Pornhub Premium: Netflix for porn costs $9.99 per month

Pornhub, the largest pornography site on the Internet, is going premium. The company isn’t beating around the bush: Pornhub wants to become the Netflix for porn.

The porn site has launched a new on-demand streaming service called Pornhub Premium (obviously NSFW) for $9.99 per month, though there is a seven-day trial option for those who want to try before they buy. Netflix offers plans ranging from $7.99 per month to $11.99 per month.

Pornhub Premium’s main selling points are an ad-free experience, faster playback, and higher quality streaming for the millions of videos already available on Pornhub. The company also claims it offers the largest collection of “exclusive full length HD adult titles available in crisp 1080p resolution.”

Pornhub Premium is available on mobile devices, tablets, and desktop computers. The company is also working on dedicated Android and Roku apps.

Oh, and of course, Pornhub Premium will get virtual reality integration “at the beginning of 2016.” This is part of a bigger trend that Pornhub has embraced: Last month, the site launched the Twerking Butt, a sex toy complete with a virtual reality headset.

We asked the company how exactly virtual reality support will work. “Well, once we release for VR headsets, we’ll be looking to support the Oculus Rift first and foremost (with others potentially on the horizon),” Pornhub vice president Corey Price told VentureBeat. “The Oculus makes the most sense to develop for at the moment, given its brand recognition, so that’s why it’s our initial choice. But it’ll work the same way most videos and/or games work on VR — you feel as if you’re really there in front of the actors. The device’s gyroscope, magnetometer, accelerometers, and 360-degree field of view will all play into the porn experience ideally. And now, with several third party sex toy peripherals (i.e., the Twerking Butt), people can enhance their experience tenfold.”

Pornhub promises that the billing process for its Premium version will be “secure and discreet.” There will be 24-hour customer service, and consumers will be able to cancel their memberships at any time.

“Users will benefit from enhanced access to all of the content they already enjoy on Pornhub.com — with improved streaming quality — as well as over 100,000 full-length premium exclusive scenes at the touch of a finger or click of the mouse,” Price said in a statement. “We’re looking to take the crown as the ‘Netflix of porn,’ and with the colossal amount of content we’ll be providing — and adding tons more daily — we’re confident our fan base will totally embrace this product and reinforce our position as the top provider of on-demand adult video.”

When we first wrote about Porn Time, an app that lets users stream video torrents, we were quite skeptical about its pitch given that porn is already very accessible. Yet downloads went through the roof.

Still, it’s difficult to see Pornhub Premium performing well given not only that porn is readily available online, but that the vast amount is free, including on Pornhub itself. That said, with the largest online audience and a promise to support virtual reality, the site may just be able to convert a small portion of its 60 million daily visitors and increase revenues with a subscription fee.