Our readers are well aware that we here at Thirdpipe are of the opinion that content will be cheap or free. With the costs of digital support tools dropping all the time the capability of creating digital content is available to anyone with the talent/desire.

Well the theme rides again. This time in the pornographic industry. The take away graph –

It doesn’t make any sense!” Hirsch tells me a month later. It’s a hazy afternoon in June, and he is sitting behind his oak-slab desk, his eyes flickering between a pair of flat-screen monitors, one tuned to Bloomberg News and the other showing a YouPorn clip featuring a gaggle of naked women and an oxygen mask. “They’re giving porn away. You can’t make money on this.”

“…You can’t make money on this.”, is a fairly significant admission. Pornography for what ill you may make of it [they are significant by the way.] literally created the home video industry. When the BetaMax/VHS tape systems came out, porn was the first content. Same with CD’s, the Internet, DVD’s, etc. If there was a medium, porn was early content for the systems. The rationale of course was there was big $$ to be made. Big $$. So porn whether we like it or not has been a bellwether technology indicator.

So now the porn industry has been hit with the impact of UGC. A couple of college kids with a camera can now upload vids on sites. Free, as in Beer. No dollars to be made here. So the porn industry is headed for the skids as well on a income basis. CD and DVD sales are down.

If the pornographic industry takes a fortuitous slide to oblivion; can other videographic production houses be far behind? MGM, Sony, Paramount, do you understand? AT&T, Verizon do you still think managed content will save you?

It seems that I under reported Verizons upgraded FIOS offerings yesterday. To quote Endgadget:

According to reports, the company is now offering a 30Mbps / 15 Mbps service at $89.95 a month, and the nerve-shattering 50 Mbps / 20 Mbps speed at $139.95. The telecom has also introduced symmetrical connections in all 16 states where it currently offers FiOS service, with a 20Mbps / 20Mbps on the up and down, starting at $64.99.

50 MBPS? Will FIOS availability become a selling feature for new housing developments?

Verizon continues to push up the speed of their consumer FIOS service. This time is in Delaware, where speeds are increased to “up to” rates of 15MPS uploads with downloads increased to 30MBPS.  (article on CNN)

New York-based Verizon Communications Inc. today rolled out faster broadband Internet service for its fiber-optic customers, including those in parts of Central Pennsylvania.The FiOS broadband service is available with symmetrical upload and download speeds that reduce the time for file transmissions, according to Verizon. (from Central Penn Business Journal)

The cable guys could be in serious trouble where FIOS is in place.

For a lucky few in the northeast, Verizon is making symmetric (same speed on both downloads and uploads) 20MBPS FIOS service available. I could not find any specifics on price, but I suppose that if you have to ask how much, you’ll not be happy with the answer.

The “symmetrical speed” service, available initially in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut before a wider launch, will enable users to access the Internet at an upstream and downstream speed of 20 megabits per second, Verizon said. (from Reuters)

UGC you say? What’s that? UGC is short for User Generated Content. You know, the blogs, YouTube, FaceBook. All the things that you see your teenager glued to the LCD every evening. It’s the ultimate Reality Show Fred.

The funny thing is UGC doesn’t need FIOS or Uverse. It just needs a pipe. You know that low end of the media tier that the media giants have to sell but don’t want to. So first, lets take a look at a graphic –

I wonder, do you spot the trend? No? Well, read the graph right to left, see it now? What is indicated is that as the age group gets younger the preference for UGC increases. You get to the point that in what used to be the coveted 18-24 age group they would rather play on FaceBook than watch something gorky on even MTV. They want to have their reality show, but they want it interactive as well.

There is the rub, isn’t it? The likes of Verizon and AT&T are running expensive 3rd tier presentation layers on top of their transport layer to an audience that is about ready to fade out. The next generation of users that both companies would want to cater to will want fiber broadband and not care too much about FIOS or UVerse as much. And DirectTV? Were I prepared for a long term risk play with a large upside I would sell them short in the stock market.

So what’s the trend here? Well lets say the 18-24 age group is still where the discretionary spending is. To reach them you need what? A fat pipe of course that can support streaming video. Content that is interactive at some level. A directory service to make the content of interest easy to find. Possibly an avatar-agent to assist in cataloging all your interests of all that content.

Funny thing is, yet again Google seems positioned to provide 3 of the 4 services now. At $600+ a share, folks Google is cheap. They are positioned to tap into that coveted age group like no one else. Verizon, AT&T take note.

Linky.