Home video in the context of DVD-R

A television show, TV program (British English: programme), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is transmitted via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platforms. This generally excludes breaking news or advertisements that are aired between shows or between segments of a show. A regularly recurring show is called a television series, and an individual segment of such a series is called an episode. Content is produced either in-house on a television stage with multiple cameras or produced by contract with film production companies. Episodes are usually broadcast in annual sets, which are called seasons in North America and series in other regions. A one-off television show may be called a television special, while a show with a limited number of episodes is a miniseries. A television film, or telefilm, is a feature film produced for broadcast by a terrestrial or cable network.

Television shows by terrestrial and cable networks are most often scheduled for broadcast ahead of time and appear on electronic guides or other TV listings. The rise of streaming television, however, has made television schedules less relevant than in earlier decades. Some programming may be aired live—that is, events are broadcast at the time they happen rather than at a later time or date—but the vast majority of programming is produced ahead of time. Originally, viewers had no practical way to record a show for later viewing; this changed with the advent of home video, first in the form of videotape recorded on VCRs and later in the form of digital video recorders. Cable television providers began offering certain programming "pay-per-view" or on-demand, with viewers paying a one-time fee to watch a program at a time of their own choosing. Streaming television allows viewers to watch programming at any time with a subscription to the OTT platform service.

A television film (also known as television movie, telefilm, telemovie, made-for-TV film/movie, or TV film/movie) is a film with a running time similar to a feature film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a terrestrial or cable television network. It is in contrast to theatrical films first shown in movie theaters, direct-to-video films released only in home video formats, and films released on or produced for streaming platforms.

In certain cases, a television film may also be shown, and referred to, as a miniseries, which typically indicates that it has been divided into multiple parts or a series that contains a predetermined, limited number of episodes.

The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post-production, film festivals, distribution, and actors. Though the expense involved in making film almost immediately led film production to concentrate under the auspices of standing production companies, advances in affordable filmmaking equipment, as well as an expansion of opportunities to acquire investment capital from outside the film industry itself, have allowed independent film production to evolve.

In 2019, the global box office was worth $42.2 billion. When including box office and home entertainment revenue, the global film industry was worth $136 billion in 2018. Hollywood is the world's oldest national film industry, and largest in terms of box-office gross revenue.

Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolved from cave paintings, some forty millennia ago, to modern-day virtual reality presentations. A general distinction of adults-only sexual content is made, classifying it as pornography or erotica.

The oldest artifacts considered pornographic were discovered in Germany in 2008 and are dated to be at least 35,000 years old. Human enchantment with sexual imagery representations has been a constant throughout history. However, the reception of such imagery varied according to the historical, cultural, and national contexts. The Indian Sanskrit text Kama Sutra (3rd century CE) contained prose, poetry, and illustrations regarding sexual behavior, and the book was celebrated; while the British English text Fanny Hill (1748), considered "the first original English prose pornography," has been one of the most prosecuted and banned books. In the late 19th century, a film by Thomas Edison that depicted a kiss was denounced as obscene in the United States, whereas Eugène Pirou's 1896 film Bedtime for the Bride was received very favorably in France. Starting from the mid-twentieth century on, societal attitudes towards sexuality became lenient in the Western world where legal definitions of obscenity were made limited. In 1969, Blue Movie by Andy Warhol became the first film to depict unsimulated sex that received a wide theatrical release in the United States. This was followed by the "Golden Age of Porn" (1969–1984). The introduction of home video and the World Wide Web in the late 20th century led to global growth in the pornography business. Beginning in the 21st century, greater access to the Internet and affordable smartphones made pornography more mainstream.

VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s.

Magnetic tape video recording was adopted by the television industry in the 1950s in the form of the first commercialized video tape recorders (VTRs), but the devices were expensive and used only in professional environments. In the 1970s, videotape technology became affordable for home use, and widespread adoption of videocassette recorders (VCRs) began; the VHS became the most popular media format for VCRs as it would win the "format war" against Betamax (backed by Sony) and a number of other competing tape standards.

Direct-to-video (also known as straight-to-video, made-for-video, made-for-home video, direct-to-DVD, DVD premiere, and direct-to-disc) refers to the release of a film or television series on home video formats without an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was prevalent before streaming platforms came to dominate the TV and movie distribution markets.

Because sequels or prequels of larger-budget films may be released direct-to-video, review references to direct-to-video releases are often pejorative. Direct-to-video release has also become profitable for independent filmmakers and smaller companies. Some direct-to-video genre films (with a high-profile star) can generate well in excess of $50 million revenue worldwide.

A video rental shop/store is a physical retail business that rents home videos such as movies, prerecorded TV shows, video game cartridges/discs and other media content. Typically, a rental shop conducts business with customers under conditions and terms agreed upon in a rental agreement or contract, which may be implied, explicit, or written. Many video rental stores also sell previously viewed movies and/or new, unopened movies.

In the 1980s, video rental stores rented VHS and Betamax tapes of movies; however, most stores dropped Betamax tapes when VHS won the format war late in the decade. In the 2000s, video rental stores began renting DVDs, a digital format with higher resolution than VHS. In the late 2000s, stores began selling and renting Blu-ray discs, a format that supports high definition resolution.

LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United States in 1978 under the name DiscoVision, a brand used by MCA. As Pioneer took a greater role in its development and promotion, the format was rebranded LaserVision. While the LaserDisc brand originally referred specifically to Pioneer's line of players, the term gradually came to be used generically to refer to the format as a whole, making it a genericized trademark. The discs typically have a diameter of 300 millimeters (11.8 in), similar in size to the 12-inch (305 mm) phonograph record. Unlike most later optical disc formats, LaserDisc is not fully digital; it stores an analog video signal.

