CEL: Building the Entertainment Revolution

Earlier this year I was inspired to do a column about my love of the early Roadshow Home Video releases from 1982-1985 mostly even though I love the Village Roadshow era about as much but recently I became inspired to do another one about another particular brand of Aussie VHS tapes.

And that is for Communications and Entertainment Limited or CEL for short, you might remember their releases from such films as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dino Riders and Gaslight.

CEL were simply giants in the field of Australian VHS releases and that is mainly due to the fact that in September of 1985 they took the then extraordinary step towards sell through versions of their cassettes which meant that for the first time you could own your very own copy of one of their releases as well as being able to rent it.

These sell through versions were also reasonably priced, ranging from 19.95 to 24.95 for the most part and their spin off labels included MGM/UA, Australian Video, Muppet Home Video, Star Video and Embassy Home Entertainment, these allowed to release classic Black and White titles as well as titles like That's Entertainment, The Man from Snowy River, Escape from New York and The Dark Crystal.

But why did they take this extreme step at a time when movies on tape were mainly known for being rented rather than owned, well it was quite simple, people should be able to buy their own copy of the movies they want to keep rather than just rent them all the time, after all people did with books and records so logically it made sense to do the same with films on video.

And boy did CEL promote this as much as they could with many of their tapes carrying the banner of "Another CEL Entertainment Revolution Presentation" as if it was a flag on the battlefield, the sound of trumpets played and cannons blasted through the TV speakers and a giant cannon came right at the viewer up close on their TV before firing the CEL logo out of it.

And it proved to be a major success, selling 2 million cassettes in its first year for a $40 million dollar profit, not bad considering the times in which it launched when tapes were expensive to own (most selling for about $100 and even then only to video stores) and video players themselves worth a pretty penny and having to fight off the rival machine Betamax (Oh No, Beta.)

But hey when the going's good you join em and in August of 1986, Roadshow and their subsidiaries followed suit and launched their own sell through line with titles like First Blood, The Terminator, Mad Max, Gallipoli, Dumbo and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and in October of 1989 CIC-Taft also joined the market after long resisting such a move with titles like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Footloose, The Breakfast Club and Back to the Future.

But as for CEL the good times didn't last and as the 80's went on their standing began to fall in terms of competing with companies like Roadshow in terms of big video titles in both of its rental and retail arms and in 1989 they were delisted from the Australian Stock Exchange for failing to pay the annual fees which later led to their filing for bankruptcy in 1999.

It would be a sad end to such an important company on the Australian video market but while this happened, the legacy they left behind will live on, mainly due to that decision of theirs regarding the retail video market for it was them that said that film lovers should be able to own their own copies of their favorite films at a reasonable price and helping to set in motion the other studios to do the same for while Roadshow may have had more appealing titles in their retail launch would they have been as successful if CEL hadn't set the pace and laid the groundwork before them, it's very unlikely but they did and you know something, all of us who love films in Australia should be very grateful that they did, I certainly am.