I’m going to go against the grain here and say “kinda”.
But porn isn’t the driver, it was a facet of the actual reason - accessibility and cost.
Betamax was, by any metric, the superior system.
VHS, however, was cheaper to produce, and cheaper to buy the recording equipment.
JVC had an open licencing strategy to encourage manufacturers to produce VHS-compatible equipment. Sony had a closed licencing strategy to maximise revenue.
So in this new world, where small movie studios could now record directly to magnetic tape and small companies could duplicate and distribute copies for very little cost, which format would you pick? The cheapest one.
The ready availability of porn was a factor for VHS’s success, but so was the ready availability of cheaply made horror films, martial arts films and other niche genres (niche by 1970s/1980s standards).
I’m going to go against the grain here and say “kinda”.
But porn isn’t the driver, it was a facet of the actual reason - accessibility and cost.
Betamax was, by any metric, the superior system.
VHS, however, was cheaper to produce, and cheaper to buy the recording equipment.
JVC had an open licencing strategy to encourage manufacturers to produce VHS-compatible equipment. Sony had a closed licencing strategy to maximise revenue.
So in this new world, where small movie studios could now record directly to magnetic tape and small companies could duplicate and distribute copies for very little cost, which format would you pick? The cheapest one.
The ready availability of porn was a factor for VHS’s success, but so was the ready availability of cheaply made horror films, martial arts films and other niche genres (niche by 1970s/1980s standards).
Betamax machines were substantially heavier than VHS and that extra cost for shipping adds up too.