Pure Play Media is a conglomerate of independent studios and producers with a central distribution network. In the cut and run jungle of the adult video business, it’s almost Utopian. And it works. In just two and a half years it has become a major industry player.
The Pure Play studios, in the order of their signing, are: Ninn Worx, Seymore Butts, The Score Group, Suze Randall, Simon Wolf, Erotic Media and Danni Ashe. Not to mention Private, whose titles Pure Play distributes in North America. Each is a high-end operation, its product well reviewed and popular with the public.
Unlike, say, Evil Angel, whose roster of topflight directors share an identical packaging concept, Pure Play producers retain their individual looks; each line has its own art department. They are unique entities, not just in content but in appearance.
“We really work at keeping the brand identities separate,” says Pure Play’s Chief Executive Officer Richard Arnold. “Because they are completely separate products. Pure Play is basically a sales and marketing facility for them.”
Arnold, a longtime Canadian video distributor, who also acted as president of Private North America for two years, had long seen the potential of such a concept.
Over the years he’d observed the difficulties major companies faced when seeking to expand. Increasing releases from five to six titles a month would only take them to a certain point before, as Arnold puts it, “their sales would start to cannibalize themselves. They were able to expand only as far as they could take their brand.”
He also noticed that there were a lot of independent producers who were struggling simply because of the economic realities of the business. “It’s much harder for a small guy to handle sales and marketing and advertising, collections and accounting, all on his own, in-house,” he said.
“The answer I came up with was to create a company which would basically be a collection of different studios, like a United Artists.” Administrative functions would be centralized, leaving the producers free to create more and better product.
Arnold’s work with Private had taught him that he needed a “door-opener,” a big name — like Private — that would guarantee clout in business deals. He didn’t have to look far before he settled on Michael Ninn. “He was one of the most AVN-awarded directors and had a real good reputation. His line would be our sort of lead line.”
Ninn had just wrapped a six-picture deal with Private and “wanted to do his own thing. Rather than produce a picture and sell it to somebody, he wanted to own it, he wanted the rights to remain with him.”
Arnold made Ninn a partner in Pure Play Media. “Now Michael gets to create his Ninn Worx line. He can make it as good as it is and get to participate in the revenue we generate as a result of it.”
At the same time a deal was struck with Seymore Butts, whose line Arnold had distributed in Canada. The week after Butts signed with Pure Play, Showtime started shooting its Family Business series. “It was just really good timing,” Arnold said. “The series has created a huge demand for Seymore’s titles.”
The third company Arnold brought in was The Score Group of Florida, which specializes in big-breast niche product. “They had this catalog of videos they had only ever released through their mail order. We got together and made a deal to distribute their product on VHS and DVD.”
With these three, Pure Play got up and running in August 2002. Now all Arnold needed was someone to head the company’s day-to-day operations. His home (and Canadian distributorship) is in Toronto, and he had no intention of relocating to Los Angeles.
Enter Sieg Badke, Pure Play’s president. Born in Germany and raised in Canada, he had a considerable background in video sales. He ran Video Update, a chain of over 100 full-line video stores with small adult sections, since purchased by Movie Gallery. He and Arnold had known each other for eight years.
“What I knew about Sieg was he was a good hard worker with years and years of management skills and ability. We offered him a piece of the company — he’s a partner, the president. That was a big key to my doing this. I never would have done it if I didn’t have somebody really solid in place down here to run the thing.”
Badke started work on Aug. 28, 2002, 16 days after the company incorporated.
“Our first real effective year was 2003,” Badke says. “I think we hit somewhere in the four, four and half million range. And in our second year we probably doubled that, or close to it. And now in our third year, with Private coming aboard, I think that’s going to double again. It certainly has been busy here.”
At the end of 2003, Pure Play added Suze Randall to their lineup. They are re-releasing 16 of her classic titles from the ’80s, plus new all-sex titles created by Suze and her daughter Holly. “It’s just a fantastic line,” Arnold says.
Simon Wolf Productions came on board in 2004. “He’s done some big features and has sort of migrated into the wall to wall end of the business,” Arnold says. “He produces excellent stuff.”
They also did a deal with Erotic Media, a Europorn company based in Switzerland, which releases two titles a month, usually a feature plus a wall to waller.
Pure Play’s most recent deal was with Danni Ashe, whose Danni.com is the Internet’s most downloaded adult site. They started releasing titles from her all-girl Danni’s Hard Cut line in October.
Pure Play also created its own line, Cousin Stevie’s Pussy Party, with Seymore Butts’ cousin, prominently featured in the Family Business series. “It’s an all-girl line, and it’s doing extremely well,” Arnold said. “He is quite a unique personality.”
When signing new studios, Pure Play looks for something it doesn’t have already. “They cannot be competing lines,” Arnold said. “We don’t want to cannibalize our own sales. For instance, I won’t sign any other big breast line. Our Danni Ashe contract does not allow her to shoot big breast pictures, because of our deal with Score.”
Pure Play’s biggest deal so far was last fall’s cross-distribution agreement with Private. Pure Play got exclusive North American distribution of the Barcelona-based company, with Private distributing most of the Pure Play product in Europe.
“The biggest challenge for a North American producer,” Arnold says, “is to get good European distribution. I think with Private we will get the absolutely best European distribution.”
Taking over Private’s Los Angeles operation involved a number of challenges, including closing its Valencia facility and squeezing its product into the much smaller Pure Play warehouse. (A second warehouse had to be rented in the Chatsworth business complex where they’re headquartered.)
Also migrating to Chatsworth were many of the staff, though some chose not to. “I think we made the transition for the employees as painless as possible,” Arnold says. “A lot of them collected severance pay on Monday and went to work for us on Tuesday.
“I can tell you there’s been a hiccup or two, but overall it’s been really good. We were shipping product within less than two weeks.”
With the addition of Private, the Pure Play catalog now bulges at over 1,000 titles.
“We still have product on VHS, both our lines and Private’s,” Badke says. “For us, VHS is still a good market.” But beginning this month they will offer VHS only on new releases, and when those are gone they won’t reorder.
Foremost among Pure Play’s future plans is becoming a publicly traded company; the procedure is underway. “We’re going to be a public entity within a very short period of time,” Arnold said. “That will allow us to do some pretty exciting things: make some acquisitions, step up production a little bit, get a bit more aggressive in areas like the Internet, where I think we’re not where we should be.
“There’s lots of other genres that we’re not into in any great degree — the biggest one is gay productions. And I’d love to be doing a little bit more in the soft end of the business. There’s a lot of areas to improve.”
But maintaining high product quality is a given. Arnold pledges that for Pure Play Media, “The value on the shelf for the retailer is always going to be there.”
Pure Play Media, 19800 Nordhoff Place, Chatsworth, CA 91311. 818.717.5355, 818.717.5360 fax: 866.820-3000 toll-free. pureplaymedia.com.
