One of TDG's numerous on-going, internal discussions has been the availability and impact of adult content in OTT. While few question the demand for such content, most mainstream players do not want to be publicly associated with such offerings. Look at Wal-Mart's acquisition of VUDU. One of the first steps was to remove the adult content section. Same thing happened when Best Buy acquired rights to the name CinemaNow (well, almost).
Back in May 2006, I was quoted in an article discussing how "Porn has always led the way" in a conversation looking at a then-new download-to-burn DVD service from (warning: contains adult material) AllAdultChannel, which was part of CinemaNow. (The site still offers links to Best Buy's CinemaNow). The reality - as we saw five years ago and some could easily point to far, far longer - is that erotic entertainment has long been intertwined with technological innovation. This holds true in the OTT market. Beyond the DVD download offer, we've also seen efforts to provide dedicated boxes by companies like FyreTV. While these solutions are of limited appeal given the complexity and dedicated-device functions, they at least enabled the experience on the TV instead of the PC.
But what about the plethora of other internet-enabled devices? Clearly the leading players for OTT devices (the game consoles) do not want to be associated to this genre. Last week, AEBN launched a new streaming service that attempts to address this issue. The service delivers to any BD-Live Blu-ray player or PS3. Just like the early Netflix for PS3 client, users simply insert a disk and can access content streamed from the internet. The technology is powered by RCDb. Early tests showed there are still some kinks to work out (no pun intended, really), but erotic content now has a new path to the TV.
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