AVN CEO Tony Rios Talks Business In Las Vegas Sun Interview

Pictured above, Kissa Sins at the Jules Jordan booth during the 2017 Adult Entertainment Expo; photo by Rick Garcia LAS VEGAS—As the 2018 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo opens Wednesday in Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Sun newspaper published an interview with AVN Media Network CEO Tony Rios to assess the state of the adult industry in an era dominated by “tube” sites—mega-sites such as Pornhub that offer thousands of porn clips for free—finding Rios optimistic about a growing industry driven by the performers themselves. The complete interview may be accessed at this link. What follows are selected highlights of the conversation between Rios and Sun reporter Chris Kudialis. • Performers and tube sites are seeing increased cooperation, with performers themselves driving traffic. “You have some of these girls and guys with over 200,000 to 300,000, we have some performers with over 1 million followers. So they can make an impact,” Rios said. “Performers’ use of social media has also really shaped the way traffic gets driven around.” Rios referenced the victory over California’s Proposition 60, a 2016 ballot measure that would have mandated condom use by performers in all porn films shot within the state. The measure ultimately fell, losing by nearly seven percentage points in the November 8, 2016, election. “The performers went to social media and they were able to affect legislation,” Rios noted. • The Donald Trump administration has “surprisingly” left the adult entertainment business unaffected. “We know that Trump is a fan of our industry, there has been some recent news that even further attests to that,” Rios remarked. “But we know not everyone in his cabinet is a fan, at least publicly. So we’re continuing to hope for the best. I don’t think he will have time for porn in the near future, he has other priorities. But no telling at what point porn will become part of the agenda.” Trump was recently reported to have engaged in an extramarital sexual relationship with AVN Hall of Fame inductee Stormy Daniels. • At this year’s AVN Expo, age-verification companies have increased their presence, but virtual reality is down. In April, a new anti-porn law takes effect in the United Kingdom, requiring that online porn sites verify ages of their users or face fines of up to £250,000—that is, about $330,000. As a result, the AVN Expo will see companies offering age-verification software increasing their presence at the show this year. “We have a strong representation of age-verification companies because of the new age restriction laws in the United Kingdom, “ Rios told The Sun. “It’s created a whole new business segment of companies who want to be used to verify.” On the other hand,  the once-hot sector of virtual reality porn as scaled back at the 2018 AVN. “We actually don’t have a very big showing of virtual reality this year,” Rios said. “In the last couple of years we’ve had a ton of VR exhibitors. But this year we really don’t have much.” The AVN Adult Entertainment Expo runs today through January 27—culminating in the annual AVN Awards ceremony at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.