You have questions, I have answers!

Did the veiwers of the media turn against the entertainment industry when they decided to take a new turn with porn? Why is that porn has become so much more popular than Hollywood entertainment?

I do not think that viewers turned against the market so much in the case of Batemax and VHS, as much as VHS has a significant head start financially due to the revenues created by pornography. I think that it made sense to consumers to use the same media for porn and mainstream film. It certainly would be funny if you walked into a friend’s house and noticed that they had the “porn-only” viewing technology. I certainly think that people were compelled to use the same media for both types of film and that VHS had a very clear advantage by cornering the market starting with porn.

The market for pornography is bigger than the market for mainstream film for many reasons. It is true; the porn industry does about 4 billion dollars more annually than Hollywood. Rentals and cable charges are much greater for pornography than mainstream film; this may be due to the nature of the material. For instance, people are more likely to go out to view a mainstream movie at a movie theater than they are pornography. Adult content is not readily accepted publicly. Also people are more likely to rent than buy pornography, again because it appeals to anonymity. Another reasons for porn’s large market share is demand. Human nature is to be curious and to fantasize, that is one of the reasons that action movies and Sci-Fi adventures are so popular. These genres enable the viewer to experience what is like to be a hero, or encounter an alien. I think it is much the same with porn; it is a means by which people can experience their fantasies in a practical context. Furthermore, porn appeals to basic human nature, where as mainstream film appeals to intellect, social nature, and what may be more sophisticated needs, but the fact remains that sex sells and remains for humans, a very compelling motivator.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,245638,00.html

This is an interesting debate, and I actually just read a newer article on the situation. The first pornographic BluRay disc is set to be released this month. Do you feel that porn will have an impact on who wins the "next gen" format war (BluRay vs. HD-DVD), just as it did with VHS vs. DVD?

That’s true, Vivid just released a film on Blue Ray, however, they accomplished this through there own means. You may or may not know that it is very expensive to produce a Blue Ray or HD-DVD, and that there are HD-DVD and Blue Ray manufactuers. “Sony has said that they would not ‘replicate’ adult titles on any format.” So none of their factories will be used to produce Blue Ray pornography (FoxNews). Now that is not to say that Sony or the Blue Ray disc Association has ban the use of Blue Ray technology, they just are not making it easy (inquirer).

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,245638,00.html

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37021

This is an interesting topic. If the porn market has market share of videos sold why shouldn't it have the power to steer the video market? It is a legitimate business (maybe ethically wrong). How does the porn industry's infulence compare to other industry leaders like say Microsoft and Dell Computers? How have these companies by their market share power, shaped our technology products?

This is a great question! And the answer is significantly! Porn has driven technology to advance at the insane rate we have seen it grow. Faster internet connections provided by AOL, Cox and other providers allow for video streaming. Yes it is nice that today military wives can see and talk to their husbands in Iraq, and technology is a wonderful thing, but the money associated with the 12.6 billion dollar adult industry is what got it done. Other big names such as “Marriott, General Motors, Exodus, Concentric, Verio, AboceNet, UUNet, Sun Microsystems, Yahoo!, AltaVista, Convad, Pacific Bell, Bell Atlantic, Real Networks, Microsoft, Earthlink and many more provide the software, infrastructure and delivery systems for porn in all its many variations” (Perdue, 2006). Yes, everyone wants a piece of the pie.

Perdue, L. (2006). Eroticabiz: How sex shaped the Internet. In D. D. Waskul ED.), Net.seXXX: Readings on sex, pornography and the Internet (pp. 259-293). New York: Petter Lang.

Do you think consumers will choose to buy a specific medium (HDDVD or Blu ray) based solely on whether adult films are available?

No, I do not think that the choice will be made solely on the availability of adult films. I think that ultimately the format that wins is what will be in most homes in America, and all or most of the films made, of any type will need to conform to that format. If for example Blue Ray becomes the most popular, then that is what will be in most homes and I think that porn will follow suit. Based on the restrictions put in place, mainly by Sony, porn producers will have to jump through some extra hoops to make Blue Ray porn. But it is not impossible. Consumers maybe swayed to buy one format over the other based on what they think the out come of the format war will be. In other words, if I thought that HD-DVD was going to win the war, then it would not be a good investment for me to buy a Blue Ray disk player because in the future Blue Ray films may not be readily available, just like Betamax. There are many things to consider that affect the format war, price to produce a HD DVD verse Blue Ray disk, marketing turn over, alliances made with mainstream film production companies, video game consoles, public perception, who was first to have the technology available, in addition to contracts made with the adult industry and more.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,245638,00.html

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37021

Porn plays a role

There are many forces impacting the format war, the price to produce a HD DVD verse Blue Ray disk, marketing turn over, alliances made with mainstream film production companies, video game consoles, public perception, who was first to have the technology available, and contracts made with the adult industry.

