Format | VHS and Beta-format videocassette |
---|---|
Publisher | Chuck Azar |
Founder | Chuck Azar |
Founded | 1977 |
Final issue | 1982 |
Company | Instant Replay Video Magazine Inc. |
Country | United States |
Based in | Miami, Florida |
Language | English |
Website |
irvm |
Instant Replay was the first magazine-format, direct-to-video program for home-video consumers. Established by Miami, Florida, entrepreneur Chuck Azar in 1977, and released on VHS and Beta-format videocassettes through 1982, it contained segments devoted to live music performances, reports from technology and electronics conventions, interviews, bloopers and other off-air content from network- and cable-television satellite feeds, and home-video hobbyists' contributions, among other content. It was predated by a direct-to-video trade magazine, Videofashion, sold to fashion-industry professionals on industrial U-Matic videocassettes.
Instant Replay was established by Miami, Florida, entrepreneur Chuck Azar in 1977 as the first magazine-format, direct-to-video program for home-video consumers. [1] [2] Based in the city's Coconut Grove district, the namesake company, Instant Replay Video Magazine Inc., [3] produced numerous editions of its magazine-format video, which ran two hours each [4] and retailed for $59.95 initially [2] and later $80 through 1982. [4] Yearly subscriptions sold for $1,000 and included access to a 10,000-hour library of recorded video. [4] Instant Replay was available both by mail order and at a small number of retail outlets. [5]
While the magazine-format video program ceased production in 1982, the company itself continues to exist as of at least 2016, as a video library of over 30,000 hours. [6]
Previously, a direct-to-video trade magazine, Videofashion, from the New York City-based Videofashion Inc., was sold to fashion-industry professionals on industrial U-Matic videocassettes, beginning in 1976. [2] It became nominally a consumer magazine in 1979, with one-hour videocassettes available through the Time-Life Video Club for $395 each. [1]
Each edition of Instant Replay contained approximately 10 regular segments. The "First Anniversary Issue" included: [7]
Two hours each unless otherwise indicated. Source: [8]
Magazine-format video programs, which one writer in 1980 dubbed "videozines," [10] became common by the mid-1980s, running the gamut from McGraw-Hill's Aviation Week [1] to Karl-Lorimar Home Video's Playboy Video Magazine. [2] As one journalist wrote in 1988,
Although this is a concept that's now starting to gain widespread attention, the notion of a true magazine on videocassette is hardly new. More than a decade ago … Chuck Azar founded the form with Instant Replay, a one-hour [sic] magazine that provided information about the latest video equipment, along with tips and techniques for the home consumer. Issued sporadically, the video magazine was … way ahead of its time. [1]
Azar remained active in the video and electronics industries, serving on the policy-making council of the RIAA's video division, [11] and through his company produced the pre- MTV half-hour weekly music-video program Rock 'n' Roll 'n' Vision on the Miami, Florida, TV station WPLG. [12] He invented a multi-standard VCR, branded as the Instant Replay Image Translator, that could play and record both US-format NTSC and international PAL-format videocassettes. [13]
The first true consumer videozine was 'Instant Replay', produced by the same-name company beginning in 1977. The $59.95 'Instant Replay' continued to be issued sporadically until 1981 [sic; 1982].
Format | VHS and Beta-format videocassette |
---|---|
Publisher | Chuck Azar |
Founder | Chuck Azar |
Founded | 1977 |
Final issue | 1982 |
Company | Instant Replay Video Magazine Inc. |
Country | United States |
Based in | Miami, Florida |
Language | English |
Website |
irvm |
Instant Replay was the first magazine-format, direct-to-video program for home-video consumers. Established by Miami, Florida, entrepreneur Chuck Azar in 1977, and released on VHS and Beta-format videocassettes through 1982, it contained segments devoted to live music performances, reports from technology and electronics conventions, interviews, bloopers and other off-air content from network- and cable-television satellite feeds, and home-video hobbyists' contributions, among other content. It was predated by a direct-to-video trade magazine, Videofashion, sold to fashion-industry professionals on industrial U-Matic videocassettes.
Instant Replay was established by Miami, Florida, entrepreneur Chuck Azar in 1977 as the first magazine-format, direct-to-video program for home-video consumers. [1] [2] Based in the city's Coconut Grove district, the namesake company, Instant Replay Video Magazine Inc., [3] produced numerous editions of its magazine-format video, which ran two hours each [4] and retailed for $59.95 initially [2] and later $80 through 1982. [4] Yearly subscriptions sold for $1,000 and included access to a 10,000-hour library of recorded video. [4] Instant Replay was available both by mail order and at a small number of retail outlets. [5]
While the magazine-format video program ceased production in 1982, the company itself continues to exist as of at least 2016, as a video library of over 30,000 hours. [6]
Previously, a direct-to-video trade magazine, Videofashion, from the New York City-based Videofashion Inc., was sold to fashion-industry professionals on industrial U-Matic videocassettes, beginning in 1976. [2] It became nominally a consumer magazine in 1979, with one-hour videocassettes available through the Time-Life Video Club for $395 each. [1]
Each edition of Instant Replay contained approximately 10 regular segments. The "First Anniversary Issue" included: [7]
Two hours each unless otherwise indicated. Source: [8]
Magazine-format video programs, which one writer in 1980 dubbed "videozines," [10] became common by the mid-1980s, running the gamut from McGraw-Hill's Aviation Week [1] to Karl-Lorimar Home Video's Playboy Video Magazine. [2] As one journalist wrote in 1988,
Although this is a concept that's now starting to gain widespread attention, the notion of a true magazine on videocassette is hardly new. More than a decade ago … Chuck Azar founded the form with Instant Replay, a one-hour [sic] magazine that provided information about the latest video equipment, along with tips and techniques for the home consumer. Issued sporadically, the video magazine was … way ahead of its time. [1]
Azar remained active in the video and electronics industries, serving on the policy-making council of the RIAA's video division, [11] and through his company produced the pre- MTV half-hour weekly music-video program Rock 'n' Roll 'n' Vision on the Miami, Florida, TV station WPLG. [12] He invented a multi-standard VCR, branded as the Instant Replay Image Translator, that could play and record both US-format NTSC and international PAL-format videocassettes. [13]
The first true consumer videozine was 'Instant Replay', produced by the same-name company beginning in 1977. The $59.95 'Instant Replay' continued to be issued sporadically until 1981 [sic; 1982].