egafd.com

Creators of the first full-length porn film in the Galician language announced in April that they are short of funds:

http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/lugo/2011/ ... 7C2995.htm

They (the world porn industry) are all sufferring financially in one way or another.
It was never an industry that was well financed from the beginning, due to its very nature.
No sooner than the French government in mid 1970's hand announced they were abolishing censorship, and cinema houses all over Paris started exhibiting porn fare that the government did an about-face and slapped them with an abusive sur-tax, that caused porn houses to shut down and with that went the porn industry which was partly relieved through the video distribution.
Didn't Video Marc Dorcel a few months back announce they were under financial duress and asked the public to finance their next production (by way of share participation)?
If we could only pass the hat around and "allow" (and "gently" push) some porn (and even mainstream) performers to fade away into permanent retirement, that would be worth considering.

I would have thought that VMD were being heavily subsidised by the condom-
industry.....

You'd be surpised to know in the US, where a lot of the revenue is coming from to support the now less lucrative porn filming activity (sex toys anyone?).
With relation to VMD and the way they have been recently advertising the movies they release and box cover artwork. You never see clearly what sex activity is going on by looking at the box covers (in particular the back cover), when private parts are on display, a red wiggly line is just drawn over. It's worse than Japanese porn.
You'd think by this time EVERYONE (yes, even the martians) is well aware that condoms are used, so what is the point of trying to "hide" the fact? Why do they do that? I really love to see their sales records (pre-condom and after-condom). I wonder how "happy" they are about the situation.

I understood it was their [presumably lucrative] deal with the French sat-channels
that led to the latex becoming obligatory, at the latter's behest.
In this context it's be interesting to know whether the US satellite/cable outfits
dictated a simliar conversion by the likes of Vivid, or whether it was their own
decision.

I don't know how condom (safe sex) use got to be a big issue in French porn production. Partly it may have been due to to VMD's association and partenring with Wicked over their mutual release of their porn movie production a few years back (this started at the time when their main asset Laure Sinclair was active). What happened after that, it is not clear to me whether French authorities or broadcasting conglomerates dictated/suggested to porn producers to feature safe sex scenes in their works.
With regards to US cable/satellite porn broadcasting, the big four (Vivid, Wicked, Adam & Eve, VCA) always had a heavy presence and were the ones that were making the type of programming that brodcasters were interested in (hotels, homes): vanilla (i.e. inoffensive, non controvesial, etc) content, large budget, glossy content, various versions available (hard R, X-rated, anals and/or DP removed, removal of the money cum shots, etc, for a particular market), couples oriented, with plotlines. Other producersd just don't have the means to compete with that.
The condom use more or less started with the 1998 HIV/AIDS epidemic. Most of the majors at the time went for obligatory condom use. I think the only one left is Wicked. I think over a year ago Vivid removed the mandatory condom use to whatever the performers feel comfortable with.
On a corporate level, most of the majors prefer condom use in order to demonstrate they care about the performers' welfare and health, and reinforce the idea that sex acts between consenting adults should involve safe sex.
There is a debate going on right now in California (especially with the recent demise of AIM) as to whether the state of California should dictate mandatory condom use for adult performers in all porn production. If it really comes to that, I wonder what will happen, if they will comply or simply shift their operations/production overseas.

As you know I have two main issues with blanket condom-usage; the aesthetic
one, which is personal and thus not strictly germane; and the health one.

There are too many alternative avenues of transmission for condoms alone to
be viewed as 'safe'. I'd like to see figures, were they ever to become available,
for rates of infection measured against condoms versus frequent testing.
Mandatory short-interval testing in my view offers a better safeguard than latex,
particularly where sheaths are changed during sex and removed for the money-
shot.
Condom-usage seems to me a little like the well-documented 'seat-belt effect',
where motorists take more risks because they feel 'safer'. The net result is
unchanged or increased risk.
As usual, the lobby that shouts the loudest wins the day, irrespective of the
actual merit of their case. This is also why I predict that within 50 years the
US will be [actually, revert to] a book-burning fundamentaiist theocracy : -)