EDIT: On reflection, I think I agree with LeeAllure much more than I disagree. So please take the following as mainly an expansion on the points she was making.
They can't all be like that because kink.com has millions of dollars in income, an awesome building in SF and a huge cast of capable riggers, camera and technical people, not to mention many available models.
We can work towards it, but selling the sex they do allows kink to make far more money than most tickling producers.
True in part. In particular, the fact that kink.com does sexual play with their models gives them much bigger sales than any tickling producer. On the other hand kink.com has bigger sales than any other fetish producer I know. It eclipses even companies like Bleu Fetish, which does very similar sexplay and tickling, so it's not just the sex.
It's also true that kink.com has bazillions of dollars in equipment (they paid $14 million just for the San Francisco Armory, to house their studios). But that's not so much a factor in that clip, since it just uses a padded bench and an overhead attachment point - not much as equipment goes.
Just a few factors make that clip really stand out from what any regular tickling producer puts out. Some of them relate to money, others don't.
1) A really excellent professional fetish model. That's partly a matter of money - kink.com pays top dollar, and good talent doesn't come cheap. Most tickling producers can't afford the most experienced fetish models. But it's not just about money here. I think most tickling customers don't want that sort of thing. The girl-next-door type seems a lot more accessible, somehow. I could be wrong about that - the fact that the best-known fetish models are so expensive keeps tickling producers from really trying them out much.
2) A very, very skilled rigger, as you mentioned, Lee. This is partly money - good riggers aren't cheap either - but they're a LOT cheaper than good models in most cases, so money isn't so much a factor here. I think a much bigger factor in this case is simply that the tickling community doesn't encourage the development of top-shelf bondage skills.
I've experienced that first-hand, doing the rigging for several of our local gatherings. I acquired
my bondage skills in the SF and LA fetish communities, but there's very little interest in those skills among most tickle-fans. I finally told a friend of mine here "I've been trying to do murals, but most folks just want to get the wall painted." Tickling scenes like the one in this clip will remain the province of high-end fetish sites until and unless the tickling community becomes willing to pay for the necessary skills.
3) Kink.com has EXCELLENT production values. They use multiple high-res cameras, professional lighting, and state-of-the-art video editing equipment to produce a clip like this. Here, you're absolutely right: it's ALL about the money, both for the equipment itself and for the team of cameramen, grips, and editors to use the equipment. Very few erotica companies can match kink.com in this area, and certainly no tickling producer can.
Hmm. Looking over that list I think you might be more correct than I first thought. It is a lot about the money, but that ties in with both the size if the tickling fetish scene (we're very small) and the interests of most tickle-fans (that is, what they're willing to pay for).
I wouldn't be surprised to learn that kink.com's paying customer base approaches the size of the entire membership of the TMF - including all the lurkers and inactive accounts. They're HUGE!
Furthermore, kink.com uses tickling only here and there, sprinkled in with much harsher play than I'd say 75% of tickle-fans would enjoy. That other play (including sexplay, as you mentioned) is what brings in the thousands upon thousands of customers that pay kink.com's bills. I don't think they could make a tickle-only site pay for itself (and they don't think so either, based on the conversations I've had with them). There just aren't enough tickling fans willing to spend the kind of money it takes to support an operation like theirs.