Pi-Consulting

“If a new communications technology is going to work”, we used to say, “it will work first by spreading dirty pictures”. And so it proved, from postcards through cinema, video, mobile phones, DVD and now the internet. The internet, however, having conferred unimagined growth on the porn business over the last decade or so, now seems to be turning the growth phenomenon into reverse drive. In 2005, says trade publication AVN, pornographic video sales and rentals stood at $4.28 billion. Last year the figure drooped to only 3.62 billion. The total sex-related entertainment market is still substantial at $13 billion, but current trends suggest that the wilting video business may detumesce the whole market, with other revenue not growing fast enough to counter the vid-pic droop. Some porn-industry mavens blame a technology-led drift to do-it-yourself online sex. Says one: “People are making movies in their houses and dropping them on websites. …It’s killing the market”. The prurient now have easy and anonymous access to “porn from nowhere”, at greatly reduced prices compared to those charged by the big distributors. Says another rueful inside commentator, “The barrier… is so low. All you need is a video camera and a couple of people to have sex”. Purveyors of the Internet Porn industry are meeting this week for their summer business expo, XBIZ, at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas. Seminars include “How to Protect Your Content”, “Driving New Traffic to your Website” and “Legalities of the New 2257 regulations”. Just proves there is a trade show for every industry. Sources: New York Times, XBiz Summer Forum, Pi.