Porn Production Losing Ground on Technology

Glut of Free Porn

While the Internet did enable a boom in the industry, it has also created a glut of free content that is now slowly eating away at it.

"It's hard to make a dollar from something people can get for free," he said.

But there are opportunities in the industry. And, in fact, he said, taking a Darwinian stance, the challenges will ultimately lead to a leaner but better industry.

Video chats, which he credits the adult industry with mainstreaming, he said, are always going to have value because they foster an emotional connection.

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Artificial chat bots, with voices that very closely resemble those of real humans, also present opportunities for the same reason.

At the end of the day, the "Rolls Royces" of the industry, with high-quality and diversified products, will be the ones that endure.

Samantha Lewis, co-owner of Digital Playground, an adult entertainment company that specializes in high-quality, couples' films, said that her company is absolutely stable.

"We've never been so strong in this economy," she said. "There's a lot of companies that are struggling but our quality is so high-end and we do things that are not available with other companies."

One of the first to use interactive CD-ROMs in the 1990s, her company, Lewis said, tries its best to stay on the cutting edge of technology.

"DVD sales are going down without a doubt," she said. "But we strengthen on the Internet side. It's evened out."

A TV Box Carries Porn

Digital Playground was one of the first adult companies to move into the video-on-demand space when it signed an exclusive deal that allowed Vudu to sell its content through its set-top box straight to consumers' televisions.

The deal has lapsed and now Lewis and her partner, Ali Joone, are considering their options.

But as they review the distribution possibilities, the obstacles are becoming clear.

Across the way, at the Consumer Electronics Show, companies are increasingly marrying content and devices. LG electronics, for example, released a partnership earlier this week that allows consumers to stream movies directly from the Internet to the TV, bypassing a personal computer.