Porn industry eyes iPods
2005-11-15 11:28
Washington - The small screen is heating up with a new wave of racy images and film clips making their way to cell phones and the new video iPods, raising new questions for telecom companies and regulators.
Within days of the launch of Apple's new video iPod, companies were rushing to deliver content ranging from mild to shocking.
"We think the growth of viewing adult content on iPod devices will be explosive in the coming months," said Harvey Kaplan of Xobile.com, which describes itself as "the leading provider of adult movies for cell phones."
"We actively sign up about 20 000 new subscribers every month," Kaplan said, adding that three-fourths are from outside the United States.
In the United States, he said the market had been limited by cell phone companies that are reluctant to become partners with the porn industry for fear of being stigmatised and by community standards more staid that other parts of the world.
"Nobody wants to be the first company to allow adult content," he said.
Still, many companies are positioning for a growing market. Playboy struck a deal this year for "iBod" photo galleries for the iPod photo device - which preceded the video iPod - and has a deal with Dwango Wireless to offer adult content for cell phones.
Kaplan said a new rating system adopted this month by the cellular industry - which could allow parents to block sex-oriented content - would be a boon to the adult entertainment industry.
The Wireless Association announced guidelines for "generally accessible" and "restricted" content using criteria based on the movie, television, music and games rating systems.
This allows carriers to require parent or guardian permission to access any material inappropriate for subscribers under 18.
The move to create content categories that could allow filters "is fabulous for a company like ours," Kaplan said.
"The chief thing we get accused of is going after children. The bottom line is that kids are the worst customers possible."
"They don't have credit cards or their cards are stolen. We don't want them to see the content."
The research firm Research and Markets estimated a year ago that the "wireless adult content market" would be worth $1bn (about R6.7bn) globally by 2008.
But Jeff Kagan, an independent telecom analyst, said he sees the market moving slowly for erotic programming on cell phones, even as the carriers start offering other types of films, music and television shows.
"The US carriers have all shied away form anything that would cause trouble or hurt their image," Kagan said.
"They have basically said they are staying out of the porn business. They have no control of what their clients do, but when they hear about it they try to shut it down."
Kagan said the companies "would like access to a whole new revenue stream but it opens up a whole number of issues ... it's a touchy subject."