History of Gay Porn Video On Demand – Exclusive Interview with AEBN’s Scott Coffman

Part Four of my series "History of Gay Porn Video On Demand 2000-2009" focuses on the biggest player in the industry, Adult Entertainment Broadcast Network, or AEBN. The name AEBN itself might not be a household name, but the backend of most of your favorite video on demand websites are probably very familiar. For instance, GAY VIDEO CAFE is my private label version of AEBN's infrastructure. It's their streams, their database, their billing system. I put my GAY VIDEO CAFE banner on the top, promote the hell out of it to my customers, and we both make money!

I'm honored to have AEBN's own CEO, Scott Coffman, reply to my interview questions!

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1. When was the launch of your VOD sites?

May 1999

2. What your biggest challenge at the beginning?

The biggest challenge was getting manufacturers to give us their content because they really didn’t know what video on demand was.  They were making too much money in DVD sales so they really weren’t concerned with video on demand at that point.  As such, trying to get deals with them was difficult.  Number two was getting people to promote our product because we were promoting a rev-share when most membership sites were paying really big flat fees every time you signed someone up.  So it was a challenge to convince webmasters that we were the future, that by doing this they wouldn’t make as much money now but in the future if they stayed with us down the line they would get recurring revenue and make more over the long term.

3. When you started your company, what were your predictions for 2009 (or ten years in the future)?
 
This is our tenth anniversary and I’m proud to say that our vision for what this business could be has come true. Our goal from the start was in ten years to be a hundred million dollar company and to be on TV.  That’s why it’s called AEBN, the Adult Entertainment Broadcast Network.  We thought within ten years with our VOD platform that we’d be able to show our product on TV which would give us a lot much larger reach than just Internet.  We hit one of those goals so far.
 
4. What was your company's big breakthrough?
 
From a technology perspective, it was getting pay-per-minute system to work on the Real Media Player which was the dominant player at the time.  We were inspired by the peep shows in video stores and wanted to create an online version of that, one that could possibly be all things to all people. We were the first ones to come out with pay-per-minute as a business model but there was no platform for it like there is today.  We had to develop the concept and write our own scripts to have Real work on a pay-per-minute  model.
 
Our biggest breakthrough from a standpoint of sales was getting Kara’s Adult Playground to carry our VOD at the beginning.  They were our biggest affiliate and they alone generate more revenue than everything else we were going when they first came on board.  They gave us a lot of credibility in getting into other affiliates.
 
Going forward, I believe that our development of RealTouch, the new high-tech male sex toy, will be considered equally as important. RealTouch takes VOD into another dimension by adding the sense of touch to those of sight and sound. The haptic technology behind it creates an experience that can’t be matched and we’re excited about getting it out to the public.
 
What is the importance of the gay market to AEBN?
 
The gay market has been an important part of our success. From day one we’ve approached it as a substantial part of our business plan.  They were early adopters and we found the per capita spending was much better from the gay market. Our customers there are very loyal. It’s a third of our business.  There’s no stigma for them to buy born.  I think that’s evident by the fact that all of our acquisitions - Raging Stallion, Naked Sword, Pistol Media -have been in the gay industry.
 
5. What is the most popular gay niche on your site?
Twink is very popular. Just like the straight side, younger is always a draw.  Bareback is also a top seller.

6. What specific gay movie titles were the biggest hits over the years?
Built To Fuck (TIM), Fuck Me Raw (Cobra), Barebacking with Jeff Palmer (SX Video) have been among the most popular.

7. If you made a tombstone for porn on DVD, what would be the date of it's death?
 
Until the world is totally wired for broadband, I don’t think porn on DVD will totally be gone just as the CD format will be there for music. You’ll still have sales, there will always be a market for DVD’s. Over the next couple of years though it will draw down to where it’s not the primary source of revenue for producers which it’s always been. So as the dominant revenue product, I would say sometime towards the end of 2011.