Internet Video X News

French porn producer Marc Dorcel is bringing Europe a new dimension in erotic entertainment with the launch of a 3D video-on-demand service for porn videos.

Dorcel claims the service will be Europe's first on-demand 3D outlet for porn.

The initial offering, available via French provider FREE, features more than 60 videos shot in 3D and full HD, according to Dorcel.

Dorcel plans to offer the new porn service to operators across France and Europe.

According to the New York Post, Berth Milton, CEO of Private Media, wants to open as many as 100 sex hotels in cities around the world where guests could stay for free - if they agree to have sex in front of Web cams. Their sessions would then be broadcast on the Web to subscribers, the story says.

The hotels would be luxury hotels.

Milton believes porn fans will pay to watch amateurs having sex. He estimates that subscriptions could bring in about $44 million annually: The important thing is to go all the way - not halfway or a third of the way.

Milton researched the concept by visiting more than a dozen swingers clubs around Barcelona, the story says: It has to be a hotel for non-swingers as well -not super explicit where everybody's running around naked. That takes the style and class out of it.

The UKs best known adult VOD service, Strictly Broadband, has become an independent business again after splitting from its majority-stake-owning parent firm in October.

Strictly Broadband MD Jerry Barnett explained: The deal is that we and The Sport had both been struggling with the problems within our own markets. They wanted to refocus on their core business; newspapers. At the same time Strictly had been suffering from the downturn in the porn market.

Barnett continued: It was felt best all round that Strictly Broadband go back to being independent and use fresh energy to turn the situation around the best we can in the current climate.

The U-Haul truck that pulled away from a nondescript Center City office building Wednesday night was packed with at least 81 boxes of evidence collected from one of the country's most successful providers of online adult videos.

But question remains: Evidence of what?

Paul Fishbein, founder of AVN Media Network assumed that authorities had launched an obscenity investigation.

He described Richard Cohen, owner of the raided companies, as a really good customer and a friend. This guy runs a legal business, he employs a lot of people, he pays his taxes. He does everything you're supposed to. He said Cohen puts up "every wall he can" to prevent children from viewing his sites,

Andrew Miller, an attorney for Cohen, said that he could not discuss the raid and that neither Cohen nor anyone associated with this matter would comment.

FBI agents, state troopers, and the Philadelphia Police Vice Unit spent most of Wednesday raiding Cohen's companies, National A-1 Advertising and National A-1 Internet. The companies provide Internet sex videos and telephone sex chat, and own domain names such as hotmovies.com and escorts.com.

Some of the boxes the agents removed were labeled operator/chat logs. Others were labeled to indicate they contained evidence from hotmovies.com, which provides videos on demand.

Fishbein said he had not had a substantive conversation with Cohen since the raid and did not know what authorities were seeking. He said Cohen was not connected to prostitution, as some media outlets have reported: He's not running girls, I can tell you that.

The Association for Television on Demand (ATVOD) has imposed an annual fee on all video on-demand providers, but critics remain concerned that small-scale operators could be unfairly penalised under the scheme.

ATVOD, which took over VOD regulation duties from Ofcom in March, yesterday announced that a flat-rate fee of £2,900 will be imposed on the services of all notified VOD providers in the UK.

The fee is being introduced so that ATVOD can be adequately funded to carry out its regulatory activities.

Last month, the United For Local Television (ULTV) group expressed concern that the approach could penalise small-scale VOD players unable to afford an annual fee.

Taking into account the concerns, ATVOD acknowledged that there could be some (as yet unidentified) small-scale providers of actual or prospective ODPS [on-demand programme services] services who might find a fee of £2,900 prohibitive, and that such a fee would therefore not be justifiable or proportionate in relation to them. ATVOD has therefore invited small-scale VOD providers, most likely local and community groups, to contact the regulator if they will have genuine difficulties in being able to pay the fee. All such providers must write directly to Ofcom before July 15.

Nookie TV was an R18 rated adult Internet TV service accessed in the UK via a set top box.

Unfortunately the service has now come to an end as explained on the defunct Nookie TV website:

Dear Subscriber:

Unfortunately, due to financial hardship, we are ceasing all operations and discontinuing NookieTV broadcast service as of May 15th 2010. We will not be asking our customers to return their IPTV equipment. Therefore no further action is required on your part.

Thank you for your past business.

Sincerely,

NookieTV

UK video-on-demand providers must pay a combined £375,000 to two bodies that will regulate their industry.

The Association for Television On Demand (ATVOD) was last week confirmed by Ofcom to co-regulate, along with it, the VOD sector.

Ofcom says 150 VOD services must pay the fees - but, despite reviewing the sector last year, it has not published a list identifying the companies affected.

Indeed, singling out those services which fall under the joint Ofcom-ATVOD auspice is tricky. The EC directive applies to TV-like services, which it says must not contain any incitement to hatred based on race, sex, religion or nationality; must provide appropriate protection for minors against harmful material and sponsored programmes and services must comply with applicable sponsorship requirements.

But what TV-like means is open to interpretation, as media continue to converge and innovate. After commissioning research in to the topic, Ofcom says the scope should extent to services that provide access to programmes that compete for the same audience as television broadcasts, and therefore, are comparable to the form and content of programmes included in broadcast television services. Only services that have editorial responsibility over their content are covered.

Specifically, Ofcom says catch-up TV websites and set-top box services, TV archives and movie VOD services [doesn't sound very TV-Like to me!] fall under regulatory scope.

Ofcom has opened a consultation with three options for raising the money:

• Option A: Charging based on services' revenue, so as not to disadvantage smaller providers.
• Option B: A mixture of revenue-based fee and a flat £1,000 fee.
• Option C: A flat £2,500 fee. [Ofcom preferred option]

The Association For Television On Demand (ADVOD) has confirmed a series of senior appointments as it takes over video on-demand regulation from Ofcom.

Ofcom has now officially handed over statutory powers to independent body ATVOD for supposedly light touch regulation of online video, including all consumer protection standards and guidelines for taste, decency and sponsorship requirements.

In response, ATVOD has restructured its operation. Former deputy chair of Ofcom's consumer panel Ruth Evans has been appointed to lead the organisation as its new independent chair.

Aside Evans, the five-strong ATVOD board includes former Channel 4 News editor Sara Nathan, Advertising Association chief executive Tim Lefroy, ASA Council member Nigel Walmsley and broadcasting compliance specialist Ian McBride. Sky's Daniel Austin, BT's Simon Milner, Virgin Media's Simon Hunt and Five's Chris Loweth will provide the ATVOD board with an industry perspective.

The organisation has further hired Pete Johnson as its new chief executive, after he previously managed VOD and packaged media regulatory policy for the BBFC.

This is a landmark moment for video on-demand services in the UK which offer programmes that are comparable to those shown on traditional TV channels, said Johnson, who will outline ATVOD's regulatory policy on March 25 at IPTV World Forum: On UK services, children will be protected from the most extreme content, and for the first time use of product placement and sponsorship will be subject to controls and restrictions.

Recent Ofcom research suggests that there are around 150 operators on the UK market that meet the statutory criteria for providing TV-like VOD services. All providers must now contact ATVOD before April 30 to outline their service propositions, with any firms meeting the criteria required to pay a fee based on the overall cost of regulating the sector. ATVOD said that it will soon launch a six-week consultation with Ofcom into the fee structure, in which all stakeholders will be able to have their say.