Big News: NakedSword Merges with AEBN

[A_DeAngelo]

As a pioneer in producing content you should be open to new business ideas, cutting the bareback from your titles, as i have already said, WILL give you new revenue streams plus, you can condense verious titles in to new product lines (who said they had to be 'bareback' movies, i certainly didnt) and sell those also, there is a [b]HUGE[//b] market place for softcore gay nude content right now, as in, no sex, just naked guys.

No matter how you look at it, re-using existing content is a good business model, it has worked for many, many years in the online world, affiliates dont purchase a set of content, use it on one site then buy another set and do the same thing, they use the content they purchase over and over again, ad infinitum.

Regards,

Lee

I guess that's why we'll never be "content providers" - we're just film makers at heart and our films are not to be cut up and censored - by us or any of our licensees

[desslock]

You heard it here first, folks!
Discussion? What do you folks think?

Well I'll comment on this.... I think it's a very interesting development, and I have no idea of the ultimate outcome.

Of course, this merger has been if anything the "worst kept business secret" for months. You would had to have been lost and deafened deep down in the road construction at the Gay Phoenix Forum hotel in order to miss it.

And the printed news itself leaves to an analyst many more questions than answers. Note the article's fronted statement "Terms of the deal, which was finalized today, were not disclosed."

I think the best that can be made of it is that the transaction indicates that very good money can be made with these kinds of companies. It also indicates how fast things move in our industry.

One economist famously described capitalism as a "process of creative destruction," and I think we are watching an example of such a process here.
I do significant business with Naked Sword and AEBN - and I know many of the N.S. employees. I've always admired their business model and acumen.

Frankly I have no idea what their "merger" with AEBN will ultimately mean. They are so very different companies. AEBN has looked from my viewpoint as a place where as long as the computers stay turned on, the money pours in.

SO maybe Naked Sword will receive some of that midas touch. At the same time the San Franciscan hippies will teach the North Carolina hillbillys some business basics, like branding.

Now I happen to have a good bit of "hillbilly" in my blood, mixed oddly with a gay creative arts gene. So perhaps I will relate to this newly minted entity.

I wish everyone success.

Steve

[tombarr]

Who bought who, or who will remain the controlling entity?

[hdkbill]

I guess this means that Naked Sword will begin to benefit from all the great bareback traffic that they've been missing out on - we're still on the front page of AEBN and raking it in!

Yeah, I heard about this quite awhile ago and wondered how it affected bareback. I can't imagine that AEBN is going to stop with the bareback...way too profitable.

The word I get is that AEBN bought Naked Sword and that Barebacking WILL continue on AEBN.

Bill

[hdkbill]

As a pioneer in producing content you should be open to new business ideas, cutting the bareback from your titles, as i have already said, WILL give you new revenue streams plus, you can condense verious titles in to new product lines (who said they had to be 'bareback' movies, i certainly didnt) and sell those also, there is a HUGE market place for softcore gay nude content right now, as in, no sex, just naked guys.

No matter how you look at it, re-using existing content is a good business model, it has worked for many, many years in the online world, affiliates dont purchase a set of content, use it on one site then buy another set and do the same thing, they use the content they purchase over and over again, ad infinitum.

Regards,

Lee

Lee,


Not so sure I agree with you. Since our inception in 1998 we've been making bareback titles. That is our market and that is what our customers want. We have a very loyal customer base which is growing everyday. The day I produce a film with condoms.....frankly, I'll catch hell from my customers. They don't want condom films. If they did they would not be buying from us. The day I release the SECOND film with condoms....I'd be out of business.

Why should I or DeAngelo or any successful bareback film producer take the risk of losing theircurrent customer base and market share, to venture into an area that would be totally new and would force us to basically start from scratch?

Unlike DeAngelo, we are a content provider as well as a film production company. But the majority of the content we provide, as you know, is bareback. We use all aspects of a film shoot to produce income, but to get away from producing and shooting bareback would, I think, be the beginning of the end for HDK.

I guess it's like the old saying...."if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Bill

[XXXWriterDude]

This has to be the worst kept secret. I heard it back in March at the Phoenix Forum. Thought it had already been done. I guess that was the Unofficial, Pre-Launch, Warm-Up Party Merger.


Michael

Exactly. There was talk, and, of course, everybody heard the rumors, but the deal had not been made official and announced. It's not 'news' until it's official. So you heard the rumors. We reported the news.

[hdkbill]

Exactly. There was talk, and, of course, everybody heard the rumors, but the deal had not been made official and announced. It's not 'news' until it's official. So you heard the rumors. We reported the news.

Thank God for responsible journalism. Nice to see someone who reports the news as opposed to creating it!

Good job Ken!

Bill

[A_DeAngelo]

Official or not, we like the folks at AEBN and have enjoyed a tremendous relationship with them for the past 3 years -

they are agreeable to our product and have provided a fantastic source of revenue for us -

we applaud them in this deal (alleged or not) and Cam and I wish them well in this venture -

see everyone in Vegas?!?!

[Lee]

I'll catch hell from my customers. They don't want condom films. If they did they would not be buying from us.

Bill, you just made my point perfectly, how many potential customers do you think you are losing because you arent editing and re-editing the movies you have already to take out all of the barebacking in them?

