buena vista home entertainment inc. trading name walt disney studios home entertainment type subsidiary industry entertainment founded 1980 ; 36 years ago 1980 incorporated february 13 1987 ; 29 years ago 1987 02 13 1 headquarters burbank ca 1 u.s. key people janice marinelli president 2 products home video digital distribution parent the walt disney studios the walt disney company divisions disney movies anywhere website bvhe.com walt disney studios home entertainment incorporated as buena vista home entertainment inc. since 1997 1 and formerly known as walt disney telecommunications & non theatrical company from 1980 to 1987 and eventually buena vista home video until 1997 3 is the home video distribution division of the walt disney company . disney began distributing videos under its own label in 1980 under the name walt disney home video . contents 1 background 2 history 2.1 buena vista home video 3 company structure 3.1 animated features 3.2 first walt disney home video laser videodiscs and animated features for sale 4 disney dvd 4.1 platinum editions 4.2 diamond editions 5 disney blu ray 5.1 disney blu ray 3d 5.2 disney second screen 6 see also 7 notes and references 8 external links background edit before disney began releasing home video titles itself it licensed some titles to mca discovision for their newly developed disc format later called laserdisc . according to the blam entertainment group website 4 which has extensive details of discovision releases only six disney titles were actually released on discovision . one of these was the feature film kidnapped . the others were compilations of disney shorts . the first titles released in 1978 included on vacation with mickey mouse and friends d61 503 kids is kids d61 504 at home with donald duck d61 505 adventures of chip n dale d61 506 and finally the coyote s lament d61 507 which was released in may 1979 . disney s agreement with mca ended in december 1981 . 5 history edit in 1980 disney established its own video distribution operation as part of walt disney telecommunications and non theatrical company wdtnt with jim jimirro as its first president . 6 home video was not considered to be a major market by disney at the time . wdtnt also handled the marketing of other miscellaneous ancillary items such as short 8 mm films for home use . citation needed the very first vhs release from disney disney s first releases on tape were 13 titles that were licensed for rental to fotomat on march 4 1980 7 initially in a four city test chicago houston philadelphia and san francisco oakland san jose to be expanded nationwide by the end of 1980 . the agreement specified rental fees ranging from 7.95 to 13.95 . this first batch of titles on vhs and beta included 10 live action movies pete s dragon 10 the black hole 11 the love bug 12 escape to witch mountain 13 davy crockett king of the wild frontier 14 20 000 leagues under the sea 15 bedknobs and broomsticks 16 the north avenue irregulars 17 the apple dumpling gang 18 and hot lead and cold feet 19 ; and three of the compilations of short cartoons previously released by discovision on vacation with mickey mouse and friends 20 kids is kids starring donald duck 21 and adventures of chip n dale 22 . later on december 30 1980 mary poppins 23 was added to make 14 titles in all . citation needed no new titles were released for half a year after mary poppins but walt disney home video announced an expanded program for authorized rental dealers in december 1980 and began to expand its dealer network during the first part of 1981 . 8 from january 1 to march 31 1981 disney had a license one get one free promotion to encourage dealers to sign up . they also offered free rental use of a 7 minute mickey mouse disco videocassette for customers who rented any title from an authorized rental dealer from february through may 1981 . disney was unusual among the major studios in offering a program for authorized rentals . most of the other studios involved in the videocassette market at the time were trying to find ways to stop dealers from renting out their movie tapes . magnetic video with titles from 20th century fox and others ceased doing business with fotomat after fotomat began renting magnetic video cassettes without authorization . 9 disney s rental cassettes in blue cases looked completely different from sale cassettes which were in white cases . that was designed to make it easy for disney representatives to tell if dealers were violating their dealer agreements by renting out cassettes intended for sale and it continued until 1984 when they stopped doing so . in the late 1980s disney began seeking other outlets to distribute its video and decided to ink deals with mass merchant retailers such as target caldor and walmart . in 1989 disney sought to further control the distribution of its products by eliminating the use of rack jobbers . around this time the studio began partnering with major retailers for advertising campaigns . 10 buena vista home video edit buena vista home video was incorporated on february 13 1987 . 1 in april 1996 due to ongoing post disney cc abc merger realignment buena vista home video was transferred out of the disney television and telecommunications group to the walt disney studios . 11 buena vista home video was renamed buena vista home entertainment in 1997 . 