The company also has opened its affiliate program, XTV Cash, to all webmasters. The program, which was on an invitation-only basis during beta testing, pays out $35 per signup, even if the member cancels after the 15-day trial period, and 10 percent recurring revshare for the life of the member.
“We want to get into the market quicker,” Fabian Citraro, XTV director of marketing, told XBiz. “We wanted to provide a great incentive for webmasters to make money and a great offer for consumers to sign up, and free trials are always better than pay trials.”
Citraro said that based on the positive reactions of the service’s roughly 3,000 beta subscribers, the company felt comfortable offering the $180 boxes for free based on the belief that subscribers will keep the service long enough to justify the upfront costs.
“It’s a matter of putting a quality product out there that people will hold onto for a long time,” Citraro said.
David Koenig, owner of XTV parent company Holio.net, told XBiz that recent deals the company will be announcing in the near future have enabled it to import 25,000 units and order another 100,000 from its China-based production facility.
“We want to move a lot of boxes,” Koenig said. “Now the user pays nothing, there’s no contract and the box ships for free — and even if they return it, the webmaster still gets paid $35.”
Launched in March, XTV is part of the larger International Television Networks. The service works with broadband connections to bring viewers 50 channels of continuous adult films, live feeds and Pornholio interactive content. After the 15-day free trial, subscription is $29.95 per month with no contract.
Since shipping the first 2,000 ITVN boxes, XTV has had fewer than 1 percent tech support and service calls, according to Koenig, and acquired libraries from Zero Tolerance, Third Degree and Sean Michaels, among others, to compliment its initial offering from studios such as Private, Legend and Filmco.
Citraro said that recurring payouts to webmasters will be based not only on subscription fees but also PPV and non-adult programming. In addition to adult content, ITVN is set up to receive news and sports channels on both a pay-per-use and subscription basis.