UPDATED 23:49 EST / AUGUST 06 2015

NEWS

Pornhub wants to be the Netflix of porn with new paid premium video offering

Online adult video streaming site Pornhub announced Thursday its ambitions to be the “Netflix for porn” with a new paid premium video offering.

Pornhub Premium is reported to cost porn aficionados $9.99 per month, although those that don’t wish to splurge initially on the service have the option of signing up for a try before they buy seven-day free trial.

The new services offers an ad-free experience to users, along with faster playback and higher-quality streaming on the millions of videos Pornhub hosts, along with what is claimed to be the largest collection of exclusive full length 1080p HD adult titles available online.

Pornhub Premium is available to be viewed on mobile devices, tablets, and desktops, in what the company describes as “allowing for maximum comfort in consumption options regardless of location.” Apps for both Android and Roku are currently being worked on, and the company said that it plans to roll out Virtual Reality integration at the beginning of 2016, complete with feature premium content exclusive to subscribers.

“We’re looking to take the crown as the ‘Netflix of porn,’ and with the colossal amount of content we’ll be providing – and adding tons more daily – we’re confident our fan base will totally embrace this product and reinforce our position as the top provider of on-demand adult video,” Pornhub Vice President Corey Price said in a statement (link SFW.)

Beating free

In theory, the offering of a Netflix style premium service from a porn provider like Pornhub isn’t a bad one, and it’s a model that has worked extremely well in traditional, non-pornographic areas.

But there’s one fundamental difference here: where Netflix successfully takes on pirated content with convenience, choice and exclusive content, Pornhub is competing with (sometimes) legal, usually ad supported content on tube sites that are free, including its own service.

There’s also the very nature of porn viewing that makes it different to that of regular viewing on services like Netflix, in that porn viewing is casual in nature and people, unless a sex addict or a deviant, aren’t going to sit around all day watching porn in the same way they might a House of Cards marathon, and there are stats to prove it: the average visitor to Pornhub views videos on the site for an average 10 minutes, 51 seconds.

It could potentially find some people willing to part with their money for HD porn, but it’s unlikely the service will climax with any particularly buxom membership figures.

Image credit: allenthepostman/Flickr/CC by 2.0

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