In Praise of Porn on Demand
We spent a delightful hour in Los Angeles (or, El Lay, as my pal Joe Bob Briggs likes to say) smoking cigars with Screw magazine magnate Al Goldstein and his new best friend, Frank Ryan, of X on Demand, who made a compelling case for his up-and-coming download site.
Did you know that in hotel rooms where porn is available, two-thirds of all movie purchases are for porn? The average time they are watched is 12 minutes, and that is only because the first 7 minutes are credits and set up. Heh heh heh. Costs a pretty penny to crank the wank to (usually low quality) hotel room porn, too, somewhere around fifteen or twenty bucks. Much cheaper, faster, and safer, than your local escort service, to be sure, but nowhere near as cheap and quick as video on demand sites.
While Sir Rodney abhors streaming video on the demand for two main reasons (1) rebuffering problems typical of the technology and (2) why “rent” when you can own, and watch over and over again, without being hooked up to the web. That said, we know most gents don’t want incriminating movies on their hard drives. After considering these points, and talking to a talented entrepreneur like Frank, we are now inclined to see the value in these video on demand sites, especially to the traveling business bloke whose alternative is whatever artless crap the hotel is serving up for fifteen bucks.
As it happens, we were in an El Lay hotel room that very night, and we took a close look at Frank’s site X on Demand (note to self: review it soon) and liked what we saw. For $3.95 you can stream fifteen minutes of your favorite porn titles, and there are hundreds of recent DVD titles to choose from. Sir Rodney went to bed with a smile on his face and a few extra quid in his pocket. Thanks, Frank!
Guiltily, we reflected on a recent slam we gave I Download Porn… this may be a case where Sir Rodney needs to suck it up and revise our barbed reviews. Stay tuned for a more full report on the VOD sites.
Also, we’ll be writing more about the exuberant, undefeated, and unrepentant Mr. Goldstein; 69 is clearly an age that serves him well. Most men would be getting ready to retire, but our man Al has a 29 year old wife, a new job, and a new movie. He is just getting started!
