Magnetic Video

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Magnetic Video was a home video/audio duplication service established by Andre Blay in 1977 and based in Farmington Hills, Michigan. It was the first corporation to release theatrical motion pictures onto VHS videocassette for consumer use. (Cartridge Television, Inc. preceded VHS in 1972 when it introduced the Avco Cartrivision home VCR with a line of major motion pictures available for rent on videocassette. Cartrivision went off the market thirteen months after its debut.)

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 the fall of 1977, Blay came up with the idea to release pre-recorded motion pictures on videocassette. That year, he convinced Twentieth Century Fox, which was then in financial difficulty, to license fifty of their films for home video release in 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 (including pre-1948 Warner Brothers classics which were owned by United Artists at that time), ABC Pictures, ITC, 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; 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 in the creation of CBS/Fox Video in mid 1982.