The adult industry has played a huge part in the way home video content reaches the market -- and our homes. Over thirty years ago the adult industry pushed the VHS format over the Betamax technology. Pornography helped get DVD-Video as a format upwards of 91 percent market penetration in the U.S. Now adult content is shaping the way high definition (HD) content comes to us via Blu-ray and ultimately via HD downloads (even though Toshiba did admit defeat to the former high def technology) .An excerpt from We Make Money, Not Art,
"VHS vs Betamax. An urban legend wants that the format war was won by VHS because of porn. It fact the battle might have been won by something as simple as the length of the tape (2 hours for VHS and 1 hour for Betamax.) Porn adopted VHS to lower production costs. In its quest to go mainstream, the porn industry wanted to make feature films and thuus needed longer tapes. VHS allowed people to watch porn at home. They didn't have to face the humiliation of buying tickets to see a smut movie."
Leading home theater and consumer electronics news and review site, HomeTheaterReview.com, is out with a lead story that sheds light on the often seedy world of pornography and how that industry once again is leading the way with home video content - now with high definition video for Blu-ray and HD downloads. This time the adult entertainment industry may not just reshape the lucrative world of mainstream home video, they could redefine the mainstream Hollywood theatrical business model.
"People forget that without the support of the adult industry that VHS was unlikely to beat out Beta as a leading home video format a generation ago, and that without VHS there wouldn't be a home theater market like we know today," says HomeTheaterReview.com publisher Jerry Del Colliano.
"Adult content was key in DVD-Video getting over 91 percent U.S. household market penetration and is now helping Blu-ray get over 15 percent penetration just one year after the Blu-Friday format war victory at CES 2008. Beyond Blu-ray as the current HD home video format, the adult industry is pushing limits for HD video downloads from the Internet which represents the future of Hollywood, not just the San Fernando Valley."
Today, over 500,000 people pay U.S. $1 extra per month to get high definition content on Blu-ray discs from leading online rental house Netflix. Netflix doesn't rent adult content, sticking with more traditional and less "blue" content for its subscribers.
Dr. Ken Taraszka's full article on the future of HD content with respect to the adult industry can be read at HomeTheaterReviews.com
Here is a Wiki on the VHS vs. Betamax war.
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