Editing JVC (section)

===1970s, 1980s and the VHS/Betamax format war===
[[File:VHS-Video-Tape-Top-Flat.jpg|thumb|JVC's VHS tape won over Betamax to become common home recording format.]]
[[File:JVC HR-S5960E VHS-recorder (crop).jpg|thumb|JVC HR-S5960E,<br />[[S-VHS]]-Videorecorder]]
In the late 1970s, JVC developed the VHS format, introducing the first VHS recorders to the consumer market in 1976 for the equivalent of US$1,060. [[Sony]], which had introduced the [[Betamax]] home [[videocassette]] tape a year earlier, became the main competitor for JVC's VHS format into the 1980s, creating the [[videotape format war]]. The Betamax cassette was smaller, with slightly superior picture quality to the VHS cassette, but this resulted in Betamax having less recording time. The two companies competed fiercely to encourage others to adopt their format, but by 1984 forty companies were using JVC's VHS format, while only 12 used Betamax. Sony began producing VHS recorders in 1988. However, Sony stopped making Betamax recorders for the US market in 1993; they stopped production of the format completely in 2002. One reason for the market penetration of VHS in the UK were the sales of blank tapes by JVC UK Ltd to major Hollywood studios. This launched the nascent [[Video rental shop|home video rental market]], which was hardly touched by Sony at the time. This ability to take movies home helped the sale of the VHS hardware immensely. Added to this JVC stated in a promotional tape presented by [[BBC]] TV legend [[Cliff Michelmore]], that "You'll be able to buy the sort of films the BBC and [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] will never show you, for whatever reason". The adult movie industry adopted VHS as their common format and with a certain level of software availability, hardware sales grew.<ref>"Video / DVD – A Brief History of Home Video" (timeline), 2005, Entertainment Scene: [http://www.entertainmentscene.com/home_video_history.htm ES-hvid-hist].</ref>