14 DAY TRIAL // The new sites similar in concept to Google's YouTube that host the free user uploaded explicit video content are posing serious threats to the adult film industry. No longer is the cash flow running the way it did, the new alternatives bringing it down by about 50 percent for the big companies like Vivid that produce sex films.
"We're dealing with rampant piracy, tons of free content," said Steven Hirsch, the co-founder of privately held Vivid. Out of the 80 percent of the 100 million dollars that it made with DVD sales, last year saw a decrease to a mere 30 percent, he said in an interview. "This industry is going to have to get together and look at these guys that are putting out the stuff for free ... so they are going to have to get in line and start paying for it," Hirsch said. "If that doesn't happen and we see all of this free content out there, people are not going to be able to afford to produce movies anymore."
The companies next to Vivid in this are thinking that perhaps a solution is to be found in future distribution deals with AT&T, Verizon Communications Inc, Comcast Corp and Apple Inc. However I'm not really seeing any of those names willing to have its brand next to a porn producer's.
Nevertheless, a spokeswoman from Comcast, the largest U.S. cable provider, said that the firm had offered adult content in the video-on-demand service it has running, but insisted that no talks for mobile adult distribution had been held this far. That probably means that Europe will still remain the main focus point for porn on phones.
The sites that are on the brink of being sued have not commented, except for Canada Based Xtube.com, whose founder, Lance Cassidy, said that "We're not pirates. We are providing a service that people think they can use to pirate."