Those calculations may be changing, however, thanks in part to some recent experiments that suggest mainstream distributors may be able to dabble in adult content without sparking a major backlash. In the cable industry, for example, most players in the US have been selling pay-per-view adult programming on their services without receiving much protest. RealNetworks may now be weighing whether it can pull off something similar by offering adult video content as part of a discrete add-on package to its SuperPass service. RealNetworks has been open about its emulation of the cable industry. The company wants to become a distributor of name-brand content and software services and to charge users for access. But to increase its popularity, it will need to lure people into buying subscriptions by carrying programming that's exclusive to SuperPass. So far, it's executed the plan extremely well. According to a recent survey, SuperPass is the biggest generator of content revenue on the Internet and that success has helped prop up RealNetworks as its software sales have slumped. According to the company's most recent earnings report, subscriptions accounted for about two-fifths of its overall sales in the second quarter of 2002. In April 2001 Yahoo pulled all pornographic ads, auction items and merchandise from its site after a series of complaints from customers, though it did so reluctantly, claiming it had received "little negative user-feedback regarding adult products." It was unclear whether the decision had any material effect on Yahoo's earnings since it was already suffering a collapse overall in its advertising revenue. Other companies have tested the waters in addressing the booming online pornography industry. In January 2000, search engine Ask Jeeves confirmed it purchased Web addresses for "asksex.com" and "askadult.com" in preparation for launching a search engine for Web pornography. Ask Jeeves even created an alter ego named Mimi for its butler character. However, the plans for Mimi were eventually shelved to preserve the company's family-friendly image. Search engines are particularly interested in offering sex-related results and reaping advertising revenue from related sites. Overture, which auctions off search-result placement and shares revenue with major distributors such as Yahoo, allows sex sites to link their wares to consumers. Search engine Google also has a pay-for-placement setup that accepts payments for sex-related results.
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