Sony Music Entertainment

History
CBS Music Video Enterprises was founded in October 1985 as a division of CBS Records, owned at the time by CBS Inc. It was a vehicle for home video distribution of titles related to acts on the various labels owned or distributed by CBS Inc., such as Columbia, Epic, Portrait, and CBS Masterworks (now known as Sony Classical). Prior to 1988, all titles produced by CBS Music Video Enterprises were distributed by CBS/Fox Video under the CBS/Fox Video Music banner. On January 5, 1988, Sony Corporation of Japan acquired the CBS Records Group; the CBS Music Video Enterprises division was spun off into its own label afterward. The company began issuing titles on its own in August 1988. On January 1, 1991, Sony, which acquired most international rights to the trademarks of Columbia Records from EMI in 1990, renamed its music division to Sony Music Entertainment Inc.; the video arm subsequently adopted the name Sony Music Video Enterprises.

Although it initially released music-related titles exclusively, it soon began to release titles unrelated to music, particularly after generating three distinct labels that it would operate alongside its own company: Columbia Music Video, Epic Music Video and Sony Kids' Video (which soon became better known as Sony Wonder). In 1993, Sony Music signed an agreement with the Viacom-owned MTV Networks, which gave Sony Music the video rights to programs airing on MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. A year later, Viacom acquired Paramount Pictures, but continued to license MTV Networks content to Sony Music for a few years following the acquisition. In 1996, Paramount began to distribute Nickelodeon titles after the distribution contract with Sony expired. Sony would lose distribution rights for the remaining MTV content in 2001. In the interim, Sony Music acquired the video rights to titles from Random House Home Video (including the video back catalog of Sesame Street), Together Again Video Productions (known for Kidsongs), and Golden Books Family Entertainment (which, at the time, had owned the pre-1974 Rankin/Bass catalog). In 1998, Sony Music purchased Sunbow Entertainment, which it in turn sold to TV-Loonland AG in October 2000. In 2001, Golden Books Family Entertainment was folded into Classic Media in a move that broadened the deal already in place with Sony Music by giving its Sony Wonder arm the rights to titles from Harvey Entertainment, UPA, American rights to the Japanese Godzilla franchise, and, eventually, Big Idea Entertainment. Sony Music also was the original distributor for Shout! Factory and owned exclusive Canadian video distribution rights to programs produced by Cinar. In 2004, Sony Music Entertainment and the Bertelsmann Music Group merged to form Sony-BMG Music Entertainment.

On March 13, 2007, Sony-BMG announced an intention to focus on its core music business. All of its non-music video distribution contracts were canceled or transferred to other companies, such as Genius Entertainment and Vivendi Entertainment. Sony Wonder's operations were transferred to Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, which subsequently operated it as a family entertainment label; SPHE renamed Sony Wonder to Sony Pictures Kids Zone in 2020. In 2008, Sony purchased BMG's stake in the music arm, readopting the Sony Music Entertainment name for it.

Catalog number prefixes

 * AV
 * CV - Columbia Music Video (also includes Canadian releases of Cinar programming from Sony Wonder)
 * EV - Epic Music Video
 * LV - Sony Kids Video, Sony Wonder, Sony Music Video and Random House Home Video (VHS) (also includes post-1995 reissues of Random House Home Video releases from 1985-1994)
 * LVD - Sony Wonder and Random House Home Video (DVD)
 * SHV
 * SPV
 * One or two digits (e.g. 14V and 19V)