Porn TV Channels to Begin Advertising in Fight Against Falling Revenues

(MoneyWatch) 

• UPDATE: Recession in Porn Business Has Lessons for Mainstream Advertisers: Faster, Smaller, More Expensive

DirecTv, Comcast and others are to start advertising their pay-per-view porn channels, according to Ad Age. Part of the reason: falling profits at porn companies, where DVD sales are being eaten away by free "product" on the internet. Playboy posted a $145 million loss in Q4, for instance.

Age adds this priceless piece of analysis:

... a lack of marketing may also be to blame for porn's ills.

Right! Because porn has such a small share-of-mind in the target consumer. Whatever.

Expect to see the ads on ESPN and Spike TV, in the late, late hours. The new smut campaigns will also tout the falling prices of PPV, as channels seek to boost revenues via volume. The story cites a New Frontiers Media survey of cable and satellite viewers on their awareness of porn channels on the TV:

...almost 75% of satellite customers are unaware that hard-core content is available to them; 56% of cable customers are unaware of the option.

This result suggests to me that customers are too embarassed to admit that they know those channels exist and have thus lied to the survey-taker. The porn channels are right there on the TV guide page -- you have to scroll past them to get to the sports channels, for heaven's sake!

The study "shattered a lot of conventional wisdom at the company," said the president of NFM, an adult film distributor, whose name is, delightfully, Ken Boenish:

We used to be of the opinion that people who purchased adult entertainment on cable were ignorant of the internet. But we found that of the 80% of customers who buy adult content from their cable operator, 63% pay for content on the internet as well.

Again, porn viewers who "don't know" about the internet? Come on. Please.

Final note: Before you conclude that all this extra advertising will make the evil smutpeddlers of the San Fernando Valley rich, note that cable and satellite operators take 90 percent of the revenue. Only the remainder goes to the studios.

• Related:
• The Burger Chain Sex Wars: Hardee's "Holes" Campaign Is Latest in Juvenile Trend