Magnetic Video

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Magnetic Video was a home video/audio duplication service established by Andre Blay in 1967 and based in Farmington Hills, Michigan. The company was the first corporation to release pre-recorded films onto videocassette for consumer use.

Magnetic Video is notable for its contribution to the birth of the modern-day home video empire and the birth of video rental systems.

In 1977, Blay came up with the idea to release pre-recorded motion pictures on videocassette. That year, Blay convinced Twentieth Century Fox, which was then in the middle of financial difficulty, to license fifty of their films for home video release in the VHS and Betamax formats. Blay also established the Video Club of America in order to sell the titles directly to consumers.

That same year, George Atkinson took his personal Magnetic Video collection and established the Video Station rental company.

The project was a success, and Magnetic Video took off, later adding titles from United Artists, ABC Pictures, and the now-defunct Avco-Embassy Pictures in addition to the titles from Fox.

The Magnetic Video project was such a success that it soon came over to the United Kingdom as "Magnetic Video UK" in 1978. Not long after, Australia also obtained Magnetic Video's VHSs, and there, it was called "Magnetic Video Australia".

In 1979, Fox purchased Magnetic Video from Blay.

In 1982, shortly after Blay's departure from the company, Fox reorganized Magnetic Video into 20th Century Fox Video. Around the same time, Magnetic Video began to issue films in laserdisc format. Later that year, Fox merged its video operations with CBS Video Enterprises, resulting into CBS/Fox Video in 1983.