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It's a gentle start: performers take things fairly easy through to the watershed, prepping the callers for some X-rated material from 10:00 PM onward ("Stay on the line, lads, we've got Preeti Young coming up and she's feeling racy"—that sort of thing). Then, once the clock gongs, the floodgates open: the switchboards light up as viewers call the hotline for a chance at some intimacy with their favorite performers. Callers wait on the line to speak to the performers directly, but, while they wait, they can listen in while performers chat to other viewers. I opted to listen in from behind-the-scenes, and it's a strange experience listening in to another viewer's fantasy: both private and not private, all at the same rather antagonistic time."Back in the day it was more relaxed," the producer, tells me. "But now on certain channels you can't mimic a blow job."
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Dr. Funke Baffour, TV psychologist for Big Brother, sees the user-controlled element of Babestation as akin to playing a video game. A sexy video game. "It's like you are playing PlayStation and you are directing the cast—that's a rush," she tells me. "Now I can ring in and say 'open your legs' and it's more arousing and more stimulating [than just watching porn]. The power is very addictive, and the viewers are sucked into these images that are on the screen; they are the viewer's creation. There's almost a sense of pride in the 'work,' knowing that what you get that girl to do is also being watched by other people—possibly enjoying—what you get the girl to do.""Wow, that nine-incher is lovely."
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To that effect, Babestation has launched two spin-offs—BabeStation Unleashed and BabeStation Cams—based purely online to accommodate a younger, porn-savvy audience accustomed to harder material. BabeStation Cams, in particular, has opened up a wider market for the brand while keeping overhead costs low. BabeStation Latina, South Africa, and Germany are just a few offshoots being mooted as a result. There is life in Babestation yet: online, away from the regulations of Ofcom, performers can offer more private (and lucrative) one-on-ones with their existing core audience.So while the future might be uncertain for the TV format, the brand's foothold as a provider of viewer-controlled sexual escapism will evidently mean that it will be 'Viva La Babestation' in the years to come. How long the phonesex-in-a-warehouse TV model can sustain is anybody's guess—but when it comes down to it, there is still an audience of men out there willing to pay $45 a go to talk to a Babestation Babe in the quiet hours of the night."At the end of the day I watch Babestation to see some sexy ladies getting their tits out and their feet out and they do the stuff that I want."