First it was the banks demanding billions of dollars of US taxpayers money to bail them out, then the carmakers. Today it was the turn of the pornography industry to hold out the begging bowl to Washington.

Two porn moguls, including Hustler magazine founder Larry Flynt, say they will seek a $5 billion (£3.29 billion) bail-out, arguing that economic downturn has even hit their industry.

Flynt and Joe Francis, creator of the video series “Girls Gone Wild”, claim people are “too depressed to be sexually active”.

“With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind,” Flynt said. “It's time for Congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America.The only way they can do this is by supporting the adult industry.”

The two men concede the $13 billion industry is in no fear of collapse, but say “why take chances?”.

Behind the two men's tongue-in-cheek plea is a real message of declining fortunes for an industry being hit by competition from free adult sites on the internet.Industry figures show adult DVD sales and rentals decreased 22% in 2008.

FriendFinder Networks, the parent of men's magazine Penthouse, this week said it plans a bigger focus on its social networking sites.

The company filed for a $460 million initial public offering in December.

“The magazine is irrelevant — it is a good brand, but we're an internet company,” chief executive Marc Bell said, adding that the magazine now contributes little to revenue, although he would not give a figure.