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early hope may be porn
$s are there, for sure, and technology is inviting
By David Everitt
As cable operators plan how to turn video-on-demand into a moneymaking proposition, one type of programming presents itself as a dependable source of revenue.
The question is whether it fits the kind of corporate image they might want to project.
Last week, a leading trade magazine reported that religious-minded AT&T shareholders were concerned that pornographic material would appear on AT&T Broadband’s video-on-demand service.
In particular, according to this report, the shareholders wanted the company to exclude Vivid on Demand’s Hot Network–an especially explicit programmer–from AT&T’s upcoming VOD launch in Los Angeles.
At this point, it’s not clear whether AT&T Broadband plans to offer the Vivid fare on its VOD service. Steve Lang, AT&T Broadband’s vice president of external communications, wouldn’t comment on that point.
But regardless of whether AT&T will be facing this issue, it remains something for the cable industry to consider:
Do you include profitable porno as part of your VOD package, or do you shy away from it and try to look family-friendly at a time when moral watchdogs are always ready to yap at your heels?
According to Richard Yelen, senior vice president at ACTV and a veteran of the cable and pay-per-view industry, the inclusion of so-called adult material on VOD is "the right business decision, as long as you don’t flaunt it with heavy marketing. People who want to see this material will find a way to watch it anyway."
Recent history certainly seems to support that idea.
Whenever a new medium comes along, porno suppliers tend to exploit it better than anybody. The introduction of Super-8 was a boon to the porno industry, and so were early home video and cable.
And, of course, pornmeisters have thrived on the web and have been the survivors of the dot.com crash.
Even if, for some reason, cable VOD didn’t carry explicit sexual fare, the stuff is already available on pay-per-view and on satellite systems like DirecTV. All told, according to one conservative estimate, the porno industry rakes in $10 billion a year.
But not every cable operator will try to capitalize on this phenomenon. Don’t expect Adelphia to show the Hot Network in its VOD launch in Cleveland this summer. For years, the company has refused to carry any porno channels.
"We try to reflect the values of the community we serve," says Bill Pekarski, an Adelphia spokesman. Has that affected the size of the company’s business?
"Actually," he says, "we’ve gotten more praise for not carrying this material than we’ve gotten people demanding to receive these channels."
Of course, moralists tend to be a bit vain about their morality and are always likely to make their positions public. As for the other side, not that many porno consumers come right out and tell everybody what they really like to watch.
"A cable operator can avoid public relations problems by not showing adult material," says Howard Horowitz, president of Horowitz Associates, "but from a business standpoint that flies in the face of the fact that adult material is a big moneymaker."
Yelen believes that adult material could play a big role in putting VOD on the media map.
"There have been some questions raised about the feasibility of video-on-demand, especially lately with the lower prices for DVDs creating perhaps less of a demand for this kind of service.
"But adult material could drive the reason people will pay for VOD. When it comes to watching regular Hollywood movies, VOD doesn’t have the socialization that comes with going out to the movie theater. With adult material that’s not a factor."
Technology may play a role in making the public relations issue less of a problem. In analog cable, channel scrambling is not always complete. Often the audio portion of a scrambled signal will sneak through. But in the digital world of VOD, the blocking of channels is more secure. High-minded households aren’t likely to get even a hint of the channels they don’t want.
"We know that customers have to make affirmative choices in order to select programs they want to see," says AT&T’s Lang. "We trust they know what’s best for their households."
In the early stages of VOD, another factor in favor of porn could be the lack of availability of other kinds of content.
"A problem for some cable operators," says Horowitz, "is that if they can’t sell adult material, they might not have many other product windows for Hollywood films. If they had access to Hollywood product, they might not have the problem of relying on adult channels."
May 24, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-David Everitt writes about television from Huntington, New York.
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