By Stewart Tongue
YNOT – A glut of free online porn and decreased consumer spending, combined with the adult entertainment industry’s failure to respond quickly and appropriately, have nearly killed some traditional adult entertainment markets, according to VividTV chief Ken Boenish.
If the pay-per-view television segment wants to survive, he said, it will need to revise its thinking and adjust its business models.
“If we look at the market trends, pretty much everyone in the business recognizes that adult content on TV platforms has been trending down,” Boenish, the former president of New Frontier Media whom Vivid tapped in August to lead VividTV, told Mutlichannel News. “So from my perspective it’s really looking at why that is happening and what we can do about it. The answer is pretty simple: It comes down to product and price. If you don’t have the right product at the right price, your audience is likely to go elsewhere just like any other entertainment platform offered.”
From Boenish’s perspective, pay television providers have been too slow to react to the global economic downturn’s depletion of consumers’ disposable income. PPV adult offerings cost as much as $15 per 24-hour rental. Combined with improved online experience due to the ubiquity of broadband connections and the glut of free porn online, and no one should be surprised the impact has been negative and severe, he indicated.
He also offered suggestions about how the adult industry might begin to reclaim some of what it has lost: by adopting a Wal-Mart sort of philosophy. Lower prices and higher volumes often feed off each other, creating a self-sustaining ecosystem.
“The real key to success is having some kind of content at a less expensive price point, like single scenes anywhere from a $1.99 to $3.99, multi-scene compilations that are a half hour in length somewhere around $5.99 and full-length movies somewhere under $10,” Boenish said. “That, coupled with a strong monthly subscription offering with a sweet spot around $15 to $20. From my experience I think really effective pricing would bring people back into the category and [they’d come] back more often.”
