Porn Takes over at CES

I found this at Reuters and couldn't help but put it in. There is an urban legend that 80% of e-commerce is porn and this seems to prove the fact....

The Consumer Electronics Show wasn't the only entertainment trade show in town last week.

Sharing space with CES at the Sands Expo Center was trade publication Adult Video News' annual AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, the traditional start-of-year showcase for the booming adult industry.

In the first quantitative study conducted in three years, Adult Video News estimates consumers spent $12.6 billion on adult entertainment last year.

Nearly $4.3 billion, or 34%, came from the purchase or rental of adult video DVDs and videocassettes. Another 20%, or $2.5 billion, was generated through Internet sales, with the third-largest segment -- dance clubs -- generating about $2 billion, or 16% of the market.

Adult software providers also remain at the forefront of technology. They were among the first to embrace DVD when the format hit the market nine years ago and are now aggressively going after high-definition and other new formats, including such hand-held devices as cell phones and game players. Digital Playground, one of the adult industry's top software suppliers, recently released a $2 million film, "Pirates," which was shot entirely in high definition. It was released on video in a three-disc set, two of them standard DVDs and the third in HD.

"Right now, most consumers can't play the HD disc because next-generation players aren't yet on the market," said Martin Blythe, spokesman for the Video Software Dealers Assn., which co-sponsored the show with AVN. "But the point is, these companies are already ahead of the curve."

Indeed, Digital Playground just announced that it will issue trailers for upcoming movies in HD and also make them available for playback on iPod and Sony's PlayStation Portable.

"We've been shooting everything in HD for more than two years, and the playback technology is finally available on Web consumers," company founder Joone said.

The AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, which wrapped Sunday, was projected to draw more than 30,000 people, 20,000 of them fans on special Fan Days. Nearly 400 companies were exhibiting.