• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, October 14, 2008

Two things consumers won't cut back on in these hard economic times: Hi-Def and hookers.  

Two surveys -- one a very formal one from the Consumer Electronics Association, and another very informal one from the New York Daily News (guess which topic comes from which survey) -- show that consumers don't like to give up their favorite leisure activities, even if they can't pay their mortgages or buy food or gas.

CES reported that flat-screen TV sales have been skyrocketing, up 40% in August versus unit sales of a year ago.  At nearly the same time, the Daily News reported the oldest profession seems to be recession-free.

Not all entertainment is getting a free ride.  The pay TV subscriber business has taken a hit, seemingly stemming from the housing and mortgage crisis. New home sales are particularly crucial to the new pay TV business, especially when that business can have high 50% churn rates among customers.

"Despite all of the other indications that we're in a recession, consumer-electronics spending continues to hold up pretty well," said a CES economist.

From these accounts, this should be a boom time for all TV networks, with consumers looking for low-cost ways to entertain themselves. ABC has built a whole campaign around this --  "Stay at Home Week" -- as a response to the high price of gas.

During the depression, depressed people went to the movies to escape with frilly, unrealistic musicals. During this recession, TV viewers can be transported to a fringe medical science drama in the form of Fox's Fringe" as well as an escapist cop drama where a detective finds himself back in the 1970s in ABC's "Life On Mars."

All this leads to one form of entertainment the Daily News didn't look into:  How is sexual content on TV doing?

That part of the pay TV business performance hasn't, as yet, been fleshed out .