Commentary

Column: Media Metrics - Porn, Stickier Than you Think

Over the past year-and-a-half, researchers at the center for media design at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, have been conducting a series of studies, which many experts believe to be the most realistic measure of how people actually use media.

Unlike survey methods that rely on people filling out diaries, punching buttons on meters, or answering questions on the phone, the center's researchers followed people around for an entire day and observed what media they consumed.

The study was enlightening, revealing that people consume much more of all forms of media than Madison Avenue's best research methods typically show. But there was one form of media the study didn't observe a single instance of, even though researchers believe it is a type of media Americans consume in mass quantities: pornography.

Exactly how much, nobody seems to know for sure. Syndicated studies don't measure it. And even the most rigorous observational methods cannot capture it, says Mike Bloxham, director of testing and assessment for the center, because when it comes to pornography, people simply modify their behavior when they are being observed. "It's an immensely private thing," says Bloxham.

Actually, the Internet provides some clues, and the indication is that porn is indeed a huge part of the average American's media diet.

How do we know this? Because of the anonymity of server data from Internet service providers (ISP), and from user log data from Web sites. What the data show is that nearly a fifth of all Internet usage involves pornographic content. Actually, it averages a little over 18 percent, according to data compiled by Hitwise, a researcher that monitors traffic from ISPs.

In May 2005, for example, 17.8 percent of all U.S. visitors to the Internet went to an X-rated site. And it doesn't seem that they're landing on those pages by accident. The average time spent on an adult site in May was five minutes and 22-seconds. And it's not as if May was an anomaly. Porn traffic was actually down from the same month a year ago when the category peaked at 19.1 percent of all site visits.

The Hitwise data is significant, because unlike survey methods, or even observational methods, it's based on actual behavior that's not likely to be influenced by so-called "halo effects," or changes people make in their behavior when they know they're being monitored.

The data suggest that contrary to its reputation for being clandestine fringe media, porn is a fairly mainstream source of media content, reaching more than two-fifths of American online users. According to comScore Media Metrix estimates, pornographic sites had 70,689,000 unique visitors in April 2005, which compares with 164,961,000 total unique visitors to the Internet that month.

In terms of total audience reach, online porn sites are surpassed only by portals, search, e-mail, technology and downloads, travel, personal finance, and directories.

And it's not as if such visitors are landing on porn sites accidentally and leaving quickly. Porn is some of the stickiest content online, with X-rated sites generating an average of 15.1 minutes per usage day in April. The only content stickier are things like instant messenger services, games, portals, free hosting services, and chat.

The vast majority of porn usage appears to occur at home, as well as on college campuses. While porn reach's 43 percent of the overall online universe, it reaches only 35 percent of the at-work universe, but more than half (53 percent) of the college universe.

Despite these statistics, use of porn is still relatively unmeasured, and is something that is rarely, if ever, factored into the communications planning efforts of major agencies or marketers.

"The question has never come up. Not once," acknowledges a well-known agency media researcher.

It's not surprising, she says, because the subject is still regarded as taboo on Madison Avenue, even though consumer use of pornographic media may compete with, or influence how people are exposed to, or are influenced by mainstream media and advertising content.

That's why it's so remarkable that a mainstream agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, would develop a media plan and execute a buy based on X-rated movie channels for client Virgin Atlantic (see this month's cover story).

Amazingly, Madison Avenue knows almost nothing about the way media consumers use a major source of media content. With the exception of online traffic data, and readership and circulation data for men's magazines like Playboy and Penthouse, there doesn't seem to be much public information about the consumption of porn.

There is also little known about video, pay-per-view, and pay TV porn channels, but the anecdotal evidence would once again suggest it's not insignificant. One media researcher related a conversation with a one-time head of "interactive media" for Hilton Hotels, who shared that the average duration of pornographic media consumption on the chain's adult film channels was "12 and a half minutes."

At least one Madison Avenue executive believes such channels have become a fixture of the cable and satellite TV industry for one very compelling reason: profits. "The revenue split between cable operators and regular pay-movie services is 50/50," says Jon Mandel, CEO of MediaCom U.S. "The split on porn is 90/10. Most of [the cable operators'] profits are coming from porn." Nonetheless, Mandel says he's never really thought about porn from a media planning point of view, though after being asked, he acknowledged he is "curious about the differences by market."

In fact, Ball State's Bloxham believes that despite their reputations as "sin cities," it isn't necessarily the major markets that are the biggest consumers of pornographic media. While Nielsen data isn't available on tv porn channels, Simmons Market Research Bureau recently did an analysis of Nielsen tv ratings data that created audience breaks based on specific lifestyle and values segments. One of them, "religious conservatives," had some of the highest audience composition numbers for shows airing on the Oxygen cable network that explicitly deal with the subject of sex.

Such data are great, but relatively little attitudinal research exists on the issues surrounding the consumption of porn. In June, Insight Express conducted an online survey of more than 200 consumers about their perceived usage of online porn. Amazingly, 67 percent of the respondents acknowledged visiting adult websites. Interestingly, the split was much higher among men (85 percent) than women (50 percent).

In fact, 36.9 percent of the respondents acknowledged visiting a porn site within the last month or more frequently. The percentages were 49 percent among men, and only 17 percent among women. Despite this relative candor, when they were asked how concerned they were with the issues surrounding their use of porn, 51 percent said they were either very concerned or concerned that other individuals might know they visited an adult Web site (see table 6). Sixty-four percent were concerned about historical data left on their computers from visiting such sites.

Next story loading loading..