Video on Demand is a rather simple idea—you watch what you want, when you want.

To be more exact, though, Video on Demand (VOD) systems allow users to choose and watch video content over a network, usually via an Internet connection, where the content is streamed and watched as it loads or is completely downloaded before it is viewed.

The whole point of it all? People can have what they want and when all through the privacy and safety of their Internet connection.

In the adult industry, VOD has been available online for roughly eight years. AEBN, Adult Entertainment Broadcast Network, is the pioneer of adult VOD, providing Pay-Per-Minute viewing options for the first time in the industry. Also vying for online customers are VOD companies HotMovies and Gamelink.

A VOD company is not an easy business to start. The overhead alone—storage costs and bandwidth, for starters—is extremely costly, as several members of the industry explained at the Phoenix Forum two years ago, an adult webmaster convention held in Arizona. But it has become popular one: among consumers as a way to get their adult entertainment; among studios as a medium to deliver their content; and, among adult webmasters who affiliate with these businesses.

"The basis for our company was a simple idea, but it was a different idea for that time," explains AEBN's Michael Herman. "Back then in adult, everyone was kind of with the business model of ‘Screw the Consumer’—get as much as you can from them as fast as you can, get them on recurring billing, they won’t notice it for a few months."

This, Herman reveals, is why VOD was radically different. “Our business model is all about making nice with the customer and keeping them coming back with a good quality product.”

In the VOD and PPV (Pay-Per-View) world of adult entertainment, the pay-per-minute business model—based on purchasing minute packages used to watch desired content—is prevalent. Customers can watch a sampling of scenes from several movies or watch most or all of one film. This flexibility is undoubtedly another reason that VOD has become wildly popular in the adult world. VOD sites usually offer a download or rental option as well so that customers can purchase an entire film to watch for a set amount of time.

Adult VOD sites usually offer a download or rental option as well so that customers can purchase an entire film for viewing and often for a set amount of time; hence, the "rental" aspect of it.

VOD also offers an almost unbelievable variety to their users: AEBN has over 50,000 movies at last count and HotMovies has grown past 40,000.

No matter how a customer enters the world of VOD, the accessibility, relative ease of use and the privacy afforded by its online format has helped make it an attractive choice.

But, what does the future hold for Video on Demand and the adult world?

As the two are linked in the present, they will continue to be linked in the future, as VOD remains at the forefront of innovations in adult entertainment delivery.

Video on Demand's future is assured because it thrives on technological innovation and, just as the porn industry has always lead the way for mainstream, VOD will continue to lead the technological advancements within the industry.

“We look at ourselves as a technology company, we don’t view ourselves as an adult company,” Herman states about AEBN, illustrating the point that sometimes the business is as much about technology as it is porn. Staying ahead of the technological curve is what keeps a VOD company at the top of the market; fierce competition breeds better innovation and that is what will lead to what will be the future of porn.

In some ways, the future has already started to arrive. One of the major shifts for VOD is happening now with development of IPTV , which will eventually allow adult Video-on-Demand services to make the leap from computer to television.

"The future of VOD is moving into IPTV where you're going to be able to watch the things you watch on your computer on your television," acknowledges Scott Coffman, president of AEBN. "And that's going to make all of us VOD companies television stations in the adult channels as well."

The "TV" mentality is already taking hold in the adult industry as content providers such as Pink TV market themselves as television networks and not simply studios, creating series that are not only in the mode of one might expect to see a normal television network but that also feature hardcore sex—the best, some would argue, of both worlds. Just as we've seen VOD move their services from Internet to mobile, the future seems to be in the move from Internet property to television property, into a new arena of convergence.

Referring to statistics from an AVN article, industry observer and writer Scott McGowan admits to salivating at "the rapid growth of Internet based revenue compared to the sluggish growth of the Rental and Sales market" because of what it means for the online porn industry.

His observations, though sometimes acerbic, point to a truth: that online adult venues, such as VOD providers, are gaining strength over their brick-and-mortar counterparts.

A shift isn't surprising since online porn consumption is usually easier, especially given the trouble and conspicuousness that visiting an in-the-flesh store might involve. Sex industry locations such as adult retail stores and strip clubs have faced a series of problems with local government that only encumber the flagging businesses. It's easy to see why the fast, private and personal methods available on the Web appeal more to porn's Internet-savvy target demographic.

Progressive technology being developed by some VOD providers will fulfill the needs of people who, as McGowan observed, may prefer physical DVDs for their box covers and traditional packaging. Download-to-Own and Download-to-Burn solutions have emerged over the last year, most notably when adult entertainment studio Vivid announced that they would be offering their titles in this way—a service that would allow a customer to download a movie and burn it to a DVD that would play in any standard player.

Download-to-Own bridges the gap between VOD and Download-to-Burn, giving customers the chance to download a permanent digital version of the film without the extras associated with their traditional manufacture such as galleries and behind the scenes features popular in the DVD age.

AEBN launched a Download-to-Own service in their last VOD theater upgrade and have plans to introduce Download-to-Burn by the end of year, meaning a percentage of their movies will be available on DVD – a selection so large that a brick-and-mortar store could never compete.

VOD reigns supreme over the Internet at the moment but the Internet, like the adult industry, is changing. Every aspect of Internet life is being changed by the onset of the second-generation Web services dubbed Web 2.0 that allow Internet users to share data in previously unavailable ways. Not even VOD and porn are immune to the effects of Web 2.0 on cyberspace and they are both changing with it.

Google has recently announced that it has plans to buy the media-sharing site YouTube.com for 1.65 billion dollars and that fact alone lends credence to the bright future of second-generation Web applications. YouTube is a wonderful example of the principles of VOD wedded to Web 2.0. People search for media and find what they want, when they want it. But instead of the media coming, from some, a corporate entity, the media is user-generated, forming a community-based VOD. Community and self-publishing platforms are two important characteristics of Web 2.0 and media-sharing sites combine both of these aspects.

The adult industry, too, has seen the appearance of several media-sharing sites made for the porn purveyor and consumer. PornoTube.com, Xtube.com and Veoh.com .all contain some of the aspects that made YouTube so popular. However, it is Pornotube that most embraces the Web 2.0 mold and its appeal is undeniable, having jumped into the Alexa Top 300 within two months of its initial launch. Still in beta, the site is poised to fill that technological niche within the adult industry, leading it and VOD firmly into the future.

The adult industry has always been shaped by technological progress—VHS, for example, and the Internet—and advances like VOD delivery and the new mobile capabilities emerging make that sentiment true even for the current adult landscape. It will remain true in the future as well, as the innovations of VOD help lead the porn industry into the next generation. Porn, though, rarely needs to worry about its future—one will always be there, waiting for the next new thing in technology to take it to the next level.