‘USA Today’ Takes Note of Adult DVD Woes

March 5, 2010 | Leave a Comment

As we’ve noted in this space several times recently, the mainstream media is catching onto the porn-is-dying hook. For the most part they have recycled the same quotes, experts and stats to come to conclusions that GayPornLand reached in 2006 or ’07. Nightline on ABC recently ran a superficial segment packed with bouncing boobies and quotes from the usual suspects, including Vivid Entertainment founder Steve Hirsch. Now we’ve got a short piece from doesn’t-get-any-more-mainstream USA Today, which includes brief quotes from Adult Video News and XBIZ and comments from — you guessed it — Steve Hirsch. “The adult-entertainment industry is in a tailspin, shattering the notion that it is one of the few recession-proof industries,” the story begins. “The slump is especially stinging because technology — which helped adult-entertainment enterprises reap riches through innovations such as video streaming, webcameras and online payments — is contributing to the misery.” They note the existence of “some 1000 tube sites” which have “put a sizable dent in the estimated $13 billion porn industry,” without citing the source for those numbers. Mr. Hirsch says Vivid’s DVD sales dropped 20 percent in 2009 (he ought to talk to a few all-male studios about their dropoff), while the XBIZ report marks the average DVD order from distributors at 1500-2000, down from roughly 5000 just five years ago. And the beat goes on. CLICK HERE for the USA Today story.
See also:
* “How Porn Should (Not) Diversify”
* “Cablevision Testing Computer-to-DVD Service”
* “‘Nightline’ Tackles Digital Piracy in Porn“