Or at least one prominent pay-TV channel is. Conto TV delivers all kinds of televised offerings to set-top boxes, but they hang their shingle on adult.
When the global economy went belly-up last year, President Silvio Berlusconi introduced a 25 percent vice tax on adult goods and services as an emergency measure to help the nation bake some money.
Despite the draconian size of the tax, Conto TV happily exploited it with a series of ads encouraging citizens to "help the Italian economy" by buying porn.
The shenanigans worked, and the channel has been raking in about $2.6 million a week.
What's the downside? Despite Conto TV's success, the rest of the industry isn't doing so well, and on top of that, the Italian government has reneged an offer to share some of the earnings from the vice tax — about $80 million — with the industry.
