CHATSWORTH, Calif.—The GAYVN Awards, presented annually in recognition of stellar achievement in the gay adult entertainment industry, will be presented in 2010 for the 12th year, the chief of parent company AVN Media Network said Thursday.
“There is absolutely no possibility the awards will be cancelled, and we must put an end to these outrageous rumors,” Chief Executive Officer Darren Roberts said. “We’ve been doing this event for a long, long time, and we will continue to recognize gay adult companies for their achievements.”
Roberts said the GAYVN Awards ceremony would be delayed, due to economic factors that have affected every industry.
“The challenges facing our business are no different than any other business in America right now,” Roberts said. However, “we are going to recognize the individuals and companies as we always have. Our energies at the moment are focused on providing the industry with the quality and the type of show they’ve come to expect. We don’t want to have to step back from that.”
Like the AVN Awards on the straight side of the adult industry, the GAYVN Awards were designed as an homage to an industry sector to which the parent company has been committed for 28 years.
“While financial considerations are very important, the GAYVN Awards are, and always have been, done from a passion for what we do,” Roberts said. “They are not about profitability.”
The GAYVN Awards show “has never made money—never,” he added. “That was not the goal. In the past, we had the financial freedom to afford the losses. In this economy, nobody has the freedom to afford losses in any business.”
With that in mind, and with the successful execution of pay-per-view contracts that for the first time will broadcast the 2010 AVN Awards into more than 90 million households around the world, AVN has spent the past few months in talks with major U.S. and international broadcast networks that are interested in giving the GAYVN Awards international exposure.
That’s good news for the adult industry as a whole, Roberts said, as experience has proven in both the mainstream and adult that high-profile awards like the AVNs, the GAYVNs and the Oscars convince consumers to pay for nominated and winning products instead of downloading inferior materials from pirate resources online.
“Awards make a difference not only to companies, but also to consumers,” Roberts said. “Consumers are much more likely to pay to watch the original award-winner instead of watching it in bits and pieces on a tube site. The companies who were featured during the AVN Awards broadcast on Showtime [in 2008 and 2009] said the larger viewership has made a tremendous difference in their product sales.”
Roberts said additional information about the 2010 GAYVN Awards will be made public as soon as it is available.
