Remember the days when VHS tapes were so ubiquitous that every
video store you knew had the slogan, "Be kind, rewind?" We bring you this bit of pressing nostalgia not because VHS has suddenly slowed its long decline, but because the last distribution holdout for VHS tapes this week announced it's finally cutting the
format from its inventory.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Distribution Video Audio in Burbank, Calif., shipped its final truckload of VHS tapes in October -- the last time it plans to make VHS shipments, and the last major VHS distributor in the country to do so.
Distribution Video Audio is a $20 million business focusing on pop culture esoterica: obscure albums, direct-to-video cult classics, and whatever else collector hounds look for.
"It's true -- one man's trash is another man's gold," Ryan J. Kugler, president and co-owner, told the Los Angeles Times. "But we are not a graveyard. I'm like a heart surgeon -- we keep things alive longer. Or maybe we're more like the convalescence home right before the graveyard."
When the VHS tape began its final death rattle is a matter of opinion. The last major Hollywood movie to be released in a VHS format was, according to the Times, 2006's "A History of Violence." Big-box retailers like Best Buy and Wal-Mart had begun phasing out their VHS inventories years before, and from that stash, Kugler bought back tapes and redistributed them to grocery stores, rest-stop outlets and other smaller operations around the country. Kugler told the LA Times he estimates 2 million tapes are still available in his clients' outlets.
The "official" death of VHS comes at a time when movie studios and business executives alike are trying to quantify how fast Blu-ray technology -- current spearhead of the digital-movie-format revolution -- is taking hold.
Most observers agree sales of Blu-ray players in 2008 weren't mind-blowing, despite significant growth in the format and, according to market analytics Web site Futuresource, significant uptick of both players and Blu-ray disks in European markets. Japan-based software developer Pony/Canon, has also announced plans to release a Blu-ray/DVD hybrid format in February, compatible with both current DVD and Blu-ray players.
