profit driver for your own business. would that be fair? absolutely. especially with the decline of dvd sales. we ve become much more dependent on the internet and at vivid.com our business is growing and growing rapidly. you managed to get that in. thanks very much. steve hirch founder of vivid entertainment. thank you for joining us. thank you. coming up four, three, two and liftoff for the final launch of endeavour. liftoff endeavour, and the end of an era. las vegas says good-bye to a hotel the rat pack once called home. [ male announcer ] this is james.
that s how you buy the application, buy some of the applications and you get credit i don t play all those games, those application games. you get credits. it s not real money? well, no, it is i m teasing. people don t think it is. warner brothers digital distribution says it s going to offer the dark knight through facebook and you ll do other things while you re watching the film. of course. because why would you just want to watch a film? you have to do something else. you ve got red box, hulu, netflix, amazon doing the streaming video thing, google and itunes both have streaming, but no one has the eyeballs that facebook does. this is the latest in facebook trying to a critic would say control your life. others would say being a single destination for everything you need. dvd sales are slipping for hollywood overall. u.s. sales last year $7.8 billion. a 20% decline in dvd sales.
the economy kept stocks afloat thursday. fed chair ben bernanke said the central bank expects the economy to improve this year, countering speculation that inflation fears might put an end to its $600 billion bond buying program. news that chain store sales grew twice what was expected in january drove costco and the gap 4% higher. meanwhile first time unemployment claims fell last week. that supports predictions that today s big jobs report will show employers added nearly 150,000 jobs last month. bj s wholesale club jumped 12% after confirming it may be ready to put itself up for sale. drug maker merck dropped nearly 3% on weaker earnings. viacom came up short thanks to disappointing dvd sales at paramount. jp morgan chase is denying allegations from the trustee in charge of recovering losses from bernie madoff s victims. according to unsealed court
you know, my daughters are 13, 15 and 19 and when they were little, it was great because i took the dummies to school and read the night before christmas and whatever. they got to a certain age, they were like dad, could you please? when the comedy central hit, then it became cool again. that s all right. the ahmad terrorist is yours. d.v.d. sales, you appear on stage? yeah, we re doing the three surprises that really got me in the past couple of years, number one is we re doing these giant venues. i went 20 years of comedy clubs and we re doing thousands. the biggest is at the o in london and it was something ridiculous like 16,000, 18,000 people. in the book, you break out. you chronicled the struggling guy with extra people on his lap. right. to the guy who is unbelievably successful. what s better, being poor or rich? you know, the money is fun. but honestly, that s not the
batman xxx, steven hersh built vivid entertainment into a $100 million a year business. but lately he says he s faced a perfect storm of declining dvd sales, rampant piracy, and internet sites that give content away for free. i don t know where the industry will be in five or ten years. maybe the only way to fight free is to be free and to come up with a business model that supports that. reporter: and there is a more sobering threat. after a male porn actor tested positive for hiv, studios halted production this month, and the industry s biggest name, jenna jamison, called for a porn star union to help correct against a ticking time bomb. her former employer disagrees. i really do believe that this industry has done a great job in policing itself. reporter: thankfully, that s something these models don t have to worry about if they book a job with jacques. but that is a big if. this manhattan casting call