www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-adelphia2feb02,0,7840216.story
By Sallie Hofmeister, Times Staff Writer Porn is suddenly sexy to a cable TV company once considered the industry prude. has quietly become the nation's only leadin g cable operator to offer the most explicit category of hard-core porn. Come Friday, triple-X-rated programming will be available on cable for t he first time in a major media market: Southern California. "People want it, so we are trying to provide it," Adelphia spokeswoman Er ica Stull said. Stull stressed that the programming, supplied by Playboy Enterprises Inc. It will be delivered through video-on-demand technology, avail able now to about two-thirds of Adelphia's 12 million Southern Californ ia subscribers. The move is a radical departure for Adelphia, the largest cable provider in Southern California and the nation's fifth biggest. Five years ago, A delphia stirred a local controversy by dropping Spice a popular soft-p orn channel from newly acquired cable systems here because Adelphia fo under John Rigas considered X-rated programming immoral. Today, the 80-year-old Rigas and one of his sons are facing prison terms after being convicted last summer for looting the company and engaging i n fraudulent accounting. Adelphia, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2002, curre ntly is on the block. During the last year, in an effort to bolster Adel phia's bottom line, the company's new management has begun offering soft er porn in various areas of the country and, in recent months, has intro duced the hardest-core programming in a few markets. The ratings system was developed informally by the adult entertainment in dustry and has become an integral part of how pornographic movies are ed ited for specific audiences. Single-X-rated movies feature nudity, long-range or panoramic and medium- range camera shots, simulated sex and sex between women. Double-X-rated movies show intercourse, oral sex and close-up shots. Triple-X-rated mov ies feature anal sex and visible ejaculation. Cable executives said Adelphia's decision to air hard-core porn was unlik ely to scare bidders in the current auction. Some predicted that if Adel phia subscribers flock to the new triple-X programs, other cable operato rs could follow. The Internet has become a carnal cornucopia, with graphic images, videos and cartoons. Some industry experts say explicit programming has helped satellite provi ders carve out a 20% share of the pay TV market. "It's scary how much money is made on porn," said Tim Connelly, editor an d publisher of Adult Video News, an industry trade magazine that estimat es that when strip clubs, magazines, the Internet, TV and DVDs are inclu ded, porn is a $10-billion industry. Despite an outcry among some religious organizations, parent groups and p olitical figures over the coarsening content coming into homes, the "ind ecency" backlash could lead to even more graphic programming on subscrip tion services. "The conservative groups that want to clean up the airwaves have forced p eople looking for racier stuff to pay for it," said Bill Asher, co-chair man of Van Nuys-based Vivid Entertainment, the world's largest producer of adult programming. "It's given pay TV more authority to go further th an before." Insiders and analysts estimate that consumers spend more than $1 billion a year buying sexually graphic movies and other explicit fare on TV thro ugh pay-per-view and video-on-demand services. Today, analysts say, adult programming gives cable and satellite distribu tors their highest profit margins. Such suppliers of adult programming a s New Frontier Media Inc. and Playboy get from 5% to 15% of the average $9 consumers pay for a movie, according to industry sources. By comparis on, distributors typically give Hollywood studios half of the revenue on pay-per-view movies, which usually costs under $5 per rental. Although the prospect of more money is enticing, most cable TV providers have been loath to move beyond double-X-rated movies for fear of incitin g the anger of investors, subscribers and local politicians who regulate them. But Adelphia executives say that new digital technology, which al lows programs to be blocked, has given them more comfort and cover in of fering hard-core fare to subscribers. Adelphia's new strategy also has opened new opportunities for Playboy, wh ich is providing triple-X programming to television for the first time. "We're all public companies that want to make a lot of money," said James Griffiths, Playboy's top entertainment executive. "Playboy needs to sup ply whatever programming our distributors need to be successful. All you have to do is look at what's available on the I nternet." Playboy, the Chicago-based company founded by Hugh Hefner, once was one o f the most conservative players in the world of adult entertainment. Industry sources say Hefner's daughter Christie, who now runs Playboy, wa s uncomfortable going harder core and was protective of the company's ca refully cultivated image as a gentleman's brand. In the meantime, rivals began to chip away at Playboy's dominance. In 2001, to protect itself, Playboy bought th ree channels owned by Vivid that aired the company's double-X programmin g Industry sources said Larry Flynt also was attempting to become a force i n the triple-X world of television, offering distributors attractive ter ms to carry his new HustlerTV. One adult industry veteran, however, said Flynt had received a lukewarm reception in the cable industry because o f his notoriety for pushing the envelope. In the bigger scheme, the partnership between Playboy and Adelphia in Sou thern California is a small step in a more ambitious plan to lure viewer s away from the Internet and make television their primary destination f or porn. Playboy is gearing up to supply a variety of programs on demand that will keep subscribers running up the bill. One goal: to increase the seven-m inute viewing time historically clocked by the average person who orders an adult pay-per-view movie. Said Playboy's Griffiths: "We would love for people to sample more of our programming."
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