PBS Distribution (PBSd), formerly known as PBS Home Video, is the home video distribution unit of American television network PBS. The company releases DVDs (under the name "PBS DVD"), Blu-rays and VHS tapes of PBS series and movies.
PBS Distribution has gone through a long history of going through commercial distributors. Originally, the company simply released videos on their own, but when they went through wider distribution, newer releases from 1989 onward were distributed by Pacific Arts. In 1994, PBS moved distribution over to Turner Home Entertainment, and then Warner Home Video when Turner Home Entertainment's parent company merged with Time Warner in 1997. In 2004, PBS began distributing with Paramount Home Entertainment, before forming a joint venture with WGBH-TV, shuttering their ties to Paramount, and going independent again in 2011, and being renamed to its current name, PBS Distribution.
After back lash from filmmaker over WNET attempt to move documentary series move to its secondary station's sign, PBS took feedback from the documentary community. Thus PBS developed an indie film strategy. Through Independent Lens, PBS acquired Stanley Nelson’s The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, which fit in with the Black Lives Matter movement. The film was first released in theaters late 2015 then would have a special nation wide TV premier in late 2016. PBS Distribution expanded its operation to included theatrical distribution of documentary films by hiring Erin Owens and Emily Rothschild, as PBS Distribution’s Head of Theatrical Distribution and Director of Theatrical Acquisitions and Marketing, respectively. Owens and Rothschild had just work with PBS on Stanley Nelson’s The Black Panthers distribution. This expansion was announced at Sundance Film Festival January 19, 2017. PBSd planned to get theatrical and non-theatrical rights for up to six feature-length documentaries a year to release.