GameLink is providing a video-on-demand distribution platform for Hush-Hush’s movies, as well as an online catalog of the company’s rapidly expanding library of DVD titles, including the “Bubble Butt Bonanza,” “Freaky First Timers” and “Daddy’s Worst Nightmare” lines.
Michael Brandvold, director of affiliate sales at GameLink.com, said that the initial performance of the Hush-Hush store has been very strong.
“Within the first month of launching the video-on-demand and DVD online store for Hush-Hush Entertainment we have seen great conversions and growing sales, proof of the demand for the product,” Brandvold said.
The results have made an impression on Hush-Hush owner Andrew Stoddard, as well.
“I was blown away by how quickly GameLink.com launched our store and how fast the sales have grown,” Stoddard said. “I love the ease of which our customers can buy VOD and DVD in the same store.”
Brandvold told XBIZ that as part of the deal, Hush-Hush titles also are being distributed via GameLink’s extensive network of affiliated stores, an arrangement that Brandvold said was “pretty standard” for distribution deals that GameLink strikes.
“Everybody wants to get in [the GameLink network],” Brandvold said. “We have literally thousands of affiliates, from big players like Vivid, to medium-sized studios, and on down to individual affiliates who are just trying to make a few extra bucks.”
Brandvold said that GameLink often is approached by producers who have some traffic coming to their sites, but they “are either not monetizing it all, or not optimally.”
Asked about trends in the market, Brandvold said that VOD “seems to be where it’s going.”
“Everyone I talk to wants to get into VOD,” Brandvold told XBIZ. “It’s just an easier way to go, all around; it's an easier way to deliver content for producers and it’s easier for consumers to take in that content, as well.”
Brandvold predicted that mainstream entertainment companies, which currently lag behind the adult industry in terms of adopting VOD distribution as a revenue-generating stream, will come around to online VOD, as well.
“I think [mainstream producers] know they have to go there, but they are wary of it,” Brandvold said.
Citing Blockbuster’s recent purchase of MovieLink.com, Brandvold said that the migration to VOD by mainstream has started, but VOD still “hasn’t been embraced like it has in adult.” As is often the case with entertainment technologies, Brandvold said, “adult is leading the way.”