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Youtube has revolutionised the video industry. It has set a precedent for content: free to the user, financed by advertising. It's success is phenomenal but will it force a change in business model for the established and lucrative porn industry? How might it affect porn?

1. User generated content - facilitating users to provide the content can turn potentially anybody into a porn star. Instead of relying on mass market appeal to make money, future revenue is likely to come from the 'long tail' niche content.

2. Cut out the middle man - enabling anybody with a camera and a broadband connection to start earning (probably from advertising) from their content can eliminate the middle man. The revenue goes straight to the content provider.

3. Accessibility - the internet has made all porn more accessible, but the user generated sites like the youtube model will make more content more widely available. No longer will demand be limited by subscription fees, expanding the market.

4. Interactivity - as audiences get smaller it will be possible for users to pay for requests. Not possible with a mass market production.

However there are problems with user generated content:

1. Quality - user generated content is made cheaply and is usually bad quality.

2. Money - content providers are likely to make less than traditional channels. Advertising revenue is no substitute for hard cash from customers.

3. Cost - As content quality improves, who pays for the bandwidth? On low quality short clips it can be supported by advertising, but what about movie-quality hour long productions?

Sites like youtube will certainly put pressure on established business models. Will they kill such a lucrative and powerful industry? No.

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