A lot of truth in the statements made here, and it does not have to be one truth that will prevail....Several different things can be happening at the same time.
Just as TV stations move to reality programs spending less per hour on programs other subscriptions services have increased their ambition and productions....So you get both BIG BROTHER and HBO 's THE WIRE.
The technology that destroyed porn film production is coming full circle and as the quality increases its potential returns to that film look. For lots amateur shot porn will look great on their phone but for others it will be unwatchable on their home cinema system.
People will still pay for material they can't get for free or just for the ease and safety of use.
A lot of the problems of the industry seems to me to be caused by itself...The amount of material which is pumped out in the form of galleries and promotional materials and the short life time it is up, has produced an audience which could watch free material 24 / 7.
A slow down and a reduction of the sheer amount of free stuff would help...I suspect that major sites pump it out more to drown the competition than to make sales.
An attitude that a website can be built just on links and others materials means that there are 1000's of very small websites with no real originality or content.
Websites which have real original content still have traffic which converts when sent on to paysites.
We have a few affiliates who send us good traffic. A lot who send so small amounts they will never be able to judge on our conversions. But we ourselves make the most sales through are own efforts of google/ adwords/ galleries...
I am always puzzled by us not having more affiliates as really it works out that on average affiliates earn $0.10 per click they send us.
So that means that people are earning more than $0.10 with other sites, so things can't be that bad can they?
We are still in production but we have seen production in the UK shrink but that could be down to poor models and model agencies.
So we look to Prague and Budapest for talent. Also we see no point in shooting another girl on couch clip, but will be continuing to make a few high value movies with the best looking girls we can find. Like 1) a musical, 2) a comedy 3)short story based on classic literature...In fact the opposite to what people would expect and to appeal to an audience that like the erotic but don't like the woman hating low quality crap porn
( no offense - as The Godfather said I don't mind how a person makes his living)
I just to show its not all from one side I bought a membership to a Czech Site and downloaded all their movies, and I thought it was great value for money. 3 months on I still havn't watched it all and the girls are hot.
Shooting more like this soon....