SAN FRANCISCO - For everyone who's still got a stash of old VHS tapes tucked in a box somewhere, watch them quick. The world's last producer of home-use video cassette recorders is ending production at the end of the month.
Funai Electronics in Japan cited declining sales and difficulty finding parts as why it's ending production of the once revolutionary machines, Japan's Nikkei reported Thursday.
Once upon a time Funai sold up to 15 million VCRs annuals, but in 2015 that was down to 750,000 units.
The paperback book-sized magnetic tapes were first introduced in Japan in 1976 and arrived in the United States in 1977.
They represented the beginnings of the home entertainment revolution. For the first time consumers could watch movies at home, whenever they wanted to. They also could tape and watch television shows, freeing them from the schedule of the networks and allowing them to fast-forward through commercials.
Known as VHS tapes, for "video home system," the tapes allowed viewers to break with the constraints of media gate keepers, laying the groundwork for today's streaming media.
