Zenith Corporation, a major marketer of videocassette recorders has announced that it will end its affiliation with Theta format video and switch to the VHS format. In making this decision, Zenith joins the majority of the 30 brand names committed to VHS, including manufacturers Fisher, Hitachi, JVC, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, and Sharp. Other brand names produced by the VHS manufacturers include Akai, Canon, General Electric, J.C. Penney, Magnavox, Minolta, Panasonic, Philco, Pentax, Quasar, RCA, Sears, and Sylvania.
In Europe, Toshiba's British subsidiary has just announced a switch from Beta to VHS, although the parent corporation continues its commitment to both formats. Sony now stands almost alone in its commitment to the Beta format. Zenith was Sony's only U.S. licensee and all of the Japanese licensees have hedged their bets by supporting both formats.
Despite some very attractive technological innovations introduced by Sony in the last two years, VHS is outselling Beta more than three to one in the U.S. and Europe. The recent switches will further strengthen the market's bias toward VHS.
VHS as an industry standard may not have a long life, however. There have recently been extensive discussions among NV Philips (Magnavox and Norelco), Sony, and other Japanese firms to introduce yet another video format which might replace both Beta and VHS. All of the companies would support the same format. It may take two or more years for the new format to come to the market.