As you said, your existing customers want bareback, yes we agree on that, but what about the thousands of other potential customers you could get by re-editing/re-packaging your existing work and selling it as 'softcore'?

Your existing customer base wouldnt be looking for 'softcore' titles so they would never know that you had even done that, at the same time, those porn viewers who are looking for softcore, will be coming to you to buy it.

Thats the best of both worlds IMHO.

Hell, you dont even have to use the HDK brand name if you didnt want to, setup another company name and use that on the 'softcore' titles.

Regards,

Lee

[Lee]

Also, just to add to the discussion, this thread..

http://forums.gaywidewebmasters.com/...ad.php?t=20821

Can work both ways, not just about online producers not making the most of their existing content, but offline producers not making the most of their content also.

Regards,

Lee

[gaybucks_chip]

Why should I or DeAngelo or any successful bareback film producer take the risk of losing theircurrent customer base and market share, to venture into an area that would be totally new and would force us to basically start from scratch?

Bill

Because, as Lee said, it would be a NEW market. If you or Tony were to do it, I definitely wouldn't do it under your existing studio names; I'd start up an entirely new studio. You could explain to your retailers/distributor that it's a "safer" line from the same studio, and clearly mark it as such so that your existing customers wouldn't be alienated.

You would probably find that many of your bareback customers would be perfectly happy buying safer sex films; we've found that a lot of our customers buy almost exclusively bareback stuff from other studios but buy all of our titles as they come out.

In other words, we've found that at the end of the day, the presence or absence of a condom really doesn't make as much of a difference as people think; we (18 West) compete in a marketplace (twink) that has been completely overrun with bareback product and yet our sales numbers are consistently competitive with the largest bareback producers in our market, and grow every quarter.

Given a choice between shitty condom porn and bareback, many people will probably choose bareback. But given a choice between topnotch condom porn and so-so bareback, many people will choose the condom porn, because, from what we hear from the bareback buyers we talk to, the presence or absence of a condom isn't the sole deciding factor.

No one *has* to shoot bareback to be successful or competitive. It is a choice, and I admire the people like Chi Chi, Naked Sword, GayVN, and the others that have chosen to focus on safe product in spite of the economic advantages that would undoubtedly be present if they chose otherwise.

[gaybucks_chip]

yeah well - they invited us to SF to do an interview about our new bareback film company - aired the interview and ran our movie "censored" until we pulled it - that's a fact - this is after we endorsed Naked Sword, wore their t-shirts around the bars for them, etc. - I don't like their lack of style and hope that the AEBN folks inject a little class into the Naked Sword act

oh yeah, and less I forget - they did invite us to add all of our titles if we changed the names from BAREBACK WHATEVER to WHATEVER, etc. and edit out all of the barebacking -

we pulled our movie from their line-up - I really hate people that use us!

Definitely not cool that they did that without disclosing up front what they were planning to do. I can understand and respect their position, but I can also understand and respect yours; if your studio has made a name for itself as a bareback producer, and people viewing through Naked Sword get the impression that you aren't a bareback studio, it could definitely affect your market positioning and the perception your customers and potential customers will have.

I would hope that was an oversight or somebody not thinking rather than a corporate philosophy, but who knows?

[LavenderLounge]

http://www.nakeddollars.com/merger_faq.aspx

Here are the facts of the merger from Naked Dollars, including commissions, payouts and deep linking issues.

I think Desslock made a good analogy about the hippies and the hillbillies! Very cute.

[A_DeAngelo]

Definitely not cool that they did that without disclosing up front what they were planning to do. I can understand and respect their position, but I can also understand and respect yours; if your studio has made a name for itself as a bareback producer, and people viewing through Naked Sword get the impression that you aren't a bareback studio, it could definitely affect your market positioning and the perception your customers and potential customers will have.

I would hope that was an oversight or somebody not thinking rather than a corporate philosophy, but who knows?

we don't know what they were thinking other than pulling us in as "celebs" to help them market their relatively new site and to help plug us and our new venture into the unknown world of video production

its all history and unfortunate and very creepy but an important statement on how hypocritical the porn world is - use the "stars" to promote business and then kick em out the door after you're done with them!

[tombarr]

In reading the FAQ following the link posted by Lavender Lounge, it is interesting to note that AEBN seemed to be seeking a guiding hand in the gay market from Nakedsword, which sort of indicates they plan to more agressively pursue that market but also that Nakedsword may have a big say in how that is developed going forward...

And then further down the FAQ under the question concerning bareback, it is explicitly stated that Nakedsword will still absolutely not carry bareback...so it remains to be seen how this attitude concerning bareback affects the Nakedsword "guidance" on developing the gay brand on AEBN.

Interesting to note that Nakedsword is abandoning the membership model...which is good for studios that have been providing them content as the previous payout model really sucked for smaller niche studios...

And it is also telling, as I have always considered Tim V at Nakedsword to have his finger on the pulse of technology, and it's relationship to the adult industry (and vice versa), and for them to abandon the model that made them what they are in favor of a VOD and download video, says that they believe, and I tend to agree, that the future is quickly upon us and the future is more streaming, move vod, more download to own, less retail and less recurring membership....

I think it's a great merger, a great synergy, with lots of potential for studios, affiliates and of course the customers.