Perry writes:
X-Rated movies are a huge business. I suspect cable companies would love to broadcast them.
Right. And the telcos would love to carry phone-sex services. Your suspicion would be incorrect. Current providers tend not to want to carry sexually explicit services because it hurts their image. For example, the telcos didn't want to support 900-number phone-sex services, in spite of the fact that there is a very clear market for them, because they didn't want to do any business for and with the phone-sex companies. See, e.g., Sable Communications v. FCC. If your characterization were correct, the phone companies would be dying to carry phone-sex services. In real life, however, they keep petitioning regulatory bodies to allow them not to carry them.
Of course it would, BARRING LEGAL OBSTACLES. Again, as before, the market is not currently free -- the obstacles are government created.
Thanks for the capital letters--I am getting a little nearsighted in my old age. But your analysis hear assumes that, given a clear and profitable market, any rational provider would cater to it. Even in the absence of legal sanctions, this isn't true, as Sable Communications and other cases clearly show. --Mike