In the United Kingdom and Australia, the Paramount Pictures film library were released by CIC Video alongside Universal Pictures until 1999 before CIC turned into two separate units: Paramount Home Entertainment International and Universal Studios Home Entertainment International. In 2008, PHMD launched a direct-to-video label, Paramount Famous Productions. In 2011, due to a company restructure, the home entertainment division was renamed to Paramount Home Media Distribution. In October 2012, it was announced that PHMD and Warner Home Video had signed a distribution deal, allowing Warner to gain U.S. and Canadian DVD, Blu-ray, UltraViolet, Flixster, and DVD-manufacturing-on-demand distribution rights to over 600 Paramount titles. The deal came into effect as of January 1, 2013. The deal however, has expired as of 2017 as evidenced by Paramount titles no longer appearing on Warner Home Video's web store. Distribution of the titles included in the Warner deal have since reverted to Paramount. In February 2015, Paramount Home Media Distribution signed a distribution agreement with Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, whereby the latter will distribute the former's titles overseas, particularly the territories where Paramount holds an office. The deal began on July 1, 2015, in the United Kingdom. On May 27, 2015, IFC Films struck another home video distribution deal with Paramount Home Media Distribution. In June 2016, Paramount started releasing Ultra HD Blu-ray discs. In May 2019, Paramount Home Media Distribution reverted its name back to Paramount Home Entertainment. Following ViacomCBS purchasing 49% stake in Miramax on April 3, 2020, PHE acquired distribution rights to the entire Miramax library, as well as pre-2005 Dimension Films library.
Paramount brands the majority of its HD content under the label 'Paramount High Definition' which is seen both on the title box cover and as an in-movie opening. Films from Paramount subsidiaries such as Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films as well as from former sister studio DreamWorks use no special branding, Paramount Vantage releases only select titles under the Paramount High Definition banner. In October 2005, Paramount announced that it would be supporting the HD video format Blu-ray in addition to rival format HD DVD, becoming the first studio to release on both formats. Its first four HD DVD releases came in July 2006, and it released four titles on Blu-ray two months later. In August 2007, Paramount announced their exclusive support for HD DVD. However, when other studios eventually dropped HD DVD and players for the technology stopped being manufactured, Paramount switched to Blu-ray. In May 2008, it released three titles on Blu-ray and continues to release its high-definition discs in that format exclusively.
