The American's with Charlie LeDuff: The business of porn is going out of business

Los Angelos - Porn is everywhere, except in the porn capital, Los Angeles. Pornographers try to stay relevant at a time when the internet is giving it away for free.
The saturation of free porn on the internet means "The Valley" is losing its once very profitable industry.  Throw the condom law into the mix and they're really in trouble. Who wants to buy a DVD or order a movie on their cable system when they can call up porn on their computer free of charge?

Charlie LeDuff talks to industry insiders Ron Jeremy, Larry Flynt and Steve Hirsch about the future of porn.  Play the video in the player to see a full report in this edition of The Americans with Charlie LeDuff.

Porn has gone mainstream.  Estimates say there are as many as 4-million internet sites dedicated to porn.  One study says as many as 90% of young American men and 60% of young American women have watched porn.  It's a billion dollar industry, that's why people make it.  But with small town 'Scorsese's" giving it away for free on the internet, Los Angeles based porn executives, like Vivid Entertainment's Steve Hirsch are trying to adjust.

Hirsch: "To compete against free you need to produce and distribute unique products whether celebrity sex tape or our superhero parodies or our swinger stuff that can't be found on free sites, so you have to be clever to survive."

Hustler Founder Larry Flynt preaches diversification. 

Flynt: "We got gaming. Casinos. We got world-wide broadcasting content company. So we moved on because we seen that was the trend 20 years ago."

Porn star Ron "The Hedgehog" Jeremy says outsourcing is an issue.

Jeremy:  "So as it is now we're going out of business because of the internet and now we're not going to compete with the Asians, Scandinavians, European films so they're going to put us out of business. So now we're outsourcing porn."

Play the video to hear more from porn legends, including seeing Larry Flynt's gold plated wheelchair, Ron Jeremy's reason for getting out of shape and why a law requiring porn stars to wear condoms further neutered L-A's adult film industry.  You can also see Charlie try out for a part.

Be sure to play the Daily Minute bonus videos in the player to hear Flynt explain his views on what freedom truly means. Jeremy talks schmekus and why he ends up with girls that look like Gene Simmons and see how LeDuff fared in his audition for a supporting role in an adult video.