CED VideoDisc and Player Discussion

[ketonic_dude]

So I was under the impression that RCA owned Columbia Pictures, or did Columbia Pictures own RCA, where the two not related at all? I just found a website that said,

"On June 22, 1982, Columbia Pictures was sold to the Coca-Cola Company for $750 million, became part of Columbia Pictures Entertainment in December 1987 with Coke owning 49%, and since November 8, 1989, it's owned by Sony Corporation of Japan."

But how could RCA have sold Columbia mid-CED production? They produced Columbia Pictures titles before and after that date and nothing seems to have changed. Maybe they were under contract? Also why would Coca-Cola want to buy a movie studio, just for advertising? Investment?

All seems really weird to me...

[lynx]

Just like you, I always found the arrangement with RCA & Columbia Pictures peculiar, since they weren't affiliated. I don't know the exact details & history of their business, but I can share what I know about what happened back then.



I don't think RCA ever owned Columbia Pictures because back when Columbia Pictures entered the home video industry back in June of 1978, their home video division was called "Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment", and then a few years later, it was renamed "RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video" I think it was a joint venture between the two companies. What is odd is that the older CED titles released by Columbia Pictures just had the RCA logo, instead of RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video. A further discrepancy is that besides CED, they also released their movies on the other three home video formats from the 1980s, VHS, Betamax, and laser disc. What is even more unusual about their CEDs is that some of their PAL format titles released in Australia & the United Kingdom weren't even released by Columbia Pictures.



Even after RCA was dissolved in 1986, home video releases still used the RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video name until the early 1990s, when the company was renamed "Columbia/Tri-Star Home Video." On television, there was no reference to RCA in their company closing logos, but they had a Coca-Cola byline, reading "A unit of the Coca-Cola Company." There was also another closing logo called "Coca-Cola Telecommunications" One more joint venture they had was called "Colex Enterprises," which they operated with a television syndication company called Lexington Broadcast Services.



As far as being owned by Coca-Cola, I never quite understood why a food & beverage manufacturer wanted to own a movie studio either, but my conjecture, which I could be wrong about, was that Coca-Cola was interested in becoming a big conglomerate or conglomeration, which seemed to be a popular business model at the time. RCA also did the same thing back in the 1970s when Bob Sarnoff became the president of the company after his father's death, which was unsuccessful, causing their critics to call the company "Rugs, Chickens, and Automobiles." I guess Coca-Cola didn't do any better to expand in to other businesses if the deal lasted seven years, with Sony buying the company in 1989. I believe Sony still owns Columbia Pictures and Tristar Pictures today, and they also have another division called "Sony Pictures Classics."



That's just what I know about the what the company did back then. There may be other references to it with the entire story somewhere online.
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Let RCA turn your television into Selectavision!

[lynx]

There are some old RCA press release here on cedmagic.com about how RCA got started working with Columbia Pictures, which also reference Coca-Cola:



http://www.cedmagic.com/museum/press/release-1981-06-30.html



http://www.cedmagic.com/museum/press/release-1981-09-16.html



http://www.cedmagic.com/museum/press/release-1981-09-29.html



http://www.cedmagic.com/museum/press/release-1982-06-28.html
_________________
Let RCA turn your television into Selectavision!

[ketonic_dude]

Ok that makes a lot more sense now after reading that last one. So RCA and Columbia Pictures struck a deal to release movies, then June 28, 1982 Coke bought Columbia Pictures but continued to honor the RCA contract to release movies under the Columbia Pictures logo. So I wonder if June 28, 1982 is when they stopped putting those spine numbers on the RCA titles. Because I know the later releases don't seem to have them.