As the title says. How can we have Betamax win the videotape format war, instead of VHS as OTL?
Sony has a chance if they get the recording time up, but the real issue seems to me to have been licensing. If Sony licenses production of a 2 hour recording time Beta early on they seem pretty well placed to dominate the market. Honestly though, the effect isn't going to be big. Yes, Beta had a marginally better recording quality, but it's not realistically enough to have any particular effect on the trajectory of the tape market in general. If Sony could win the war while keeping Beta largely proprietary the market will be changed drastically, but a proprietary system fighting against something everyone is shipping is never going to win in the first place.
I guess that suggests the easiest single change would be for JVC to try to handle VHS internally while Sony licenses, but I can't even begin to imagine what would cause that without Sony being a drastically different company. A one on one fight between proprietary formats could be interesting in terms of a TL I guess, but it seems to me the winner is going to be whoever breaks and starts allowing third party units first, unless you end up with other players jumping in with their own formats (seems pretty likely really).