I was working at Circuit City during the days of the Beta/VHS wars and the truth is that tape length was the factor that killed Beta.
The average consumer could only understand so much about VCR technology. But it was easy to compare recording capacity. If I remember correctly, the Beta machines would record up to 5 hours on a standard tape, compared to 6 hours for VHS. All the explanation of tape loading systems was lost compared to such an easy to understand comparison.
Then, once the momentum went the way of VHS it was a downhill slide. Soon the ratio of rentals was on the side of VHS, and it was an endless circle of people buying more VHS because of more tape availability, and video rental stores stocking more VHS to cater to these customers, and people buying more VHS… (you get my drift)
As for licensing…
In the early 80’s, you could get Beta machines from Sony, Sanyo, or Toshiba. In fact Sanyo sold more Beta machines than Sony. And, until the Koreans got into the business of making VHS machines, you could get a Sanyo Beta VCR as cheaply as you could any VHS machine.
