Paramount Home Entertainment International (PHEI) has signed an agreement to handle Universal’s entire home entertainment slate in Spain.

Under the five-year deal commencing January 2 2011, PHEI Spain will distribute all of Universal Pictures International Entertainment’s (UPIE) home entertainment product in the country, including film and television releases on DVD and Blu-ray from Universal Pictures and other UPIE partners.

The agreement covers the operations, finance, sales and marketing functions for all UPIE product distributed in the territory. The first titles to be released under the new arrangement include the recent hit Despicable Me and Get Him To The Greek.

“Despite challenges in the home entertainment market in recent years, Spain remains an incredibly important territory for us,” UPIE president Eddie Cunningham said. “We are keen to create a customer-focused distribution agreement with PHEI in order to invigorate growth potential in the local home entertainment market.”

“We have an extremely efficient organisation in place in Spain that will be able to seamlessly integrate the addition of Universal’s home entertainment products,” PHE’s worldwide president Dennis Maguire added. “Universal has a diverse array of quality content that complements our existing portfolio, allowing our Paramount Spain team a wider breadth of opportunity in the marketplace.”