MGM Home Entertainment (formerly known as MGM Home Video, MGM/CBS Home Video MGM/UA Home Video and MGM/UA Home Entertainment, Inc.) is the home video division of the American media company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Established in 1978 releasing movies and films. In 1980, MGM joined forces with CBS Video Enterprises, the home video division of the CBS television network, and established MGM/CBS Home Video. In 1982, a year after MGM bought and merged with the near-bankrupt United Artists from Transamerica, CBS dropped out of the video partnership with MGM and moved to 20th Century Fox to create CBS/Fox Video. MGM's video division became known as MGM/UA Home Entertainment Group, Inc., more commonly known as MGM/UA Home Video. MGM/UA continued to license pre-1981 UA and pre-1950 WB films (as well as some post-1981 titles) to CBS/Fox (due to an agreement UA had with Fox years earlier dating back to when CBS/Fox Video was called Magnetic Video).
In 1986, MGM's pre-May 1986 library (also including the pre-1950 Warner Bros. library, Bugs Bunny: Superstar, the Fleischer Studios/Famous Studios Popeye cartoons, and most US rights to the RKO Radio Pictures library), was acquired by Ted Turner and his company Turner Entertainment. After the library was acquired, MGM/UA signed a deal with Turner to continue distributing the pre-May 1986 MGM and to begin distributing the pre-1950 Warner Bros. libraries for video release (the rest of the library went to Turner Home Entertainment). When MGM acquired Orion Pictures in 1997, Orion Home Video (Orion's home video division) was absorbed by MGM/UA, and was retained as an in-name-only division until the acquisition deal was finalized in 1998. That year, the company was renamed MGM Home Entertainment.
Since 2005, following MGM's acquisition by Sony, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has distributed the MGM film and television library, though under the MGM label. In 2006, MGM ended their distribution agreement with Sony. MGM home video releases will be distributed by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment internationally and domestically. Sony, however, still owns 20% of MGM until 2022 when MGM got acquired by Amazon.
With most of the assets from 21st Century Fox acquired by The Walt Disney Company on March 20, 2019, MGM announced in their 2019 report that it would not renew its deal with Fox after the current agreement expired on June 30, 2020, and would search for a new distributor afterwards. In the studio's 2020 financial report, MGM named Warner Bros. Home Entertainment as their new home media distributor.
On May 26, 2021, it was officially announced that MGM will be acquired by Amazon for $8.45 billion, subject to regulatory approvals and other routine closing conditions; with the studio continuing to operate as a label under the new parent company, but leaving the future of the physical home video releases of its titles other than its current distribution deal with Studio Distribution Services and several third-party boutique labels in question. The merger was finalized on March 17, 2022.
Despite getting acquired by Turner in 1986, MGM still had the video distribution rights to its classic cartoons, including Tom and Jerry and its other former pre-1986 films and TV shows, until around March 1999 when its rights eventually expired. The video rights went to Warner Home Video due to the merger of Turner and Time Warner on October 10, 1996.