Hardcore Profits

Tim Samuels explores how in the 21st century, pornography has never been more profitable or more pervasive. Tim sees how pornography is now piped into people's lives via new technologies and how this is creating powerful new revenue streams for supposedly 'family friendly' mobile phone and credit card companies. Tim discovers how the Internet has spawned 'Porn 2.0'. He travels to the US headquarters of a porn website with millions of users, and has the opportunity to get 'hands on' with their latest porn technology. Tim finds out that the spread of porn is having far-reaching consequences. On porn sets in LA, Tim sees that condoms are rarely used, and in Africa, he finds that these American condom-free movies can undermine safe sex education, increasing the risk of HIV infections.

Tim Samuels reveals that pornography is becoming more extreme, yet despite this, companies that are household names seem surprisingly pleased to make money from it. He finds out that extreme porn is making extreme profits for internet search engines and even pension funds. On set in America, Tim speaks to porn actors who say they feel increasing pressure to undertake hardcore sex acts. He talks to the godfather of porn, Larry Flynt, and discovers that even he thinks porn is going too far. However, there are more and more companies keen to cash in and collect porn's dirty dollars. A whistleblower tells him there is a Catholic investment fund that appears happy to profit from porn distributors, so he travels to Rome for a heated interview with the head of Christian Brothers Investment Services.