Far from the blinking lights of gritty Los Angeles and the flat stretches of one-story homes stitching Porn Valley strip malls together, beyond the colorful casinos of Las Vegas and the neon-drenched humidity of Miami, is an entire continent no less populated with porn producers, performers and distributors making their mark on the global stage.
And though the European Union may not have as many so-called superstars concentrated in as few cities, the adult community there more than amply makes up for this with the sheer variety of beautiful faces, sexy physiques, alluring languages and strikingly gorgeous newcomers.
As far as the differences between U.S. and European-produced porn, they are becoming less pronounced, as more companies are owned by American-based corporations.
After all, for those consumers tired of seeing the same faces gracing every box cover and scene thumbnail — as the U.S. market grapples with a tug-of-war between overly corporate analytics and the fading influence of legacy-based players — EU porn presents an invigorating cornucopia of fresh XXX thrills from a bountiful assortment of sultry lads and lasses.
Leaping across the Atlantic pond, XBIZ sought out innovative movers and shakers in the European industry, to learn about the many opportunities and challenges facing the different sectors of the biz.
In the process, several trends became noticeably clear…
EU stars, like their American peers, are rapidly populating the profitable paradise of camming and clips, in a phenomenon that nearly every director we reached out to has observed as an unstoppable juggernaut that both complements and competes with their more traditional movies.
They also expressed a desire for standardized STI testing protocols and a more diverse array of agencies, commenting on the pay difference between the high rates in the U.S. and the lower ones in the EU — a reality that producers also remarked upon as being beneficial to pumping out more content.
From the business side, directors and company stakeholders yearn for talent better versed in the frequently-in-demand English language, as well as novice starlets willing to remain active longer than a few months — as many are never seen on the XXX screen again after completing their initial shooting circuit of Budapest, Prague and Paris.
They also remarked on the aesthetic preferences of the EU porn audience, preferring either natural-looking girls or elegant glamcore stylings, shying away from the occasionally bombastic and rougher fare of U.S. movies. Distribution-wise, it became clear that digital media is king, with broadcasting and DVDs losing influence.
Without further ado and thus equipped with a proper preview of the coming wisdom, read on, dear knowledge-seeker, as we travel overseas to chart the highs and lows of the EU marketplace.
EU Producers in Focus
Perhaps the best place to begin this special report is with one of the highest-profile U.S.-to-EU transplants in recent memory, Immoral Productions CEO Dan Leal, whose site ImmoralLive.com won the 2018 XBIZ Europa Award for Hardcore Site of the Year. The infamous all-American (though decidedly Colombian in heritage) frat partier has taken the continent by storm, swiftly establishing his bona fides with the close-knit power brokers of the region. His roots firmly entrenched now in a land quite different from the SoCal haunts of his yesteryears, Leal is nonetheless as rambunctious and wily as ever.
“European content production is going through a transition as more and more performers are starting to produce their own content and distribute it directly to consumers via platforms such as ManyVids, OnlyFans and Clips4Sale,” he noted. “The European market is a few years behind that of the U.S. as far as this and performers’ rights on the set go.”
Shifting his focus from the indie revolution to the more studio-centric climate of carnal creations, Leal opined, “The language and culture differences that we encounter by dealing with performers from many different countries is probably the biggest challenge we experience. As far as the differences between U.S. and European-produced porn, they are becoming less pronounced, as more companies are owned by American-based corporations.”
As for another studly patriarch of the EU, XBIZ Europa Awards co-host and decorated director/performer Rocco Siffredi is less concerned with the inevitable ups and downs of the EU market. He remains steadfast in his commitment to rough sex, shot crisply with minimal fuss, though XBIZ Europa-nominated works like his recent “Rocco’s Time Master: Sex Witches” shows he is perfectly at ease with experimental excess.
“First of all, I am not really watching what other people are doing so much, but I can tell you for sure that the classic gonzo genre and the way it was shot is slowly disappearing due to new technology,” Siffredi observed. “Today, we have a lot of people who shoot content in a very cinematic style, or else it’s quite amateur. Personally, I don’t mind both directions style-wise, because content used to be shot in a very amateur way long before the rise of clips.”
Now, though, budgetary concerns are foremost on his mind, for he laments the lack of funding that used to be plentiful 15 years ago. And while “it’s not easy to make good content without enough money,” he is not discouraged by such a “huge challenge,” as he proudly believes that porn always had challenges and “that’s why we are pioneers on so many levels … we are used to working under these conditions.”
