News

RIP VCR - Dixons Press the Stop Button on Sales of Video Recorders (29/11/2004)

High Street electrical retailer Dixons today announced that it will soon be pressing the stop button on sales of video recorders, ending a 26-year love affair with a gadget that has delivered the most radical change in home entertainment since the invention of the television. The announcement follows a boom in the popularity of newer rival DVD technology and a corresponding fall in sales of Video Cassette Recorders (VCRs). VCRs are expected to disappear from Dixons' shelves before Christmas.

Figures released by Dixons show that the British love affair with the video has finally come to an end. Demand for VCRs has fallen dramatically since the middle of the nineties, while sales of DVD players have grown seven-fold in the last five years. Sales of DVD players at Dixons are currently outstripping sales of VCRs by 40 to 1. With newer innovations like portable and recordable DVD and hard disk drive recording catching the public's imagination, Dixons has decided to focus on the next generation of home entertainment systems, bringing an end to a generation of rewinding and ejecting.

John Mewett, marketing director at Dixons, said: "We're saying goodbye today to one of the most important products in the history of consumer technology. The video recorder has been with us for a generation - and many of us have grown up with the joys - and occasional frustrations - of tape-based recording. We are now entering the digital age and the new DVD technology available represents a step change in picture quality and convenience."

He added: "DVD technology is now very competitively priced and we are now selling recordable DVD players for less that £150. We're passionate about digital technology and this new DVD offer is proof of our commitment to bringing our customers the future for less."

The VCR first came to public prominence during the mid 1970s, when two companies were perfecting non-compatible video cassette formats. Sony had created its Betamax system and JVC had its Video Home System (VHS). During the 1980s a bitter battle ensued between the two to become the dominant format. With video tapes that offered far longer running time, a cheaper design and a greater choice of pre recorded tapes, JVC's VHS won the battle and by 1985 had become the standard for video cassette recorders. In 1988 Sony finally conceded and stopped making Betamax machines for the UK and started production of its own VHS recorders.

The first VCR to go on sale at Dixons was the HR-3300EK, a piano key operated top-loader with a red LED digital clock/timer. It hit the shelves in 1978 (weighing in at more than 13 lbs) and cost £798.75 - which is £2,021 in today's money, enough to buy 40 VCRs. At the time a 30 minute video tape would have set you back the equivalent of £20. Dixons has sold millions of VCRs in the last 26 years with demand for the technology hitting a peak in 1993.

Between 1980 and 1990 the worldwide market for VCRs went from 10 to 200 million units and by 2002 almost 90% of UK households owned one. It had been just 17 years since the Betamax had been introduced. By contrast it had taken 25 years for 100 million TV sets to be sold.

Dixons has a fantastic range of over 60 DVD players in stock, each offering digital image quality. Dixons also stocks hard disk drive recorders that offer superb quality recording that does not fade with time like video tapes. Owners can store up to 433 hours worth of programmes on the hard disk drive, and then transfer them to DVD at up to 55 times faster than real time. Hard Disk drive enables owners to watch a programme recorded earlier whilst recording another programme they don't want to miss. It is also possible to record a programme and start watching it before it has finished, while the hard disk drive records to the end.

www.dixons.co.uk