(www.sass-pants.com) — Less than 3 months after the porn industry requested a $5B bailout, things are looking bad for them, in large part because of the proliferation of free porn sources online. “Tube sites” including our good friend YouTube are providing enough alternative adult entertainment that folks aren’t interested in paying for pay-per-view or subscription services.
Gee, ya think?
Vivid Entertainment founder Steven Hirsch, a longtime porn heavyweight who sued one of the free porn sites for illegally using his company’s material, say the Los Angeles company’s DVD sales have dropped 30 percent in the past year, and the free porn sites are adding economic insult to injury.
“Between the DVD sales, the piracy, the free porn online and the economy,” Hirsch said, “I’ve never seen it this bad in 25 years in the business.”
Compounding the challenge is that the porn industry as a whole has done little navel-gazing – at least of the financial or strategic-planning kind – over the years. While the X-rated industry has always been among the first to adopt new technologies, it has not always embraced long-term forecasting. It hasn’t had to, analysts say, because the forecasts were always so rosy.
(source)
Although I can understand why the porn industry has remained confident (people seem to find money for vices even when they can’t find it for essentials, in my experience), I can’t believe they’re surprised about the recent decline, given the nation’s economic situation. Then again, I guess everyone’s been surprised recently at how bad things have gotten.
What amuses me, though, is the proposed solution to this problem. Niche porn network Kink.com is planning to introduce live shows that allow viewers to interact with the director and actors and actresses. According to SFGate.com, “The idea, said Kink Chief Operating Officer Daniel Riedel – a Yahoo.com veteran – is to offer users an experience that the free tube sites can’t.”
Sorry, Kink, but I’m not feeling it.
How about this suggestion for porn viewers who are now strapped for cash: Instead of shelling out your hard-won dollars on a so-called interactive, live experience, take the time you’d be spending watching porn and use it to develop a happy, healthy, real-life relationship that will ultimately lead to fulfilling, satisfying, FREE sex for the rest of your life. It’s called marriage. Try it.
Contents Copyright © 2009 Kristen King
(image: Garry Knight via Creative Commons license)
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
You…are…so…very…funny!
The quietest secret of technology is the role of porn as the killer app that drove the Internet. The adult market pushed the need for better graphics, broadband speed, customized presentations, sampling, online commercial processing, privacy and the disintermediation of the adult industry supply chain.
There was online porn before there was online banking or eBay. Yet, you’ll never hear Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or IBM admit as much. Newspapers are in trouble today because they are slow to apply some of these techniques.
Adult sites may have been caught with their pants down by the Tube channels, but I bet they will teach us a few more business lessons by their respond.
Oh yeah, I only know this because I have this friend….
That has got to be the funniest post title ever! Bravo! You had fun writing that one, didn’t you?
I have little sympathy for the industry. They were the first to glut the Internet with pay-per-view sites and they made tons of money. Times are, well, hard now. While I totally agree that piracy in ANY industry is wrong, the porn industry’s problems are above and beyond that. In case they hadn’t noticed, we’re all succumbing to economic pressures. But if bailouts are to be garnered, who deserves it more – the porn industry or the laid-off workforce in say the auto industry?
Another can of worms. Another time.
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