We’re ultimately talking about a retail battle, though, and the VHS format offered several benefits that consumers felt were worth the sacrifices in quality. Namely, VHS tapes/players boasted significantly longer total recording times, which proved to be a big selling point early on when many early adopters who purchased VCRs to record programs off of their TVs.
VHS manufacturer JVC was also much more willing to license its technology out to other companies early on, whereas Sony was comparatively more protective of its Betamax technology. Even when given the choice between those formats, companies soon discovered that VHS players were often much cheaper to manufacture. That also meant that VHS players and tapes were cheaper for consumers.
However, it’s also important to consider that both formats were ludicrously expensive for the average person. The first Betamax players typically retailed for around $1500 to $2000 (or more) for a few years after they debuted in 1975. Adjusted for inflation, that would be around $8,500 to $11,000 today. Comparatively, you could buy a VHS player for around $1,000 to $1,500 when it launched in 1977. Those prices would fluctuate over the years, but even by 1983, a VHS player would typically still run you about $500 (around $1500 today).
Worse was the cost of individual movies. While blank tapes could be purchased fairly cheaply (relative to the absurd costs noted above, that is) purchasing a tape of a major new movie on tape would typically cost you about $80-$100 up until around the early-to-mid ‘80s.
Again, the exact prices tended to fluctuate, but the point remained the same. Given the investment required, Betamax and VHS manufacturers typically saw the home media market as a concept that only appealed to wealthy enthusiasts. Even then, the thought was that those who purchased players would rely on recordings for entertainment, and those who did purchase movies would rent them from video stores and other outlets that were part of studios’ wholesale business strategy.
The thought of owning a personal library of movies was an almost unfathomable luxury at that time. To change that, a major studio would have to boldly go where no studio had gone before.
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