In a recent Discussion with Skeeter Kerkove Gene Ross reveals that DVD sales are tanking. If adult companies are experiencing a slow down due to a drop in DVD sales, they have no one but themselves to blame. Have these people never heard of the internet? I'll bet that VOD sales are not down. The addiction of producers to DVD is going to have to be broken and internet distribution embraced if producers want to see their financial misfortunes reversed.

I can only speak from personal anectodes, but I have not purchased a DVD this century. However, I have hundred's of VOD's with Gamelink and Empire and have several internet content subsciptions. With the ease of access and lower per scene cost I own a lot more adult content than I did under a DVD format. If adult companies are not making MORE money today, well they're just not trying.

So what explanains the crack like addiction for the DVD format? The only thing I can muster is that video rental stores and their distribution channels are guaranteed to purchase a certain amount of product and those relationships were profitable. Obviously, the distributors had a big say over what content got made. Now adult companies have to sell directly to the consumer and that must scare the hell out them because they have ignored what the consumer wants for years.

Make no mistake, adult companies need to run to an internet/vod distribution system. Those that do will have instant feedback on what and who sells and can pattern their production to that. They will have lower distribution costs and they will need MORE product to satisfy the fact that consumers buy more porn under an internet distribution sytem. Those that stay with the old DVD distribution system will become extinct. This isn't really economics, its evolution.

In my opinion, studios are experiencing drops in sales, DVD and VoD, due to over-saturation. Every week I see new studios popping up, with little to no originality in their product, other than the fact that maybe they sells theirs for $1 less, so Joe Consumer's more inclined to buy their crap. I don't know how many of these studios are going to be in it for the long haul, but as for right now, the customer is inundated with new choices.

This is just based on my own observations.

I have never purchased any DVDs or VHS for that matter. I rarely rent porn. When I do rent, I look for tamer titles.

I can't bring myself to rent a video titled "Cum Drinking Fuck Sluts" when I have to pay a young twentysomething girl behind the counter.

As far as going the internet route, I don't see myself doing that either. Nobody really knows how secure these sites are. I'm not paranoid. I have purchased items online
but after reading a lot about some of the less than legit people in the adult business, I don't think I want my credit card info in their hands.

Reasons why I don't like downloads are:

1) Paranoia: giving out credit card info etc to an industry known for its high ethical standards, servers keeping track of and storing my "viewing" preferences for the next 100 years

2) that I have to keep track of the files on my computer/computers/external drives - I'm lazy and disorganized, I hate filing. How much easier is it to look at a pile of dvd boxes with pictures on the covers that help remember what is on a particular dvd, and where that on scene is hiding that actually turned me on...

3) my computer broke. Did I back it up? Yes/no/maybe/not recently/not those files/yes but I can't find the one cd with the backup/yes but for some reason those files didn't burn right on my backup dvd/etc...

It's like iTunes. It's great for some uses but not always. I doubt digital downloads will entirely replace cds/dvds, unless technology improves.

VOD's don't reside on your computer, they reside on the companies server.

Another benefit of VOD is it gives companies a better idea of what customers are buying and what they are not and what performers are bringing home the bacon. I could even see forming partnerships with performers where they forgo any salary and get a cut if the project is succesful and zinch if the project does not move.

Rob Black Says Video is Dead
By: Sue Denim

CHATSWORTH, Calif. - Extreme Associates owner Rob Black never has been what most people consider "traditional." Still, it came as a bit of a surprise when he told AVNOnline.com, "Video is dead. The Web is where things are happening now."

He didn't mean video is literally dead, of course—only that sales have slowed in recent years as more consumers opt to get their adult entertainment online. In response, Black is moving a hefty portion of his business online as well, and in some innovative ways.

Black and crew recently launched in beta mode a new webmaster affiliate program, Extreme Cash Cow, which serves as an umbrella for five new websites featuring Extreme Associates' signature brand of ultra-hardcore adult content. During the beta period (which will last through the first week in June), ExtremeAssociatesVIP, SlapHappyGirls, AssEaterGirls, HotPornStarGirls, and HeSheGirls offer affiliates payouts of $35 per sign-up or 60-percent recurring revshare. Those figures will drop to $30 per sign-up and up to 60-percent revshare for affiliates who sign on after the beta period ends. In addition, the affiliate program offers $200 bonuses for webmaster referrals.

