VCRs Go on Fast Forward

Proliferating players and tapes spread Western fare worldwide

In India it is a sign of status. In Saudi Arabia it is a virtual oasis in a cultural desert. In China it is a window on a forbidden world. It is the video cassette recorder (VCR). As sales of the machine move into fast forward around the world (Japanese manufacturers, the world's leaders, have shipped 3.5 million units to Europe during the first three quarters of this year, a leap of 196% over last year), it threatens to replace the television aerial as the most familiar symbol of the global village.

Perhaps the major reason for the upsurge is that the programming available on video cassettes--mostly U.S. and Western European movies and TV shows, often illegally duplicated and sold on the black market--provides the only alternative in many countries to state-controlled or censored entertainment. Even in European countries where television is pervasive, but often soporific, video cassettes can serve as an antidote to dullness. As VCRS proliferate, governments may be tempted to follow the French precedent of halting the invasion with stringent tariffs and customs restrictions.

The Middle East is a treasure trove of VCRs. A Sony official said last year that 20% of the company's VCR production was sold there. Saudi Arabia bans cinemas, bars, nightclubs and theaters, and its local television operates under censorship so strict that even affectionate pecks between husband and wife are too profane for the small screen. Little wonder, then, that well-to-do Saudis snap up VCRs and cassettes, especially of R-and X-rated fare. VCRS and cassettes are banned in Iran, but thousands have been smuggled in by wealthy Iranians. In Egypt, where the per capita income is $500, the privileged few are eagerly buying VCRs for up to $2,500. The demand for cassettes is so extensive that some supermarkets in Cairo have set up video lending libraries, while video shops are becoming as common as bazaars.

A sign outside Cologne's largest TV and video store proclaims that West Germany is im Videorausch (high on video). What Germans are not high on is the leaden quality of their own television programming. This is one reason why an estimated 1 million Germans will buy VCRs this year. Cassettes of U.S. movie hits like Patton and Cabaret, plus soft-and hardcore pornography, have proved so popular that a well-known chain of coffee stores was all set to add a line of cut-price VCRs to its menu of Colombian prime and Brazilian Mocha. It backed off only when video shops threatened to retaliate by selling discounted coffee.

In China steamy video cassettes from the black market are a very hot item. What Americans term blue movies, the Chinese call yellow, but by any name, erotic films make party officials see red, as does anything that smacks of a "decadent" bourgeois Western lifestyle. All VCRs must be registered with local officials, and video cassettes must be approved as healthy for mind and body.

In Moscow a smuggled tape of Apocalypse Now is more coveted than a ticket to Swan Lake, but may be far more risky, since the sale or rental of cassettes is illegal. There are about 50,000 privately owned VCRs in the U.S.S.R., and they can cost as much as 5,000 rubles ($6,750), roughly ten times the price of a new VCR in the U.S. An elite video clan has evolved whose members barter or swap tapes. Among the top ten films on the Soviet hit parade: Star Wars, The Deerhunter and The Sting. Unlike some other governments, the Soviets have decided to join the capitalist influx instead of trying to beat it. They have signed a contract with the Japanese for the manufacture of their own VCRs and cassettes.

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