Webb told XBIZ he uses the same outside company that major motion picture studios hire to monitor peer-to-peer networks, and that the spidering service found more than 3 million Titan Media films were illegally downloaded last year.
Titan’s online video-on-demand and pay-per-view content costs between $2.99 and $9.99; Webb multiplied these numbers by 3 million and called the loss in revenue “devastating.”
“At the very least we lost $8 million or $9 million. At worst we lost close to $30 million.” Webb said.
Webb said this number doesn’t include revenue loss from offline trading or pirated DVDs.
Of the 318,000 cease-and-desist orders sent out, Webb said there was an 80 percent compliance rate, though only 10 percent of those sharing Titan Media content were eventually caught.
Webb attributes declining DVD sales in the adult industry to file sharing and pirated DVDs. He reported that for every legal VOD/PPV Titan Media film sold, he had 10 or more stolen or downloaded illegally.
“DVD sales are down and the number of sales from VOD are not making up for the loss,” Webb said. “Something’s going on.”
Webb said his findings might prompt him to move all Titan Media content online using DRM sooner than he had planned. As long as he provides his films at a reasonable price and a mass scale, he said it’s the safest way to prevent future revenue loss.
Webb continues to urge other adult studios to “band together and realize what’s going on.” He said if larger VOD providers like AEBN or Maleflixxx set aside two percent of revenue to pay for in-house legal council, more P2P sharers and pirates could be caught.
“We need to work harder to try to stop this,” Webb said.
