)
- Columbia House TV on DVD (????-????)
Known duplicators for the Columbia House Video Library[edit]
- Deluxe Media Services, ??? (19??-2005)
- MediaCopy, ??? (19??-2005)
- Premiere Video, Livonia, MI (19??-200?)
- Technicolor Home Entertainment Services, Livonia, MI (1987-2005)
- The CBS/Fox Company, Farmington Hills, MI (1982-1986)
- The CBS/Fox Company, Livonia, MI (1986-1987)
List of Columbia House Video Club Customers[edit]
- Buena Vista Home Entertainment (19??-20??)
- Touchstone Home Entertainment (19??-20??)
- Walt Disney Home Entertainment (19??-20??)
- Columbia TriStar Home Video/Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment/Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (198?-2005)
- CBS/Fox Video/FoxVideo/20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (198?-2005)
- Family Home Entertainment (some copies of Speed Racer: The Movie and Frosty the Snowman)
- Paramount Home Video/Paramount Home Entertainment (198?-2005)
- Nickelodeon Home Video (1993-2005) (some copies of Blue's Clues, Little Bear and Rugrats tapes, as well as Harriet the Spy, Good Burger and Snow Day, plus some copies of Ren & Stimpy tapes marketed by Sony Wonder)
- MCA/Universal Home Video/Universal Studios Home Video (19??-2005)
- MGM/UA Home Video/MGM Home Entertainment (19??-2005)
- Orion Home Video (1990s)
- Warner Home Video (19??-2005)
- Turner Home Entertainment (19??-1997)
- New Line Home Entertainment (19??-2005)
Known duplicators[edit]
- Allied Digital Technologies, Hauppauge, NY (19??-????)
- Deluxe Video Services, Garden Grove, CA (19??-????)
- Deluxe Media Services, North Little Rock, AR (1995-2005)
- Deluxe Media Services, Northbrook, IL (19??-2005)
- MediaCopy, El Paso, TX (19??-2005)
- MediaCopy, San Leandro, CA (19??-2005)
- Premiere Video, Livonia, MI (19??-200?)
- Technicolor Home Entertainment Services, Livonia, MI (19??-2005)
- Technicolor Home Entertainment Services, Camarillo, CA (199?-????)
List of Columbia House Music Club Customers[edit]
- Disneyland/Vista Records/Disneyland/Vista Records & Tapes/Walt Disney Records (197?-1995)
- Disneyland Records
- Buena Vista Records
- Distinguished Productions (197?-198?)
- Sesame Street Records
- I.R.S. Records (1980s) (some copies of The Go-Go's: Vacation, perhaps among others)
Known duplicators[edit]
- Sony Digital Audio Disc Corporation, ??? (19??-????)
- CBS Manufacturing Company, ??? (1955-????)
Trivia[edit]
- Some copies of the 1996 releases of Heavy Metal[1] and Jade[2] from Columbia TriStar Home Video and Paramount Home Video, respectively, and the 1999 re-release of A Rugrats Passover, alongside early 2000s re-releases of Barbarella, Rugrats: The Santa Experience, A Rugrats Chanukah and Blue's Clues: ABC's and 123's, from Paramount Home Entertainment that were sold through the Columbia House Video Club reuse video masters that preserve previews.
- Some copies of certain releases from Orion Home Video that were sold through the Columbia House Video Club may use the Orion Home Video logo watermarks on the plastic shrink wrap.
- Some copies of certain releases from Paramount Home Entertainment that were sold through the Columbia House Video Club, such as Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, Harriet the Spy and Good Burger, may use generic face labels (compared to retail copies which normally use customized face labels); The Rugrats Movie is one exception to this note.
- Several 1999-2001 MediaCopy pressings of Nickelodeon Home Video releases (specifically those marketed by Paramount Home Entertainment) that were sold through the Columbia House Video Club used vermilion cassettes, compared to Deluxe and Cinram pressings sold through the Columbia House Video Club and/or retail which generally used neon orange cassettes.
- Though currently not yet confirmed, MediaCopy pressings of The Rugrats Movie from Paramount Home Video sold through the Columbia House Video Club are rumored to contain deleted scenes.
- Infamously enough, the somewhat obscure history of what the above mentioned Video Club had to do with several home video labels/distributors selling their releases through it has led to some controversies.[3][4][5][6]
Locations[edit]
- New York City, New York
- Terre Haute, Indiana