Demise
Several problems doomed the new CED system almost from the start. From an early point in the development of the CED system, it was clear that VCRs and home videotape - with their longer storage capacity and recording capabilities - would pose a threat to the CED system. However, development pushed ahead. Once finally released, sales for the new CED system were slow; RCA had expected to sell 200,000 players by the beginning of 1982, but only half had been sold, and throughout 1982 and '83, sales did not improve much.
| "...Machiavelli noted that '..there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things...' At videodisc, I believe these words had special significance..." |
| Dr. Jay J. Brandinger, Vice President, RCA SelectaVision Videodisc Operations, June 27, 1986. |
The long period of development—caused in part by political turmoil and a great deal of turnover in the high command of RCA—also contributed to the demise of the CED system. RCA had originally slated the videodisc system for a 1977 release. However, the discs were still not able to hold more than thirty minutes of video per side, and the nickel-like material used by RCA to make discs was not sturdy enough to put into manufacturing. Signal degradation was also an issue, as the handling of the discs was causing them to deteriorate more rapidly than expected, baffling engineers.
RCA had hoped that by 1981 CED players would be in close to 50% of American homes, but the sales of players continued to drop. RCA attempted to cut the prices of CED players and offer special incentives to consumers, but sales did not recover, and by April 1984, executives realized that the system would not be as successful as projected and cancelled production of CED players. In a strange twist, sales of the videodiscs themselves were twice the projected rate, so RCA announced that videodiscs would be produced for at least another three years after the discontinuation of players. After this announcement, however, the sale of discs declined severely, causing RCA to abandon disc production after only two years. The last titles released were The Jewel of the Nile by CBS/Fox Video, and Memories of VideoDisc, a commemorative CED given to many RCA employees involved with the CED project, both in 1986.
Read more about this topic: Capacitance Electronic Disc, History