Magazine articles in late 1976 and early 1977 implied the imminent release of the RCA VideoDisc system. Why didn it appear until March 1981?
In late 1975, Anthony Conrad replaced Robert Sarnoff as head of RCA and decided to proceed with market introduction of the CED system. One notable article in the February 1977 issue of Popular Science was illustrated with a photo of the Indianapolis plant, showing many of RCA’s top-loading CED players under assembly. This article implied a 1977 introduction of the system, but it was actually in limbo with Conrad having been ousted as CEO in late 1976 in the wake of income tax improprieties. He was replaced by Edgar Griffiths, who at that time was an opponent of the VideoDisc system. Griffiths scaled back the VideoDisc program, shutting down the Indianapolis pilot production facility in July 1977, but allowed basic VideoDisc research to continue. This situation continued until January 1979, when he abruptly announced that RCA would rush VideoDisc to market (it became known as RCA’s Manhattan Project). The speculated reason for this about face is that the decision was made in response to
