In the summer of 2006, executives pitching Blu-ray, one of two competing high-definition DVD formats, visited the studios of pornography giant Wicked Pictures. Blu-ray spokespeople told Wicked, “We can help you, but remember: We were never here.” Why is Blu-ray courting the industry that its creator and sole producer, Sony, swore its machinery would never touch? It is because of technology’s dirty little secret: New technological mediums are often spread, tested, and made popular through their adoption by the adult entertainment industry.

Pornography has been credited with the triumph of VHS over Sony’s higher quality Beta formatting for videotapes in the 1970s; the adoption of the printing press, cable television, Polaroid & digital cameras, broadband Internet, VCRs, satellite TV, camera phones, digital cameras; AT&T intelligence networks; and, the origin of 900 numbers. Paul Saffo, a Silicon Valley technology analyst, says pornography is to new technologies what acne is to teenagers: “Just part of the process of growing up.” Though mainstream companies “almost never specify how much money they earn from the skin trade, it’s a huge, huge market,” according to one analyst for Oppenheimer & Co. The relationship between pornography and technology is perhaps best described by the placement of their annual trade shows, the Adult Entertainment Expo and the Consumer Electronics Show, which alongside each other, albeit independently, in Las Vegas each year.

Because of pornography’s historical relationship with technology and the massive amount of revenue the industry generates, great attention is being paid as which format, Blu-ray or HD-DVD, pornographers will favor. But though Blu-ray has been chosen by seven out of eight major Hollywood studios, and can be played in four times the number of homes thanks to the widespread sales of PlayStation 3, HD-DVD seems, thus far, to be porn’s chosen format. Whether it is because of problems accessing replicators as a result of Sony’s anti-pornography pledge or because HD-DVD is significantly cheaper to produce, HD-DVD was winning the hearts of pornographers even before it upped its memory from 30 to 51GB in an effort to compete with Blu-Ray. 

Blu-ray has been seen as the superior technology for a variety of reasons. First, it uses a more precise lens; so, more information can be fit on each layer of the disk, meaning HD-DVD had to expand to three layers to hold the same 50GB the original two-layer Blu-ray disk was storing. Additionally, Blu-ray’s data transfer rater for audio and video is nearly 50 percent more than that of HD-DVD, which allows for higher picture and sound quality.

Blu-ray’s only major disadvantage, is seems, is that its thinner surface layer makes it incompatible with regular DVDs from a production angle, meaning they cannot be manufactured on the same machinery used to make DVDs and HD-DVDs, adding significant expense to their production. And because the difference in quality between the formats is minor enough, it will likely go undetected by the average consumer. And since HD-DVD can continue to compete in memory by adding more and more layers, the considerably lower costs associated with HD-DVD may prove sufficient to make it a favorable format, as it seems to have already become for porn. At the 2006 Adult Entertainment Expo, three major pornographic production studios—Wicked Pictures, Digital Playground, and High Def Home Entertainment—announced the start of production of high-definition videos in HD-DVD only. The only pornographic film to be produced in Blu-ray will simultaneously be manufactured in HD-DVD, both by Vivid Entertainment, which announced its decision not to favor either format. No porn studio has thus far chosen to produce in Blu-ray exclusively.

But regardless of which format is eventually chosen, the conversion to high-definition filming could, again, change the face of porn. As pornography has helped further and popularize new technological mediums through its historical willingness to adopt them first, technology has simultaneously changed the face of pornography as it has progressed from print to film to Internet. Most recently, widespread Internet access coupled with affordable home video equipment allowed a much realer, grittier aesthetic for pornography produced on a smaller scale, without the benefits of professional lighting, makeup, and direction. The emergence of 4.2 million pornographic websites in less than a decade, most of which are not linked to production studios, stretched the gamut of erotic material available for viewing.

“Reality porn” followed in the footsteps of reality television, blurring the distance between scripted entertainment and encounters staged for voyeuristic appeal, and what came next was even more realistic—websites like YouPorn.com where, despite the absence of direction, script, or even revenue, new libraries of video clips are amassed daily, donated by amateur exhibitionists and budding porn stars from around the world. It doesn’t get much more real than that.   

The ever-growing share of the American porn market that online material dominates, 22 percent, or $2.8 billion last year, suggests a growing appetite for a more realistic and varied aesthetic for porn, which is exactly what high-definition filming can provide as production companies struggle to compete with the Internet. “Ten years ago, around 80 percent of our business was in DVD sales. This year, it’s going to be less than 30 percent, and in five years I anticipate it will be less than 5 percent,” Steve Hirsch, the head of Vivid Entertainment, told the Washington Post.