That’s right; porn has a hand in deciding which format will be the most popular!

Porn is a very important portion of the home entertainment market, in fact, “Porn outsells Hollywood” (foxnews 2007). The adult-film industry does about 12 billion in sales a year, more than 4 billion dollars more than the mainstream film revenues (foxnews 2007). The first porn flick, “Camp Cuddly Pines Power Tool Massacre,” was released on HD DVD in December of 2006, by Wicked pictures. As foxnews.com puts it “Like with a 108-inch LCD television, it wasn't really about practicality as much as it was being first to market — and finding a cheap way of doing so” (foxnews 2007).

Some people argue that there may not be demand to see porn in high-definition. Vice President of DVD Production [for Wicked pictures], Jackie Ramos counters, "We happen to feel that they do. We didn't negate ... we still haven't negated Blu-ray, but it was much more cost effective to go with HD DVD." “As Ramos puts it, Wicked chose HD DVD primarily because of Blu-ray's prohibitive expense and lack of market share, as well as the fact that it is generally cheaper and easier to produce using the format” (foxnews 2007).

Sony may also be impeding Blue Ray pron, “During an interview with AVN earlier this month, Joone (a pseudonym used by Ali Davoudian, an AVN award winning pornographic film director/producer and founder of the company Digital Playground), said that he was basically forced to use HD DVD because no Blu-ray manufacturer would make his discs”(foxnews 2007). Although Sony is not directly prohibiting adult content they sure are not making it easy. Vivid Video had to manufacture the discs themselves and but is releasing a film on Blu-ray DVD in March entitled "Debbie Does Dallas Again" (abcnews.go.com 2007).

Affiliation with the Adult industry, is not the only factor affecting the format war, it is none the less very significant. And if history shows anything it shows that alliances with the porn industry, or lack there of, can be extremely helpful or extremely harmful.

Reference:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,245638,00.html

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=2835806&page=1

http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/ehost/pdf?vid=59&hid=101&sid=32ba3b94-cf6b-4bc0-b6cd-8a8e80d42612%40sessionmgr107

http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=101&sid=32ba3b94-cf6b-4bc0-b6cd-8a8e80d42612%40sessionmgr107

http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/ehost/pdf?vid=8&hid=101&sid=32ba3b94-cf6b-4bc0-b6cd-8a8e80d42612%40sessionmgr107

http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/ehost/detail?vid=68&hid=101&sid=32ba3b94-cf6b-4bc0-b6cd-8a8e80d42612%40sessionmgr107

First, what are HD DVD and Blue Ray disks?

What do they have in common?

HD DVD, stands for High-Density Digital Versatile Disk, it is a "digital optical media format which is being developed as one standard for high-definition DVD. HD-DVD is similar to the competing Blu-ray Disc, which also uses the same CD sized (120 mm diameter) optical data storage media and 405 nm wavelength blue laser. The mandatory video codecs are MPEG-4 AVC (H.264), VC-1 and MPEG-2. The video resolution maximum for both are 1920x1080 24p or 50/60i HDTV."

What are the main differences in HD DVD and Blue Ray disks?

"HD-DVD is promoted by Toshiba, NEC, and Sanyo, and backed by four major film studios. The Blu-ray Disc is proposed by Sony.” The storage capacity for Blue Ray is 50 GB verse 30 GBfor HD DVD."

See the table form: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_DVD#HD_DVD_.2F_Blu-ray_Disc_comparison for more detail.

Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_DVD#HD_DVD_.2F_Blu-ray_Disc_comparison

Background

In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s consumers could choose between two home entertainment methods; Betamax or VHS. Of the two Betamax had more superior technology. Why then is it that VHS was popularized and Betamax was not?

Sony was unwilling to let the adult industry use the Betamx technology, believing that it would smear its reputation (Perdue 2006). The result is history, VHS won out over Betamax. “Sexually explicit videotapes hit the stores in 1977, a year before regular Hollywood releases, and over the next few years, more than half of all recorded tapes sold were X-rated. By the mid-1980s, that share had dropped to under 25 percent” (Frederick 2000). Later Sony would admit that main reason for Betamax’s failure was “the company’s refusal to cooperate with the migration of porn flicks to home video” (Perdue 2006).

The Adult industry has been an instrumental driver in technological advances, form home video, to pushing for high-speed internet connections to support web streaming video, and now to playing a role in the current format war between Sony and Toshiba over Blue ray verse HD DVD.

References:

http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/ehost/detail?vid=29&hid=101&sid=32ba3b94-cf6b-4bc0-b6cd-8a8e80d42612%40sessionmgr107

Perdue, L. (2006). Eroticabiz: How sex shaped the Internet. In D. D. Waskul ED.), Net.seXXX: Readings on sex, pornography and the Internet (pp. 259-293). New York: Petter Lang.