Sony Says It Will Stop Selling Betamax Tapes

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Sony announced Tuesday the impending death of Betamax, set for March 2016.

Akin to the Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD battle of the 2000s, the Betamax format lost the 1970-80s video recording format battle to the VHS format. VHS then gave way to DVDs, which now feel obsolete in the age of streaming video and music from the cloud.

PHOTO GALLERY: Dying Technologies

Betamax was first released by Sony in May 1975.

While Betamax is a product of the disco era, Sony says it sold more than 18 million units of Betamax VTR equipment worldwide.

In the Japanese-language news release, the company also announced the discontinuation of the Micro MV cassette, which was first introduced in 2005.