Black said new sites will be added frequently. Already in the works are several devoted to the uncommon vision of multiple award-winner Thomas Zupko (AssSports, ThomasZupko, MyMomsAPornStar, and others), what Black referred to as "the ever-popular" PissZone, and an interactive personality site devoted to Black's wife and business partner Lizzie Borden (LoveLizzieBorden). The latter will feature live-cam shows and other ways for users to interact directly with Borden.

Also in the works is an affiliate program for ExVOD, Extreme Associates' video-on-demand library.

Among the most innovative of Extreme's planned offerings, for which there is no due date yet, is a Borden-produced website that will showcase her signature rape-fantasy and violent-seduction themes within an interactive framework that incorporates elements of detective novels and videogames.

"Users will play the role of a detective in crime-scene scenarios, like in CSI," Black explained.

Of particular importance to Black is that he feels all the Extreme Associates sites will be breaking new ground in American Internet porn. That's really nothing unusual for a man who has faced Justice Department obscenity prosecution under two different U.S. attorneys general—and is more determined than ever to push the envelope and prosecutors' buttons.

"These are not overseas 'extreme content' sites," Black wanted people to know. "This is good ol' American hardcore, extreme porn."

Black also wanted people to know Extreme Associates is not giving up brick-and-mortar DVD distribution entirely, but the company has revised its business model to put Web-based content at the forefront. Every new video the company produces will be correlated with a website, and every scene will be available on the Web as soon as it's complete. He predicted one new scene will be released each week during a movie's production. The full-length feature containing all the scenes (typically five per production, Black said) will be available in brick-and-mortar stores after it's been released in stages on the Web.

"I'm fuckin' super-excited about it," Black said with the enthusiasm of a youngster who had just received a new toy. "We're putting new tools together constantly. I'm fuckin' super-excited about it—really super-excited. It's gonna be fantastic."

Rob would be excited about webporn- That solves his perpetual problem with paying duplicators.

DVD has maybe four years left in it. HD-DVD/Blue Ray etc maybe a few more after that if buyers can stomach cottage cheese close ups and zits the size of dinner plates on their TV.

VoD has been running successfully for ages. Rob's way off the pace. Affiliate programs were great four years ago, but anyone who went to Internext last year (and they were the loneliest four people in the world) would've wept at the state of web affiliate program returns.

In the short term, yeah, VoD has legs, but long term you really want to be thinking less in terms of a whole bunch of web sites pushing crap while you hope your affiliates bring the cash in and more in terms of preparing for IPTV.

Any retail solution--VoD or IPTV--which allows you to cut out duplication, packaging, wholesale and retail should give any porn company a boner. Production companies will become their own online TV stations, opening up entirely new marketing opportunities and customers worldwide with fewer censorship issues.

Rob Black is a niche player. Always has been, always will be. His name closes way more doors than it opens and he only has himself to blame.

The market is fucked right now because studios are still pumping out product into a diminishing market. More potential buyers are just stealing their movies from the web and retailers are charging way too much money per unit versus the wholesale price.

It's the economics of greed in action, and it won't change until the production houses realize they've got a direct route to the customer. If production companies charge fans a realistic amount per download and don't milk people too hard, then the market will always be there.

Once the infrastructure for IPTV is really there, we'll see huge changes in the delivery of porn to the consumer.

Yes, Moxie. And lunch is for wimps, while you're in Gekko mode.

Greed will save the porn industry in one way: if the big money realizes that by taking absolute control of its product it can make even bigger money. It should also be noted that a lot of the players in the porn biz have the mentality of petty criminals. That holds them back as much as low SAT scores and a lack of vision. If you think everyone around you is ripping you off, it's going to taint the way you conduct business, whether you're being ripped off or not.

Now take off that double breasted suit, red braces and leather tie and don't let me see you in them again. And keep an eye on those Sheens.

I wasn't really trying to make any point. I just had to do the greed speech when you mentioned greed. I do love my braces, though I wear cranberry. Double Breasted suits are for sissies.