TV Guide 4/9/1977 VCR Article.

[Eric H]

Quote from then Vice President of NBC Programming Paul Klein on the new VCR's:

"It's beyond logic-it's the dumbest thing Man has ever conceived. Our research shows that people buy it, show it to their friends, then put it in the closet"

End quote.

Sony's research showed something quite different, namely that people on average bought 12 tapes with the machine and 3 tapes per month after that.
In December of 1976 alone Sony sold 140,000 tapes to fewer than 30,000 owners of Betamax machines.