FROM www.variety.com Heading into the annual Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas next month, the U.S. adult industry is estimated by its trade magazine Bible AVN to be raking in $12.615 billion annually.
This is the first comprehensive revenue survey for the adult industry. In addition to the sales and rentals of adult movies via DVD, VHS and video on demand, the AVN considered segments such as internet sites, sex toys, magazines and strip clubs.
More than a third of the $12.6 billion, or about $4.3 billion, comes from video sales and rentals. That figure has remained relatively flat since 1997.
Nonetheless, it still represents more than the total consumer spending on the overall DVD industry’s fastest-growing segment, TV shows on DVD.
AVN reports in its January issue that another 20% of the overall porn market, $2.5 billion, comes from adult Internet sales, with exotic dance clubs representing $2 billion (16%).
In the homevideo sector, nearly 13,600 titles were released this year, with approximately 957 million rentals of adult DVDs.
The smallest percentage of the adult market belongs to mobile technology. With domestic sales of about $35 million, it comprised less than 1% of the adult marketplace. However, worldwide mobile sales amounted to $700 million in 2005 and that figure is expected to triple to $2.1 billion by 2009.
Mainstream movies still dominate the VOD market, with porn taking $800 million of a $2 billion market. However, adult content dominates the sales of in-hotel movie purchases, with 55% of those viewers choosing porn titles.
The AVN’s sources include its own research as well as Kagan Research, Juniper Research, the New York Times, Forbes and the Free Speech Coalition.
AVN Publications president Paul Fishbein says the $12.6 billion figure "seems logical."
"I’ve heard numbers anywhere from $8 billion to $15 billion the last couple of years from various news organizations," Fishbein said in a statement. "Because the majority of companies are privately held, hard numbers are difficult to ascertain."
According to internet monitoring service Hitwise, more than a third of all adult internet service users earn more than $75 million annually, with 25% of users falling in the 35-44 age brackets.