Overview:
For those of us who are after some man-on-man action, it can be a struggle to find good quality all-in-one gay porn retail opportunities. Channel 1 Releasing (C1R) seems to be stepping up to the bar, however, and trying to provide it for all you guys out there. A gay friend of mine once mused that it would be “wonderful” if you could “get off and do your shopping all at the same time.” Although I think he may have had something else in mind, it made me think about a truly unlikely scenario: a 100% gay Wal-mart. What would that be like? In reality, a gay Wal-Mart might actually be a brilliant idea, but Channel 1 Releasing has certainly opened my eyes to something a bit more realistic. For those of you not just satisfied with the visual porn experience, Channel 1 Releasing offers up a few other options as well – there are toys, books, vlogs, blogs, videos to buy, and videos to rent. This site seems to offer up it all. They’ve also replaced the public discomfort of shopping for your sexual needs with the comfort of doing it from your own home. No more brave walks into the straight adult bookshop and tense embarrassing moments at the cash register - now you can just do it all from your desktop! “But what’s so new about that?” I hear you ask. While it’s true that it has been possible to purchase pornos and dildos (and related accoutrements) from the ‘net for some time, C1R still seems to offer (or at least try to offer) something different.

Upon taking a tour of C1R, one discovers that there’s a reason why this site was the recipient of the 2009 GayVN award for “Best Website”: there’s really a ton of content on offer and it all seems to be presented in a seriously sophisticated manner. The site offers up a lot of opportunities to get you off, that’s for sure. Even the standard free membership gives you access to thousands of hardcore trailers (after registering) and, at a decent price of $24.95 per month, you’re entitled to premium membership and all the added perks that come with it: five free online rentals each week, 30 free minutes towards movie hire every month, no expiration date on rentals for the duration of your membership, access to hardcore trailers and photo galleries, 20% off merchandise, Dirk Yates video archives, and live and raw video archives (all of which, I have to admit, seems pretty impressive). There are literally thousands of videos and photos to go through here. One thing I will say, however, is that the layout and design of this site can be a little confusing. It’s not that it’s poorly laid out, per se; I mean the menus are up top where they should be and most of the usual junk is in order. It’s just that nothing really grabs your attention straight away. It’s a very busy website and there’s so much going on that you just don’t know where to look or where to go. Thankfully I found the Explore menu. You’ll need to access this menu to really get your bearings around the site and make use of everything on offer. The Explore menu gives you separate headings to choose from: there’s the Store, VOD (Video on demand), Premium Members (featuring Dirk Yates, Live and Raw video footage of guys jerking off and also the currently available free movies), Models, Chi Chi La Rue (Drag queen blog and news), Blogs and Other. You got all that? I told you there was a lot on offer, didn’t I? You’re literally (or figuratively) spoiled for choice.

The five free movies per week are a good place to start if you want some hot guy-on-guy action served straight-up. The videos are streamed, so there’s no downloading – the quality isn’t great, though; I’d even go so far as to describe it as “blurry” and “pixilated.” Bit of a shame, really, especially considering all the anticipation I had worked up. I really had to focus hard just to see where all that hot man juice was landing. The VOD image quality is a bit better, but could also be improved with a little effort and commitment, if you know what I mean. There are about 750 VOD scenes to choose from, all running for an average of 90 minutes. When you do the math, that’s a lot of cock-stroking hours you potentially have there, and, as I know how important cock stroking is to you, it’s bound to reinvigorate your interest in Channel 1 Releasing.

Another downside is that there isn’t really a photo gallery collection to speak of. Some videos do come with attached galleries as a makeshift bonus, but there isn’t a separate, stand-alone gallery of hardcore action and fucking to peruse at your leisure. What you do get, however, are photographs of the models, and there sure are a lot of models - 1,075 to be exact! Some of these fellas have nary a single photo to display, while others have well over a hundred. (It’s also hit and miss there.) You’ll come across photo galleries as they become available, whether they’re attached to videos or to particular models just seems to be luck of the draw.

That brings me to another point of contest I have with Channel 1 Relasing’s website - the action itself. The “good shit” contained within the scenes (the ones that don’t require extra payment) is decidedly soft core. If watching straight guys engage in small talk and then jerk off for an hour and 15 minutes is your thing, then you’ll be spoiled for choice. But if it isn’t, then you’re going to have to pay extra and, after already having ponied up for the premium membership fee, you might start thinking that this site is a bit of a money pit. After all, you only get 30 free minutes each month. That being said, as a premium member, all the videos you rent will be available throughout the duration of your membership. You’re still forced to choose, so please choose wisely, my friend. For those of us who are slaves to the big meat monster that lives downstairs, the predicament (among other things) might get a little hairy.

Pros:
- Loads of content on offer.

- Do your dildo shopping and have a stroke at the same time? Sounds like fun!

- Not too expensive for premium membership - $24.95.

- There are excellent and entertaining blogs and vlogs to peruse when you wanna give the old man a break.

Cons:
- The available premium membership action is predominantly softcore.

- Paying extra for more hardcore titles? That’s a drag.

- It’d be real easy to sink a bunch of money into Channel 1 Releasing.

- Site navigation can be quite confusing.

Conclusion:
Channel 1 Releasing might have an unwieldy moniker, but there really is a lot on offer, should you choose to engage it. I would warn against getting your hopes up about purchasing the premium membership, as you’ll most likely end up spending your money on the better quality Video On Demand titles anyway. The action on offer in the premium section is rather soft and those of us with more daring sexual appetites would most certainly need to pay for the VOD titles. But that doesn’t take away from the candy store feel that you get from this site, as there is a wide variety of man candy for sale here. All you need to do is take your pick, pony up some dough, sit back, and enjoy the ride – just don’t expect to get off lightly… geddit?