The battle for global adult industry supremacy has heated up, with confirmed reports from Europe that adult media titan Private Media Group has been purchased by WGCZ Holding (WebGroup).
The sale price of the iconic Barcelona-based Private media Group has not been made known.
WGCZ Holding is a Czech corporation that the general public rarely hears about — unless one trawls through the many legal cases the company is involved in, including against MindGeek.
WebGroup currently owns not only BangBros, but also DDF Network — the biggest company in Budapest — and LegalPorno, one of the biggest studios in Europe.
And of course, Web Group purchased Penthouse for $11.2 million in 2018.
When one considers the fact that WebGroup also owns two of the top tube sites in the world, Xnxx, and Czech-based adult clip host XVideos, it becomes clear that adult industry goliath MindGeek has a fierce global competitor with a similarly voracious appetite.
Porn king MindGeek currently owns major studios such as Brazzers, mofos, Twistys, babes.com, and Digital Playground, while providing web management for Mile High Media and FakeHub.
And PornHub is MindGeek’s crown jewel.
Web Group does no web management, they just buy companies outright.
Meanwhile in Canada, Gamma Entertainment is busy gobbling up the small porn companies.
How long will it be before the mid-sized studios — the Jules Jordan Videos and New Sensations of the world — will face irresistible pressure to sell?
2020 is already shaping up to be a milestone year in the global adult industry.
The iconic Private brand was founded in 1980 as Glacier Investment Company, and changed its name to Private Media Group, Inc. in 1997.
Headquartered in Barcelona, Spain, Private Media Group provides adult media content for all platforms, and distributes its content directly and through a network of local affiliates and independent distributors. Private Media also distributes through newsstands, video rentals, travel retail, and adult bookstores; mail order catalogues; cable, satellite, and hotel television programming; over the Internet via proprietary Web sites and broadband delivery services; and wireless telephony. It also markets and distributes branded leisure and novelty products oriented to the adult entertainment lifestyle.
The company also publishes X-rated magazines, including Private, Pirate, Triple X, and Private Sex, which are distributed through retail outlets.
2 Responses
XXX, what I would like to see on here is an interview with Bree Mills, owner and creative director at Gamma. In just a few years she has built a porn producer that rivals Greg Lansky’s former company or a 2000’s Vivid (which ironically she now owns) in amount of content produced. Some (not all) of the content at Gamma is a bit more low brow than Vixen but even that company has lower brow content like Blacked. I know I am a subscriber to AdultTime (Bree’s corporate site) and plan to be for a while. Don’t let Bree scare you, she isn’t as butch as she looks.
As for New Sensations, I don’t expect Scott to sell anytime soon (it isn’t widely known that Scott also has a distribution company based in Santa Clarita so his hands are in the porn industry till in three ways — as a producer, as a film distributor and as a sex toy distributor). Insiders have said that his company makes money, just not as much as in the glory days of the 2000’s. Jules Jordan may have to sell — I don’t know but it is known that he lost his shirt when MindGeek took over their own distribution. I would expect his company to be bought by another porn movie distributor for his distribution network. I would expect that Jules’ company along with the late Howard Levine’s Exile Distribution (now likely in a court receiver’s hands for distribution in accordance with Howard’s will, unless he left it all to one person it likely will have to be sold — as of a month ago they were still releasing movies so it could be sold as a going concern) and a couple other smaller distributors like Pulse Distribution to be sold to someone who would combine them into a large distributor.