From Betamax to Blockbuster

Joshua Greenberg explains how the combination of neighbourhood video stores and the VCR created a world in which movies became tangible consumer goods, creating a new industry and affecting the dynamics of motion picture production and consumption. The first video cassette recorders were promoted in the 1970s as an extension of broadcast television technology -- a time-shifting device, a way to tape TV shows. Early advertising for Sony's Betamax told potential purchasers "You don't have to miss Kojak because you're watching Columbo." But within a few years, the VCR had been transformed from a machine that recorded television into an extension of the movie theater into the home. - Publisher.