High-definition picture, which will provide a closer, realer, more intense picture, might be just what production companies need to maintain an edge in the market by putting viewers “in the room … as close to the action as possible,” an element of eroticism that many in the industry seem to understand—that for many viewers, an experience of realism, of somehow being part of the scene, may be the most important feature of pornography. So while the New York Times reported many porn stars undergoing new plastic surgery procedures and starting new diets fearing that the sharpness of high definition would detract from their eroticism and attractiveness, others, like director Robby D., understand for many viewers this is the whole appeal of high definition—that it’s not artificial perfection, but a little cellulite and other natural human flaws that many viewers find “kind of sexy.”

Ironically, film studios adopting high definition will also have to compete with a new form of low definition: cell phone pornography. Perhaps the newest technological medium to become involved with the porn business, cellular providers in the United States have just started to become involved in what is already a $500 million market worldwide, and one that’s rapidly growing. According to projections by Strategy Analytics, cellular pornography could be a $5 billion business in 2010. Even more conservative estimates, like that of $3.3 billion offered by Jupiter, would make pornography account for 70 percent of annual revenue for cellular providers. This is because, according to a wireless analyst for Ovum, the market research firm, cell phones have “every component that has proven conducive to the consumption of adult entertainment—privacy, easy access, and on top of it, mobility.”

Seeing the potential for market growth, cellular providers in other countries have jumped at the chance to take a share of the action by creating a gamut of new cellular services. Ron Jeremy has already licensed his name to a cell phone porn company in Britain and Holland, RJ Mobile. Telus began offering pay-per-view cellular downloads in Canada. Cherry Media has a game that allows users to create their ideal woman and then try to bed her on many different European carriers. Voooyeur, a service of Barcelona-based Enquire, offers galleries of photographs of amateur exhibitionists that post photographs of themselves via cell phone.

The American market for cellular pornography is lagging behind those of Europe, Asia, and Latin America, according to Forbes. But while USA Today reports that “the absence of V-chip-style parental controls largely has kept U.S. consumers from using cell phones to access porn,” studies have shown that Americans still aggressively seek access, with 20 percent of Google searches from mobile phones seeking adult content, the largest of any query. Downloads are slow and cumbersome and will be improved when more wireless companies are willing to link to portals like Xobile, where users have access to pre-gathered pornography collections, thus eliminating the hassles of searching.

Xobile, a division of Adult Entertainment Broadcast Network, has a database of 76,000 clips. Cingular has taken steps towards becoming more pornography friendly by creating the necessary privacy and minor protection filters and blockers that will restrict content for underage customers, and allow pornographic content to be accessed by legal customers. A Silicon Valley start-up, Mobile Streaming Solutions, is working to make cell phones capable for video chatting, with its obvious pornographic implications. Steve Hirsch has high expectations for Vivid’s online service VividNow, which will offer live pornographic video chats and will eventually let users control the action and “tell porn stars exactly how to make love to the camera.”

While Americans might be behind the curve when comes to cell phone pornography, they are not lagging with regard to podcasts, audio and video programs that are automatically downloaded on subscriber’s computers as they become available, that can readily be transferred to iPods and other handheld devices. Perhaps the happiest medium between the convenience of cell-phone pornography and the quality of HD, pornographic podcasts are a marriage of convenience and quality and are rapidly growing in popularity as a result, with half of all searches on PodCast.net seeking adult content. Though it is only recently that a large portion of consumers have amassed iPods with video capabilities, video podcasts have not only existed but have been shot almost exclusively in HD for three years now, according to one Digital Playground representative, making it yet another technological arena in which pornography is ahead of the curve.

Adult podcasts have a variety of benefits as compared with cell phone pornography beyond picture quality. Because they are downloaded directly from computers onto iPods and other devices, their content is not restricted by service providers, and because many producers of pornography are eager to both experiment with new technology and build a loyal customer base among younger populations, pornographic podcasts are often free, even those produced by the biggest adult film studios. The Playboy website gives away 20,000 free podcast downloads a month, in an effort to appeal to what one of its executives, Richard Gale, has deemed the “podcast generation.”

Technology and pornography, a seemingly odd couple, enjoy a close-knit, lucrative relationship because each has the ability to make the other sexier. New modes of technology allow users to enjoy pornography in new ways, delivering an ever-wider variety of increasingly life-like images on more private, convenient, and accessible devices. Technology has brought pornography out of darkness of adult theaters and bookstores and into the daylight of every element of modern life and has made international, amateur and private collections easily accessible, often without charge, through the Internet.

Pornography simultaneously brings users to newly developed technologies, testing the waters when Hollywood and media giants are unsure how to proceed. Both industries are by definition experimental and must constantly change to keep pace with the time, as their output is a barometer of the most current human desires. Both industries realize this reality, and recognize that it is only through a codependent relationship can they stay up to date. The Broadway show Avenue Q made light of the this relationship with its song “The Internet is for Porn,” but what the host of the 2006 AVN awards, Greg Fitzsimmons, said to the crowd is his opening remarks is perhaps a little bit more insightful about this relationship. “The Internet was completely funded by porn. And if it wasn’t for the Internet, you guys would be completely out of business.”