Many titles featured CD-quality digital audio, and LaserDisc was the first home video format to support surround sound. Its 425 to 440 horizontal lines of resolution was nearly double that of competing consumer videotape formats, VHS and Betamax, and approaching the resolution later achieved by DVDs. Despite these advantages, the format failed to achieve widespread adoption in North America or Europe, primarily due to the high cost of players and their inability to record.

A home cinema, also called home theater, is an audio-visual system that seeks to reproduce a movie theater experience and mood in private homes using consumer grade electronic video and audio equipment for watching home video or streaming.

In the 1980s, home cinemas typically consisted of a movie pre-recorded on a LaserDisc or VHS tape; a LaserDisc Player or VCR; and a large-screen cathode-ray tube TV set, although sometimes CRT projectors were used instead. In the 2000s, technological innovations in sound systems, video player equipment, TV screens and video projectors changed the equipment used in home cinema set-ups and enabled home users to experience a higher-resolution screen image, improved sound quality and components that offer users more options (e.g., many Blu-ray players can also stream movies and TV shows over the Internet using subscription services such as Netflix). The development of Internet-based subscription services means that 2020s-era home theatre users do not have to commute to a video rental store as was common in the 1980s and 1990s.

Films generate income from several revenue streams, including theatrical exhibition, home video, television broadcast rights, and merchandising. However, theatrical box-office earnings are the primary metric for trade publications in assessing the success of a film, mostly because of the availability of the data compared to sales figures for home video and broadcast rights, but also because of historical practice. Included on the list are charts of the top box-office earners (ranked by both the nominal and real value of their revenue), a chart of high-grossing films by calendar year, a timeline showing the transition of the highest-grossing film record, and a chart of the highest-grossing film franchises and series. All charts are ranked by international theatrical box-office performance where possible, excluding income derived from home video, broadcasting rights, and merchandise.

Traditionally, war films, musicals, and historical dramas have been the most popular genres, but franchise films have been among the best performers of the 21st century. There is strong interest in the superhero genre, with eleven films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe featuring among the nominal top-earners. The most successful superhero film, Avengers: Endgame, is also the second-highest-grossing film on the nominal earnings chart, and there are four films in total based on the Avengers comic books charting in the top twenty. Other Marvel Comics adaptations have also had success with the Spider-Man and X-Men properties, while films based on Batman and Superman from DC Comics have generally performed well. Star Wars is also represented in the nominal earnings chart with five films, while the Jurassic Park franchise features prominently. Although the nominal earnings chart is dominated by films adapted from pre-existing properties and sequels, it is headed by Avatar, which is an original work. Animated family films have performed consistently well, with Disney films enjoying lucrative re-releases prior to the home-video era. Disney also enjoyed later success with films such as Frozen and its sequel, and The Lion King (along with its computer-animated remake), as well as its Pixar division, of which Inside Out 2, Incredibles 2, and Toy Story 3 and 4 have been the best performers. Beyond Disney and Pixar animation, China's Ne Zha 2 (the highest-grossing animated film), and the Despicable Me and Shrek series have met with the most success.

20th Television, Inc. (formerly known as TCF Television Productions, Inc., 20th Century-Fox Television and 20th Century Fox Television) is the television studio arm of 20th Century Studios, owned by Disney Television Studios, a division of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was founded on March 15, 1949. Productions from this company are distributed on/in home media formats by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment through the 20th Century Home Entertainment banner.

20th Television was part of the majority of 21st Century Fox's assets acquired by Disney in 2019. On August 10, 2020, when Disney dropped the "Fox" word from the names of the acquired 21st Century Fox assets to avoid brand confusion with Fox Corporation, the company's current name was adopted, and subsequently started to use it for the copyright of 20th Television and 20th Television Animation productions on December 4. 20th Television has been ABC's flagship television production arm since the closure of ABC Signature on October 1, 2024.

Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc. (doing business as Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment) is the home entertainment distribution arm of the Walt Disney Company. The division handles the distribution of Disney's films, television series, and other audiovisual content across digital formats and platforms.

For 37 years, Buena Vista Home Entertainment handled autonomous distribution of those properties in several physical home media formats, such as VHSs, DVDs, Blu-ray discs, and 4K discs under various brand labels around the world. It was founded on February 13, 1987 as Buena Vista Home Video. It was renamed to its current legal name in 1997, although it is currently known in the UK as Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (UK & Ireland) since 2013. The division adopted the current Walt Disney Studios-branding in its public name in 2007, but kept the Buena Vista-branding for corporate use.

DVD recordable and DVD rewritable are a collection of optical disc formats that can be written to by a DVD recorder and by computers using a DVD writer. The "recordable" discs are write-once read-many (WORM) media, where as "rewritable" discs are able to be erased and rewritten. Data is written ("burned") to the disc by a laser, rather than the data being "pressed" onto the disc during manufacture, like a DVD-ROM. Pressing is used in mass production, primarily for the distribution of home video.

DVD±R (also DVD+/-R, or "DVD plus/dash R") is a shorthand term for both DVD+R and DVD-R formats. Likewise, the term DVD±RW refers to both rewritable disc types, the DVD+RW and the DVD-RW. DVD±R/W (also written as, DVD±R/RW, DVD±R/±RW, DVD+/-RW, DVD±R(W) and other arbitrary ways) handles all common writable disc types, but not DVD-RAM. A drive that supports writing to all these disc types including DVD-RAM (but not necessarily including cartridges or 8cm diameter discs) is referred to as a "Multi" recorder.