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From: rgale@man.UUCP (Ryan Gale)
Newsgroups: net.video
Subject: Beta Bonfires
Message-ID: <131@man.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 20-Feb-86 22:40:35 EST
Article-I.D.: man.131
Posted: Thu Feb 20 22:40:35 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 22-Feb-86 03:11:24 EST
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Organization: Pacific Century Group Security Pacific Corp.
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(Fire Extinguisher on hold - Flammable Materials Present)


                 Beta's In Trouble Say Video Distribs;
                            Some Hanging On

   Las  Vegas - When the Consumer Electronics Show put on its  panel 
   about  the  video marketplace,  the one thing everyone seemed  to 
   agree on was that the Beta format is in big trouble.
        East coast retailer Dick Lewis told the panel audience,  "We 
   said goodbye to it.   It just doesn't exist as a viable  consumer 
   product."
        New  Video's  Steve  Savage said his new  videostores  won't 
   carry Beta tapes, and that, of those that do, only 7-11% of their 
   business comes from beta.  
        The  apparent  demise of the format could be  bad  news  for 
   Hollywood,  which  has  enjoyed increased vidcassette sales  from 
   stores  that  have had to stock copies of films in both  VHS  and 
   Beta formats.
        Other  speakers  gave a more optimistic  outlook  for  Beta.  
   National  Video head Ron Berger noted some  NV  franchise holders 
   operate  in communities where as much as 50% of the  business  is 
   accounted  for by Beta tapes.   Embassy Home Entertainment  sales 
   v.p.  Rand  Bleimeister  said Beta accounts for about 12% of  EHE 
   sales,  although 45% of the stores the company surveyed carry  no 
   Beta product at all.
        The Federated Group's Gary Tobey said that electronics chain 
   has  not abandoned Beta,  and is taking a "wait and see" attitude 
   about the format.
        Still,  retailers, particularly mass merchants, are increas-
   ingly  reluctant to stock both VHS and Beta tapes,  according  to 
   Prism Entertainment corp. senior v.p. Robin Montegomery, who said 
   her company will not put out any of its sales-orientated  product 
   (Priced below $20) in Beta.   When Prism's general business slips 
   to a 95-5 VHS-Beta ratio, Prism will abandon Beta altogether, she 
   said.
      <The  Remaining paragraphs discussed video programming  plans, 
   and possible incentives to improve video rentals...>

Victor O'Rear-- {ihnp4, cbosgd, sdcsvax, noscvax}!crash!victoro
                crash!victoro@nosc   or   crash!victoro@ucsd
-- 

Ryan Gale 
{ihnp4, akgua, decvax} !sdcsvax!man!rgale