Porn stocks worth, um, watching
 

In an industry that counts on impulse buys, video on demand and faster cell-phone Internet access should be a boon for publicly traded adult-entertainment companies.

By Michael Brush
October 31, 2007


Technology has made pornography easier to produce and to distribute. By some estimates, pornography accounts for 40% of all Internet traffic and pay-TV sales. But, for shareholders at least, technology has yet to make pornography wildly profitable.


Playboy Enterprises (PLA.N) has seen its share price fall by 30% since the start of 2004, compared with a 39% gain in the S&P 500 Index ($US:INX). New Frontier Media (NOOF.O), a Boulder, Colo., business that distributes pornographic videos, trades lower than it did three years ago. And a smaller video distributor in Europe called Private Media (PRVT.O) trades where it did at the beginning of 2004, while the Russell 2000 Index ($US:RUT.X) of small-cap stocks has advanced more than 45% in the same time frame.


There are lots of reasons why: low-cost, high-quality digital-video cameras that have enabled small private companies; technology-enabled piracy of costlier content; and the abundance of free porn on the Internet.


But new technology appears to offer new hope for porn profits. Innovations such as video on demand (VOD) and faster cell-phone Internet access mean consumers will be better able to get the kind of porn they want, when and where they want it. That should boost sales for the publicly traded adult-entertainment companies supplying these channels.



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