Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share The home video war
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
The home video war
Before streaming and catch-up TV, owning a video recorder was one of the only ways to watch on-demand entertainment.
In 1975 Sony launched Betamax with its half-inch-wide tape capable of recording 60 minutes of television. It was the length of most American shows - the perfect run-time. But in 1977, JVC released its VHS: it was bigger and bulkier, but capable of taping a full two-hour movie. That extra time turned out to be a game-changer, offering viewers more choice, more flexibility, and ultimately, more power.
Johnny I’Anson speaks to industry veteran Marc Wielage, who watched it all unfold from the inside. Marc tells Johnny how marketing, business decisions, and consumer behaviour shaped the outcome.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.
For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue.
We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher.
You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.
(Photo: VHS and Betamax tape comparison. Credit: Museum of Obsolete Media)
View all episodes
By BBC World Service
4.5
897897 ratings
Before streaming and catch-up TV, owning a video recorder was one of the only ways to watch on-demand entertainment.
In 1975 Sony launched Betamax with its half-inch-wide tape capable of recording 60 minutes of television. It was the length of most American shows - the perfect run-time. But in 1977, JVC released its VHS: it was bigger and bulkier, but capable of taping a full two-hour movie. That extra time turned out to be a game-changer, offering viewers more choice, more flexibility, and ultimately, more power.
Johnny I’Anson speaks to industry veteran Marc Wielage, who watched it all unfold from the inside. Marc tells Johnny how marketing, business decisions, and consumer behaviour shaped the outcome.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.
For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue.
We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher.
You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.
(Photo: VHS and Betamax tape comparison. Credit: Museum of Obsolete Media)
More shows like Witness History
View all
In Our Time
5,461 Listeners
From Our Own Correspondent
368 Listeners
The Documentary Podcast
1,794 Listeners
Global News Podcast
7,684 Listeners
History Extra podcast
3,208 Listeners
Great Lives
510 Listeners
Business Daily
522 Listeners
More or Less: Behind the Stats
896 Listeners
Discovery
961 Listeners
World Business Report
293 Listeners
Lives Less Ordinary
602 Listeners
Newshour
1,049 Listeners
The Life Scientific
241 Listeners
The Audio Long Read
839 Listeners
The History Hour
580 Listeners
BBC Inside Science
423 Listeners
The Inquiry
745 Listeners
CrowdScience
482 Listeners
Evil Genius with Russell Kane
355 Listeners
Have You Heard George's Podcast?
228 Listeners
Elis James and John Robins
317 Listeners
You're Dead to Me
3,189 Listeners
Sport's Strangest Crimes
65 Listeners
Uncanny
759 Listeners
Dua Lipa: At Your Service
998 Listeners
Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley
495 Listeners
Believe in Magic
616 Listeners
The Explanation
25 Listeners
History's Heroes
501 Listeners
The Global Story
251 Listeners
Miss Me?
268 Listeners
The History Podcast
27 Listeners
Rory Stewart: The Long History of...
88 Listeners
Havana Helmet Club
9 Listeners