3 company structure edit the company distributes blu ray discs and dvds under the following labels ; disney abc studios freeform marvel lucasfilm touchstone home entertainment and hollywood pictures home entertainment . former labels included miramax home entertainment and dimension home video before the latter moved with lionsgate 2011 present & echo bridge 2011 2014 in united states and warner home video later warner bros. home entertainment in japan 2012 2014 . with the advent of dvd and eventually blu ray home entertainment replaced home video in label names . in argentina also distributes the titles from 20th century fox home entertainment with exception of lionsgate home entertainment and sony pictures home entertainment . the creation of the dvds for south america and jamaica is outsourced to avh located in san luis argentina while blu rays are manufactured in mexico by technicolor for the whole continent . animated features edit main article walt disney classics the first of the 15 untouchable animated films on videocassette . the first of the disney animated features canon to be released on videocassette was dumbo on june 28 1981 12 for rental only . the many adventures of winnie the pooh was released for rental and sale at the same time . alice in wonderland was released on october 15 1981 for rental only . 13 fun and fancy free was released in 1982 as fun and fancy free featuring mickey and the beanstalk to popularize on the more well known segment from the film . first walt disney home video laser videodiscs and animated features for sale edit the original logo nicknamed neon mickey used by walt disney home video releases . their agreement with discovision having ended in 1981 disney began releasing laserdiscs under the walt disney home video label to their own network of distributors and dealers . the first five titles were shipped in june 1982 the black hole the love bug escape to witch mountain the many adventures of winnie the pooh and mickey mouse and donald duck cartoons collection one . five more titles shipped in july pete s dragon dumbo davy crockett and the river pirates the one and only genuine original family band and mickey mouse and donald duck cartoons collection two . 5 disney released more cartoon compilations pre walt disney cartoon classics in 1983 in late 1981 including goofy over sports and a tale of two critters . dumbo was released for sale on tape in summer 1982 while alice in wonderland was released for sale in november 1982 . 14 the next major animated feature to be released excluding the package anthology features was robin hood on december 6 1984 starting the walt disney classics collection . by 1982 all the video releases were for sale and rental along with newer releases but at high prices . to market these new video releases the company produced an exclusive promo seen after various disney video films . the promo was nicknamed walt disney and you by fans on account of the customized tune in the promo . the promo also featured clips from the various releases and ended with a video freeze of the then current walt disney home video opening sequence known as the neon mickey ; a screenshot from this can be seen above . this promo was also used for other non disney labels such as touchstone home video . july 16 1985 saw the home video premiere of pinocchio which became the bestselling video of that year . disney later produced the disney sing along songs collection of videos for young children in association with harry arends and phil savenick . the series first hit stores on december 23 1986 . disney dvd edit disney dvd is the brand name under which buena vista home entertainment releases its disney branded motion pictures . disney began releasing titles on dvd in 1999 although they were not released in this format in the uk until 2000 . vhs releases ceased with the fox and the hound 2 which was released on december 12 2006 . the brand launched a loyalty program called disney movie rewards in october 2006 . participants can collect points by submitting ticket stubs from disney feature films magic codes from disney home video purchases and disney cds . the points can be redeemed for prizes like games dvds books posters and collectibles . 15 platinum editions edit the platinum editions are a line of special edition dvds released by disney . originally the line comprised the company s ten best selling vhs titles and was released in october of each year . snow white and the seven dwarfs was the first film to receive this honor in 2001 . the two following titles beauty and the beast and the lion king were released in imax and other giant screen theaters during the holiday season before their october dvd releases . due to underperforming box office results this tradition was terminated after aladdin . in may 2003 disney announced that they would be adding the next four best selling titles to the collection . starting in 2005 a platinum editions was released in october and february march . another tradition practiced for these released are gift sets . these gift sets contain supplements such as original animation sketches a film frame and a companion s book . the current list of platinum editions includes snow white and the seven dwarfs beauty and the beast the lion king aladdin bambi cinderella lady and the tramp the little mermaid peter pan the jungle book 101 dalmatians sleeping beauty and pinocchio . the original plan for the platinum editions was that they would be released ten years after they are put in the disney vault . since then this time has been shortened to four to seven years . diamond editions edit beginning with snow white and the seven dwarfs in october 2009 disney began re issuing platinum editions titles under a new diamond editions classification on blu ray dvd combo pack seven years later . 16 disney plans to release all the platinum edition titles once again . disney blu ray edit disney blu ray is the brand name under which buena vista home entertainment releases its disney branded motion pictures in high definition . in late 2006 disney began releasing titles like the pirates of the caribbean films the national