There is one small hiccup, though, with the rise of sites like OnlyFans, ManyVids and MyFreeCams, in Siffredi’s estimation. “I see more and more performers come to my set, taking time to shoot for their own clips stores, even when I pay the production costs for the set and everything, which is not too fair — but that’s a new generation,” he said.
Yet he takes this behavior in stride, noting that today’s customers “definitely seem to prefer one-on-one interaction through cams or custom porn … I think it’s pretty cool.”
So what, then, truly ruffles the mane of porn’s No. 1 Italian Stallion?
“The main problem between shooting content in Europe versus America is the language barrier,” he underlined. “It’s getting a little better lately with the new generation, because we have more and more talent who speak in English and all my movies are shot in English. However, I also shoot in Italian for the more custom-made movies like my ‘Hard Academy’ series, since 90 percent of the people are Italian speakers.”
Siffredi pointed out that most of the time, he has to hire girls who don’t speak English, which makes it “very, very difficult to put together a script and try to hire people.”
Because of this uncertainty, directors like Siffredi never quite know if the talent they are hiring can actually speak English or not; some may claim they can and then reveal their shortcomings on set. Language aside, he also seeks out talent that can act well, presenting “a double challenge, which doesn’t help.”
Such a dilemma, though, is nothing new.
“I’ve been experiencing this problem since 1993,” he stated. “Of course, American performers are so used to performing in A-level movies and with good directors, so they become much more professional and are outstanding actors. In Europe, girls arrive and sometimes go through a tour between Budapest, Prague, sometimes Paris, and then we never see them anymore and we start with new people again.”
This speed at which European talent comes and goes contrasts with the American market, which has more than its fair share of three-month wonders but has less turnover by comparison.
The upside, he says, is that a steady influx of brand-new talent “is good for amateur-style movies — for example, I have a line of POV castings, and first-time girls are definitely much better to have in front of the camera, but when you make a feature, you’re faced with the language problem.”
Fortunately, there are quite a few perks as well to shooting in the EU, chief among them being the lower cost of production. “For a regular boy/girl scene, it’s almost half the price of what the U.S. girls work for,” Siffredi revealed. “If you add anal sex, it could go up to three times more expensive in the U.S. So for sure, this presents one of the best opportunities for producers to contain their budget.”
“One of the main reasons I am not shooting anymore in the U.S. is because the same exact movie would cost me three times more as it would here, and that’s too bad, partly because I love to work in the U.S. where it’s so much easier to direct the people and capture great stuff. Hopefully, something will change and I can go back to shooting in the U.S.”
The second opportunity he sees is how spread out talent agencies are in the EU, even if they may not be as numerous as the U.S.-based ones, with agents spanning Eastern Europe in Budapest, Prague and Saint Petersburg, while others hail from Spain in Barcelona. This leads to more exotic backdrops and stunning sights that differ from one scene to the next, versus the more repetitive warehouses, mansions and cityscapes of the SoCal-dominated U.S. scenes, creating “a variety of places where you can find beautiful locations and local support.”
If there is one company creator whose reach is global on a truly epic scale, it is MindGeek director extraordinaire Dick Bush, who has masterminded productions spanning brands such as Brazzers, Digital Playground and FakeHub.
Like Siffredi and Leal, he sees “a giant shift at the moment,” as nearly all performers are now “shooting their own content for sites like OnlyFans,” which presents what he accurately describes as “an incredible opportunity for them.” This uptick in self-produced videos is happening even as he sees “less big studios shooting in Europe than 10 years ago.”
Content-wise, Bush doesn’t believe there is a truly generic European style, but has noticed that “companies shooting performers who don’t speak English try to shoot their intros very visually, almost like a silent movie or a ‘Mr. Bean’ sketch.” Speaking for himself, Bush shoots “in all kinds of styles and genres.”
He stated, “Whatever the script requires is how I shoot. Sometimes, that means shooting handheld, other times it means slow tracking shots on a dolly. It really all depends on what feeling you want to convey.”
And what is one of the greatest obstacles that EU producers face?
“Well, I’d definitely say a lack of douches counts as a challenge!” he stated, while explaining that the producers at Danny D’s partnered brand AHusseyXXX “always make sure they’re fully stocked, though.”
Also, because there are so few performers in the U.K. when compared to the U.S., Bush said casting can be especially limited with the lack of English speakers. “There are some amazing European performers who fly in to shoot, but we’re then often met with a language problem. I almost have to act out what I want them to do! Having done this for 13 years now, I feel like I’ve become an expert in pantomime!”
