Moxie writes on XPT:
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 explains 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.
TheVODGuy writes: "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."
Conky writes:
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.
ever see footage of a whale shark swimming along sucking in giant mouthfuls of plankton? this is the average chatsworth smut peddler’s idea of a business plan.
too bad being fat and lazy don’t make the big bones like it used too.
VOD still has a way to go, DVD sales in mainstream are steady and let’s be honest, not everyone has caught on with digital download yet. Sunday morning shotout on AMC talked about this from a Hollywood perspective. The adult industry is killing itself because it’s dumping tons and tons of product into the marketplace and honestly, you cannot survive like that. There is a reason why Hollywood produces only so many movies per year and releases so many movies on DVD per year, they don’t want to over flate the marketplace.
I go back far enough in this business to remember laser disk.Anyone?? Throughout history several things have been the one to kill the brick and mortor storefronts.Well, they’re still here. I don’t think they’ll ever completely go away because you can’t replace the touch and feel thing with any consumer. Bottom line is dvd sales are down because there are 300 new releases every fucking week. Anyone with a slutty girlfriend and a video camera is a fucking director.Any girl that’s done more than 100 sceens starts her own production company. There are several lines that do 5000 units worldwide without breaking a sweat.The ones that don’t simply aren’t worth it.
Indeed, the problem is oversaturation of the market and way too much crap being produced as well as consumers not being very selective in their purchases .
If every gonzo producers but the 5 biggest would vanish tomorrow its not like anyone would actually notice. Other than that the standard would be a little higher than before.
The problem with oversaturation lies with the “COMP” films that are now readily available @ a whopping 55 cents each. This has most definately contributed to studios that do release new features, gonzo or otherwise, to pump out as many as they can in a month just to keep up their life styles. Everytime sales go down on a certain product line they just spin it off onto another one. Even then…the 5 biggest seem to change now very other month.
Anyone ever see the guys that go into an adult video place? These guys arent gonna use VoD and such, its too easy to get caught by the wife/sig other. Also these guys are usually rent-shoot-return, get it done before wife and kids get home. The stores will always have the “closet queen” customers too, the Jim McGreevy types. As far as I can tell, these guys are not true porn fans, they are just looking for hot women to suit their need at that moment, story? who cares? I am always amazed that these guys have such a hard time making eye contact, its just porn. The market is hurt by too much crap, how do Vivid and Wicked have enough footage to put out comp after comp, of course they didnt start this, Leisure Time did, and they havent put out any good product in 22 years. What I would really like to know is how well DVD’s do that are based on web sites(Naughty America, Bang Bros etc) compared to regular non-web movies, from what I see at Adult Video Universe, they(web based) do well. I dont trust any AVN numbers.