Streaming porno to your cellphone is the “killer app” for the long-dormant 3G technology.
I’ve written in the past about how the hardware manufacturers were all quietly lobbying the various adult producers in The Valley to use either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD as the platform for their movies – realizing, correctly, that porn has been the irresistable cheese for the early-adopter nerdrats.
Well, here’s a thought: maybe the content-distribution model of selling the audience a physical representation of the content (a DVD, a tape, a CD, etc.) is finally over. Since the content exists primarily as a stream of 1s and 0s anyway, what does it matter on what device it arrives at the watcher, as long as it arrives when and how the person pushing the “I Accept This Charge” button wants?
What is the intrinsic value of a DVD? Yeah, the jewel boxes are kinda neat. And if you tart it up with bookends and glossy inserts and junk the way the Lord of the Rings box sets are, yeah, some collectors are going to pay a premium for that. But ever since the format shrank from the old vinyl album covers that I used to sit and study whilst wearing my headphones (loved the zipper on Sticky Fingers, spun the little wheel o’ weirdness on Led Zeppelin III), the idea of buying music based on the wrapper is one that really seems to defeat the purpose. Besides, music videos long ago took over in the “the music was sucky, but the light show was awesome” space.
Anyway.
U.S. cellphone companies are starting to see the numbers coming out of Europe and Asia, where there is not such a stigma attached to adult content, and it’s making the suits in the boardrooms mutter excitedly.
Here’s the nut graf:
In 2006, adult mobile content generated about $1.4 billion in sales
worldwide in a market where mobile entertainment in general generated
about $17 billion, according to Juniper Research. While adult mobile
content generated far less revenue than other types of entertainment
such as mobile music, which accounted for $6.6 billion, it will likely
grow over the next several years. By 2011, adult content will account for $3.3 billion worth of mobile content sales out of a total of $77 billion in entertainment revenue, according to Juniper Research.
That’s a big pot o’ cash for the right operator. Which means, of course, that the various cellphone operators will be slitting each other’s throats to offer better, faster and more lurid downloads. Expect to see that annoying “Can you hear me now?” guy replaced by Jenna Jameson displaying her cavernous cleavage and cooing “Would you like to see me now? Push ’69’ to get 20 minutes of the hottest action for $2.50”
The underlying principal is that this is high-value content (by which I mean, that users will jump through hoops and pay actual hard cash dollars to get their sweaty mitts on it), and that pushing it to cell handsets is just another step in the evolution from the dirty old man in raincoat X-rated theaters to VCR’s to DVDs to the internet. Making it easier and more anonymous to get your Portnoy’s Complaint on is something that has always had a fat dollar sign attached to it.
The cliched one-handed websurfers are going to be replaced by one-handed callers.
I can’t wait to see what this does to the swerving Los Angeles drivers. Especially when the cell companies start using push technology (in internet terms: porno spam) to put their promos on your handset.
Today most adult content is accessed through a mobile operator’s own menu
or “deck.” In Europe and in parts of Asia this hasn’t been a major
barrier for adult content creators. Racy movies and pictures are much
more socially accepted there. As a result, even the largest carriers in
Europe, including Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile, carry mobile movies
from porn film producers such as Vivid Entertainment.But the situation is much different in North America. Here none of
the large U.S. wireless carriers offer adult content on their decks.
Hirsch believes that mobile operators are reluctant to add adult
content to their lineups because they aren’t comfortable yet with
technology to verify subscribers’ ages.
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I think what we’re likely to see is less a carrier sending out adult content, and more of a third party solution where the carriers charge a royalty for using their bandwidth. This allows the carriers to get a cut without having to worry about the political fallout of being the wireless porn king.
It’s largely about saving face more than it is about confronting America’s schizophrenic morality. Porn has grown in the United States over the years because its anonymity has increased. There’s a big difference from having to buy a ticket for The Pussycat Theater and having Anonymous Entertainment LLC on your phone bill.
If the carriers can offer that anonymity and still be protected from the ravening Puritan hordes they’ll do it. Turn it into a PR nightmare and wireless tech will continue to languish until a more “acceptable” content model comes along that can usurp music’s hold on the bandwidth.
Hmm. Interesting. You’re right in that the major carriers would probably face a shitstorm from the Bible Belt and (more importantly) the institutional investors (CalPERS, etc.).
I wonder if they’ll try to spin off a company like a Boost Mobile or something to handle the traffic. The enticing thing about adult content, as it was explained to me in a meeting a couple years back by the satellite guys, is that the money flow is simple. There are no complicated revenue-sharing agreements, the way there are with movies such as Titanic, where you have to divvy up the loot between 2 or 3 studios, as well as production companies, talent agencies, management companies, unions, etc. You just cut one check and are done.
High margin, simple accounting. Those two factors alone are the catnip to the suits on the biz side.