ROME, ITALY — What many industries consider a grim economic outlook seems to hold rays of hope for adult entertainment, at least in Italy. Instead of engaging in outside activities, more Italians than ever are staying home and tuning into one of the 26 Hot Club adult-entertainment channels on television, according to Sky Italia, the satellite network that broadcasts the channels.Despite his notoriously conservative reputation, Rupert Murdoch has to be loving that. He owns Sky Italia, which according to Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore, has seen its revenues climb to $2.6 million per week since the first of the year. The figure is roughly 10 times the amount brought in by Sky Italia’s mainstream pay-per-view offerings.
Personal prejudices and Murdoch-owned News Corp.’s potential pundit outcry aside, Murdoch is a smart businessman. If Italians want porn, he’ll give it to them as fast as they can buy it — even if Sky Italia has to pay a new 25-percent “porno tax” on every minute of smut it sells.
The tax, initiated in late 2008 as part of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s plan to replenish the Italian government’s anemic coffers, has fazed neither consumers nor adult entertainment producers, it appears. In fact, on-demand programming provider Conto TV has begun airing ads that urge Italians to “contribute to saving the Italian economy” by signing up for Conto’s black-box service.
While the porn tax is having exactly the predicted effect on Italy’s budget — to the tune of about $80 million so far — it is not maintaining the support of the one group from which Berlusconi’s government courted and won favor prior to passing the tax: the Italian film industry. In order to gain the industry’s respect and support, Berlusconi promised a portion of the tax revenues would be used to increase film subsidies.
That hasn’t happened, according to Italian film trade group head Paolo Protti.
“Contrary to what the tax was supposed to entail, its intake will not benefit our sector,” he said recently, after revealing Berlusconi and his government apparently “forgot” about the deal.