Others, like DDF Networking Director Paul, have stayed the course amidst the shifting tides of market forces. “For us, it is business as usual,” he said. “Though advances in technology have made it easier for performers to shoot and release their own content, they still enjoy performing for established brands to gain exposure and a deeper fan base.”
Despite the challenge in competing with cams and other adult sectors where money can be made without long production days, Paul said DDF has found that “working more closely with cams and cam performers can yield good benefits.”
Visually, Paul enjoys showcasing the “exotic look” that Euro porn distills, capitalizing on the many “different blends within the continent as well as languages, accents and mannerisms that are foreign to the U.S.” Such idiosyncrasies, he finds, can be appealing to U.S. fans, since, “As they say, the grass is always greener.”
Yet that exoticism comes with a price a la Tower of Babel. Echoing the troubles his compatriots run into, Paul said, “The language barrier most definitely is a challenge,” diving deeper to likewise note that there are “cultural behavior differences.”
Overall, he views the professional U.S. adult performers as taking the job “quite seriously, whereas in the EU, it is more often treated as a means to get ahead, though typical pay rates are not the best in many of the countries not in the West of Europe.”
This adds limitations for productions, but crafty producers “can find ways to minimize language barriers.” One such method is having performers speak in their native tongue, which “can actually be quite sexy, so it’s more about the difficulty in communicating with performers when trying to get a certain performance from them.”
Another major influencer on the production side of the biz is Julia Grandi, a former adult star who is the brains behind the JulModels agency. Recently, Greg Lansky formally declared her his directing protégé on the continent, months after she had demonstrated a real knack for helming his Vixen Media Group foray into the EU market.
“European productions, to my mind, are reinventing themselves right now,” she said, brimming with the infectious optimism for which Lansky has ascended to the porn firmament. “More European companies are reaching the international level and meeting the standards of American leaders of the industry. At the same time, more U.S. performers are coming to Europe for work and the line between American-made and European-made porn is gradually fading.”
For her Vixen, Tushy and Blacked productions, shooting in Europe “provides a number of unique locations (Ibiza, Mykonos, Paris, etc.) that, eventually, brings amazing results.” To bypass the language differences, she ensures that her movies are based on visual stories “where the image gives more opportunities to follow the course of events than do dialogues.”
She outlined her approach: “Considering language diversity and the fact that not all actors are fluent in English, the most difficult task is to shoot international content and avoid verbal communication by substituting conversations with a visual story.”
The multinationality of actors has its upsides too, Grandi astutely noted, offering “great diversity and countless casting opportunities” where a movie may have “seven or eight actors from different countries in one film,” thereby allowing fans to potentially “find their own national heroes.”
EU Distributors in Focus
Just as there are manifold opportunities and challenges in the production of content, so too are there numerous angles to consider when it comes to selling porn. Understanding consumers is as vital as allocating resources wisely, to ensure maximum return on investment in an increasingly frugal side of the biz.
One such giant from the content-selling aisle is Sascha Eierdanz of mega-distributor Erotik.com, who readily revealed that his company's main target market is Germany, where high-budget content production has gone down a lot in recent years and is now pretty much nonexistent.
Where better to meet a growing need? Erotik figured.
“This is the reason why we started commissioning productions for Erotik.com tailored for the German market,” Eierdanz expressed, underlining that in Western Europe, there are “strong companies like Marc Dorcel that have the know-how and especially the distribution channels to make high-quality productions profitable.” They also dub their movies into different languages, he remarked, analyzing how this plays into the fact that “Marc Dorcel is the best-selling studio on our website.”
While the sort of big-budget glamcore extravaganzas for which Dorcel is famed may not be as common, Eierdanz is optimistic overall about rising content standards curated to the more selective consumers willing to spend money on adult entertainment.
“When I look at Eastern Europe, I can see that the production quality has improved significantly in recent years,” he said. “Producers have stepped up their technical and filmmaking skills. It’s no wonder that many U.S. companies have decided to produce all or part of their content in Eastern Europe.”
Nonetheless, Eierdanz realizes that pleasing the customer base in the EU is no small task, given that there are “44 completely different countries in the EU and 24 different languages are spoken.” Because of this, every country has its own market with different requirements.
When it comes to the distinctions between the typical EU and U.S. consumer, Eierdanz noted, “Europeans prefer a more romantic and natural look” while European talent “is styled differently in comparison to the Americans.” And while each country may have its own trends or styles, Erotik's customers “tend to spend money on products they can connect with.”
