Why are porn DVDs still a thing? A store in Soho offers insight
Adult DVDs still have a dedicated market in the age of internet pornography.
A group of teenagers pushed their way through frayed streamers into the dingy room. Their eyes danced about the low-lit walls which were adorned with obsolete film technology — DVDs.
But, the DVDs themselves weren’t the thing of novelty for these gushing teens — it should have been, given we are in 2022, at least a decade ahead of the DVD frenzy. It was the glossy covers on them which made them gawk.
One of them was closely perusing the “mature ladies” section, which was slapped with provocative posters of old women in lingerie and handcuffs.
S, an employee at the DVD shop, was amused by that teen. He leaned in and said, “Many young boys that come here have girlfriends and don’t want them to find out…so they cannot download videos. They come here!”
Other categories included “corporal punishment”, “mixed-race” and “schoolgirl”. There were a range of old magazines. Many of them dated back to the eighties and nineties, and were being sold for fifteen to twenty-five pounds. The DVDs weren’t cheap either — many of them cost at least ten pounds.
In a world where porn is easily and cheaply accessible, it was a wonder that this shop saw any business at all.
Soho is peppered with adult entertainment stores and kink paraphernalia. It is famous for having been London’s seedy red light district for decades. Now, highly gentrified and brimming with upmarket brands, Soho’s risqué vibes are classier. Soho and its sex are for people with money.
So, this one DVD shop in the high-end locale stands out like cobwebs in a plush household. Graffiti ridden walls enclose a space which houses scores of raunchy DVDs, magazines, viagra, poppers and kamagra.
S has worked in this porn DVD store for thirty years. He has witnessed the sex industry undergo a massive change over the decades — from the DVD boom in the early 2000s to the digitalization of the porn industry.
He said, “I’ve been here nearly thirty years now…there were fifty shops when we first came up here and now there’s a handful you know?….it’s more internet now.”
His observations reflect a study by a market research firm Omdia. According to the study, physical video transactions saw a dip of nearly five billion by 2021. Video streaming, having almost 1.2 billion users in 2022, has virtually replaced the DVD industry. Online pornography has seen a lot of traction over the years. As per 2021 data, the top three porn sites receive about 5.8 billion visitors every day.
The ease of digital access, then, should have made porn DVDs nothing but an interesting piece of history.
In an interesting turn of events, the internet paved another trajectory for porn DVDs.
While the number of porn DVD shops have declined over the years, S’ shop is still in business. They see a steady flow of customers everyday, all with various interests. Some come in for laughs. Some men come for the medications. Some come for the old pornographic magazines which they buy as collectibles of artistic merit.
Most astonishingly, some also come for the DVDs.
The demographic of his DVD consumers is quite diverse, ranging from old men who couldn’t be bothered to scour the internet for porn to curious Gen Zs. In S’s opinion, while the internet has virtually snuffed the DVD industry, it has also made the public more sex positive.
A sex positive public is keen on exploring the possibilities of sex and kink through various means, including viewing old-time porn with a DVD player. The internet has opened a Pandora’s box of genres and people walk into the shop uninhibitedly to pick up what they like.
S also explained that the vintage quality of his magazines and DVDs is one of the main driving forces of his customer base — “We’re probably dinosaurs now, the sex industry has changed (but) we get a lot more customers…they’re more arty.”
The appeal of vintage items and collectibles has certainly helped the DVD industry — the British Association for Screen Entertainment observed that seven million people in the United Kingdom bought disc-based shows and films in 2020.
The vintage appeal of DVDs in tandem with sex positivity unleashed by the internet has created a solid foundation for such shops to thrive. It is reasonable to assume that there will always be a market for the old and outmoded.
It is also reasonable to be sure that sex, in any form, always sells.
