Magnetic Video

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Magnetic Video was a home video/audio duplication service established by Andre Blay in 1967 and based in Farmington Hills, Michigan. It was the first corporation to release theatrical motion pictures onto VHS videocassette for consumer use. (Cartridge Television, Inc. preceded VHS in 1972 when it introduced the Avco Cartrivision home VCR with a line of major motion pictures available for rent on videocassette. Cartrivision went off the market thirteen months after its debut.)

Magnetic Video is notable for its contribution to the birth of the modern-day home video empire and the birth of video rental systems. In 1977, Blay came up with the idea to release pre-recorded motion pictures on videocassette. That year, he convinced Twentieth Century Fox, which was then in financial difficulty, to license fifty of their films for home video release in VHS and Betamax formats. Blay also established the Video Club of America in order to sell the titles directly to consumers.

That same year, George Atkinson took his personal Magnetic Video collection and established the Video Station rental company. The project was a success, and Magnetic Video took off, later adding titles from United Artists, ABC Pictures, ITC, and the now-defunct Avco-Embassy Pictures in addition to the titles from Fox.

The Magnetic Video project was such a success that it soon came over to the United Kingdom as "Magnetic Video UK" in 1978. Not long after, Australia also obtained Magnetic Video's VHSs; there, it was called "Magnetic Video Australia".

In 1979, Fox purchased Magnetic Video from Blay. In 1982, shortly after Blay's departure from the company, Fox reorganized Magnetic Video into 20th Century Fox Video. Around the same time, Magnetic Video began to issue films in laserdisc format. Later that year, Fox merged its video operations with CBS Video Enterprises, resulting in the creation of CBS/Fox Video in mid 1982.


 This corporation or company article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../m/a/g/Magnetic_Video_f648.html"
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.