Meanwhile, Gian Carlo, the founder of mobile performance powerhouse BitterStrawberry.com and premier paysite network LetsDoeIt.com, pays attention to generational differences.
“Your target market is important to consider, since the younger generation has to be marketed differently to than the older one. The youth in EU is far more ‘with it’ in terms of pop culture, and have built a stronger social connection with U.S. trends, whereas the older generation is more set in their ways and preferences.”
Another key attribute of EU users is that they are “far more critical and involved in the feedback,” for Gian Carlo has noticed an abundance of “more useful and specific comments that seem to equate to better retention from them compared to their American counterparts.” In turn, the European market expects “a deeper connection to the content,” which requires distributors to step further away from run-of-the-mill gonzo content.
Like other savvy businessmen, Gian Carlo is also finding ways to integrate the camming industry with content production.
“The camming industry has been around for a while and was always a great complementary product to us. As a matter of fact, cam sites are building stronger relationships with content producers to add value to their existing member base, so I would say the impact has been very positive, as new business opportunities have been created.”
As for clip sites, he sees them as geared towards a younger audience who “crave quick-fix type of content like they consume on Instagram,” thus having little impact on professional content production and its existing ecosystem of users in Europe and North America. “That said, clip sites are spawning new types of users on their platforms, which should ultimately be perceived as a new opportunity,” he said. “Adapting our business model by cooperating with these clip sites and offering professional clips geared to this type of audience has allowed us to greatly benefit from this new era of content consumption.”
Like all markets, there are shifts, but Gian Carlo foresees paysites always being able to offer specifically what clip and cam sites do not, and vice versa. “So, there has been a required shift, but as with everything, evolve or be left behind,” he stated matter-of-factly.
Observing how the massive traffic levels tube sites attract can be converted with the right approach, Sebastian Hensel of paysite Hitzefrei is focused on harnessing that power to market content.
“Adult tubes have already become a major marketing tool for adult content in the last decade,” he said. “The tubes are on their way to becoming one of the major distribution platforms! Already, content owners today get money for the distribution of full scenes to xHamster Premium, Pornhub Premium and XVideos Red. That’s because XVideos shares their ad revenue and models can earn money by uploading free content on Pornhub.”
Hensel has witnessed how some studios even shoot content that contains product placement intended to monetize traffic via their reach on the tubes. This leads him to wonder whether “adult tubes finally changed our industry as YouTube did with the mainstream.”
Regardless, he believes there are not many major changes in the audience that watches traditional hardcore porn today compared with the people that watched it 10 years ago. There is, however, a change in the kind of people that create such porn. “It is not mainly done by people in their 50s or 60s anymore, as more and more millennials become porn producers, bringing in many new influences,” he said. “Our new series ‘POV Pickups’ is a great example of that. The German porn producer Wolf Wagner brought together a group of young professionals and they are combining YouTube influences with traditional POV.”
Ultimately, Hensel views traditional media like TV or DVD as becoming more and more outdated, in mainstream and adult.
“When somebody wants to watch SFW video content, they are checking out Netflix or YouTube,” he observed. “Mainstream content creators know that and produce content differently for these kinds of distribution channels. Our opinion is that the adult industry will finally change its production mindset in the next one or two years. Everybody will produce content mainly just for the internet or even tube distribution — other distribution ways will continue becoming dramatically less important!”
EU Talent in Focus
Of course, what porn would be complete, what traffic would there be at all, in camming, clips or studio-shot movies, without the stars themselves?
Arguably more empowered than ever before, with a sharp uptick in self-booking and more energy than ever spent on harnessing indie revenue streams, performers hold most of the cards in adult entertainment today.
Whether they reside in the U.S. or in the EU, this talent-centric shift seems to be a truly international development. XBIZ Award-nominated performer Tina Kay, for example, has had the pleasure of working in both markets, giving her a very well-rounded perspective from which to analyze the current state of affairs.
“The European industry is a lot smaller, with many independent content producers and freelance performers,” she said. “We don’t have a strong separation of market niches, classification of performers and agents, or the same level of performer collaboration that America has. It’s less systematic in Europe. However, it’s a lot easier to establish yourself as professional, reliable talent, due to a very close circle of businesses working together.”
Booking, testing and traveling is each performer’s responsibility, she explained, and every production has different conditions and agreements. This allows performers to work on flexible terms. Despite that, there is something that she believes the European industry is missing, and that is “united testing regulations, where health plays the most important factor in the adult industry.”
