Will Apple Sign iTunes Porn Deal?

CES wasn't the only conference happening in Las Vegas last week. The AVN conference, the biggest adult film expo of the year, was in Las Vegas too and a big topic of conversation was how the internet and specifically film-sharing sites are cutting into the revenues of adult film studios.

Many studios now use sites with free film previews to steer users to pay-per-minute or other subscription model sites, but are now realizing that they may have crossed the fine line between providing too much free content and providing too little. Clickthrough ratings are poor from free content with only about 1 in 500 moving from free content to paid sites and only 1 in 50 clickthroughs actually subscribe.

That means that the adult film industry has to start looking at alternative business models if they want to continue to bring in the necessary revenues to continue filming adult movies. Some industry execs have talked of partnering with big network providers such as Comcast and AT&T. Most have refused to comment on any talks with porn bigwigs, although Verizon has said they don't believe there's any money in adult content for them.

Perhaps most interesting were the comments of former husband and video partner of Jenna Jameson, Jay Grdina. Grdina, who is currently the president of ClubJenna, Inc, stated that the company has approached the likes Apple and Microsoft looking for distribution deals. While Microsoft has denied any plans to be included in any adult content distribution deals, but Apple refused to say whether they have talked or are in talks with adult studios. With Apple's track record of refusing to comment in the past, it would make us believe that Apple may indeed be considering distributing adult film content via iTunes. Grdina said himself that distribution would include easy transfer of content to mobile devices such as the iPod.

Just imagine if the Steve Jobs' much anticipated keynote at MacWorld in a couple days was the inclusion of a porn studio in Apple's growing list of iTunes content providers!

Via Reuters

January 13, 2008

Will Apple Sign iTunes Porn Deal?