Americans Consuming Less Pornography

NEW YORK - Cable and satellite TV subscribers are watching less adult entertainment than in the past, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

Some big TV distribution companies' revenue from highly profitable VOD and pay-per-view pornography trended lower in the second quarter as consumers spend more time online.

Satellite TV firm DirecTV on Thursday cited "lower adult buys" as one cause of weaker pay-per-view revenue in its second quarter.

Last week, Time Warner Cable had said that lower adult spending accounted for more than a third of a $14 million drop in VOD revenue.

TWC's total revenue was $4.9 billion, making adult fare a small contributor. But the Journal said porn is one of cable operator's most profitable segments.

"There's been a fairly steady trend over some time period now for adult to go down largely because there's that kind of material available on the Internet for free," said TWC CEO Glenn Britt.

Overall, TV distributors brought in about $899 million in revenue from adult VOD and pay-per-view in 2010, the Journal said, citing estimates from SNL Kagan. That is down from a peak of $1 billion in 2008.

Comcast Corp. also mentioned a slowdown in pay-per-view revenue in the second quarter this week, but didn't detail how much adult content contributed to the drop.