Beyond studio shoots, Kay is glad to find that “Camming and clip content production is playing an extra income role for European models. There are so many different ways to maximize your income and increase your profile, to stay full-time self-employed in the adult business. Myself, personally, I tried all the available sources and focused on what works the best for my profile. I also gained experience in different market fields, allowing me to progress and to stabilize my career.”
Because of the entrepreneurial opportunities that abound, and the speed with which the business is evolving, Kay advises performers “to be versatile and adapt to the current market climate to make it work in the long term, no matter which type of content you are working in.”
In April of this year, XBIZ Award-nominated Texas Patti made the jump from the EU to living and working in the U.S. full-time, along with her main squeeze/hubby Patrick Habig. However, she still travels to Germany sometimes. Among the biggest differences she has seen between EU and U.S. productions: “At first glance, the weather in the U.S. (Los Angeles) is much better than in Germany or the U.K., although the sun does shine very often in Spain as well.”
Breaking from her peers, she said, “There is not really a big difference beyond that, as both sides try to work hard and as good as they can for a great result,” though she did point to the testing protocols in the U.S. as being an area of opportunity for the EU. “We do not have the same good testing system, such as Talent Testing Services, in Europe — and we don’t have as many agencies, such as OC Modeling and the like. The booking is mostly direct with talent.”
Like others, Patti is enthusiastic about the indie revolution. “I think that in the future, the market will be changed, because talent has more and more options to sell their content,” she said. “Social media and good technical solutions make it easier, while camming is a good opportunity to catch some organic traffic and to do fan base work.”
Another XBIZ Europa Awards nominee and performer-turned-producer is the Greek Goddess herself, SugarBabes.tv founder Inna Innaki. “I can say that the European productions are amazing,” she enthused. “There is more opportunity and it is much easier and the directors are amazing! The only problem is that the payment is less, but you have many more chances to shoot for more productions.”
She spoke bluntly about American productions, declaring as an actress and a fan of porn that, “we are bored of watching the same actresses and the same actors in all productions” and adding, “Here in Europe, at least we give more opportunities to all the girls, not like the Americans who shoot with a maximum of the same 10 girls all the time and just don’t give a chance to other models, so it’s kind of boring!”
Even aside from her critique of U.S.-based casting's lack of variety, Innaki believes the EU offers a unique value proposition to talent and producers alike. “It is very simple and easy in Europe. The cities that have most of the productions are very close together, like a one- or two-hour flight between them. So you can shoot in the morning in Budapest, in the afternoon in Prague and in the night in Athens on the same day.”
She was less concerned about the testing, describing it as very fast. “You just drop your blood for a health test and after a few hours, you have the results and are ready for shooting. Of course, it happens sometimes that negative tests are shown that shut down all of the European adult industry, but this is fixed by the new 14-day window rule, which is great!”
On the burgeoning indie market, Innaki agrees camming and clips are very important, providing a benefit for the models who don’t have as many options or opportunities to shoot often. “So, this is like a breath of fresh air at the end of the month when you see the bills come in,” she said. “Of course, this also keeps your fans closer to you and they don’t need to wait too long for your next video or movie to be released.”
Fiercely proud of the EU adult industry, Innaki believes “European productions are not having anything to be jealous of the Americans over,” because, she finds, there are “many more models that shoot and much better places.”
She also enjoys the fact that it is much cheaper to organize shoots, which is part of the reason she thinks “a lot of American productions come to shoot in Europe.” Innaki has noticed the surge in U.S. entities opening their own studios in the EU or contracting a local power player to serve as their liaison.
“Soon, I think all of them will do it after seeing that big productions like Brazzers, Evil Angel, Blacked, Tushy, Vixen and many more already did it,” Innaki beamed.
And while many performers straddle the worlds of traditional shoots with independent efforts, others like two-time XBIZ Award-winning cam model Hannah James focus more on live streaming than anything else.
“Camming is my main income source and without it, I wouldn’t be doing this interview with you!” she exclaimed. “I do, however, consider clip production as an important aspect of my revenue. I sell videos I’ve made directly during my live shows and I also offer them as prizes when my viewers play games like ‘spin the dice,’ where they can tip for a 1 in 11 chance of winning all my videos.
“I don’t get as much time as I’d like to spend making good quality clips, so I’ve recently started editing recordings from my live shows and uploading them to Pornhub,” she continued. “These clips serve the dual purpose of earning me revenue while exposing me to a much larger audience than I have through purely camming. Viewers can get a sense of my live shows through watching the clips and hopefully will want to join in the fun in the future!”
