Porn Canary in Online Video Coalmine?
While pornographers have been rightly credited with pushing technology boundaries throughout history, especially in the realms of media production and distribution, the Internet has seriously shaken up the market for physical media, and online revenue hasn’t closed the income gap, said the New York Times in an article this weekend.
Simply put, people aren’t buying or renting X-rated DVDs like they used to, there’s so much free material online, and the online efforts run by major producers in California’s San Fernando Valley and beyond aren’t generating equivalent revenue. Fans of Boogie Nights might draw the inevitable comparison to that movie’s treatment of the era when video took over from film and home rentals replaced peepshows in the early ’80s.
Will the web kill “Porn Valley?” Probably not. Could generally applicable lessons be learned from the experience? Definitely.
The article cites the rise of amateur smut as partly to blame, but it’s important to remember that to some degree what’s changing is that big studios like Vivid and Hustler are competing with more and more small operations. Sound familiar? The following quote sounds like it could be applied to YouTube stars:
And unlike consumers looking for music and other media, viewers of pornography do not seem to mind giving up brand-name producers and performers for anonymous ones, or a well-lighted movie set for a ratty couch at an amateur videographer’s house.
But while DVD sales are down, and DVD production studios haven’t been able to recoup the margins on their own online efforts, that doesn’t mean the there’s less money to be made across the board on erotic content — just that it’s being made differently.
The financial data cited in the Times article are estimates from Adult Video News, which may or may not include small independent online producers, content that may be ‘adult’but not strictly ‘pornographic,’and new forms of interactive entertainment.
Two problems that face the industry specifically are that people are probably more comfortable pirating adult entertainment because it’s already somewhat taboo — and frankly, why pay for a whole DVD when a few clips will do the trick? Most DVDs have excised what token plot devices were in adult films, and they certainly can’t compete on sheer variety.
But the lessons that can be generally applied are that you have to follow your audience as they scatter into smaller niches, and you have to find new and creative ways to engage them. Everyone will have to compete with more players, and deal with producing more volume at smaller margins.
The supply side of the equation has become pretty much inexhaustible. And while the DVD canary may be sick, there are plenty of other seams to explore — and there will always be plenty of demand for raw material.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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What’s interesting to note is that the adult industry lead online marketing efforts for the industry: pop-up and pop-under ads, among other tactics that are mainstream now.
As will, I think, the use of teaser clips. In fact, I think teaser clips promise to be more successful for non-erotic content, even for pay-per-view and subscription download and streaming services.
Just look at movie trailers — it’s not like people stopped going to the movies because of them (in fact, they’re frantically traded online).
You’re right – because of trailers, I can’t wait for Superbad, Transformers, and I gotta get to Knocked Up.
Not sure what this all says about me, though.
If – purely hypothetically – I’m looking at free internet porn and making online video, does that make me a double-threat?
This is true, consumer spending is down & more people are turning to VOD & free streaming sites like youporn or pornotube to watch porn instead of buying it on DVD.
It is killing the industry & they best way to combat it I guess is to embrace it.