Courting Women, Playboy TV Puts Emphasis on Intimacy

By Brooks Barnes

<span style="font-size:120%;">Playboy TV is putting (some of) its clothes back on.

Since its introduction in 1982, Playboy TV, a subscription channel like Cinemax or Showtime, has focused on attracting men with soft-core pornographic movies, adult-oriented game shows (“Show Us Your Wits”) and Playmate specials. It’s a fading proposition. The channel is too tame to compete with sex-related video-on-demand services — or even certain HBO shows — yet too raunchy to appeal strongly to women, who typically control the household cable bill, according to industry research. Never mind that plenty of titillation is available free with a click of a mouse.

So Playboy spent a year conducting focus groups and other research. “If this channel could be anything, what should it be?” said Gary Rosenson, a senior vice president and general manager of Playboy’s domestic television operation. The outcome: in January Playboy TV, which does not release subscriber figures but is available in 70 million homes in the United States, will begin shifting from traditional pornography toward a higher-quality, female-friendly slate of reality shows. Just as Nickelodeon has its Nick at Nite, Playboy TV will call this block of shows TV for 2.

The rest: The New York Times</span>

sorry, if I can put on a chauvinist hat for a moment...

why is "Playboy" catering to women? Are men asking that Lifetime cater to men?

I have no idea. You tell me. That's what I'm asking.

sorry, if I can put on a chauvinist hat for a moment...

why is "Playboy" catering to women? Are men asking that Lifetime cater to men?

That's what I was thinking.

It won't work. Playboy, as a brand, still has some sort of faded cache, but it's days of being relevant are long dead.

Isn't there already a Playgirl channel?

I have no idea. You tell me. That's what I'm asking.

I guess they think they are not making enough money so want to see if there is better fish to fry with women.

Weird. Friggin' PLAYBOY TV can't get its numbers up with male viewers so it begins to cater to women? What kind of twisted logic is THAT?? Just cut Playboy TV, let men continue to order the good hardcore stuff On-Demand, and rebrand Playboy into soft-coreish lady porn (doing it in candlelight and under the rain) Playgirl TV aka dirty Lifetime.

Weird. Friggin' PLAYBOY TV can't get its numbers up with male viewers so it begins to cater to women? What kind of twisted logic is THAT?? Just cut Playboy TV, let men continue to order the good hardcore stuff On-Demand, and rebrand Playboy into soft-coreish lady porn (doing it in candlelight and under the rain) Playgirl TV aka dirty Lifetime.

THANK YOU.

Dude, you just like...summed up my thoughts on the whole "changing soaps to keep them on the air" thing better than I ever could in a thread that is totally unrelated.

Some of the women I know would probably hoot at the idea of the more intimate, romantic notions that Playboy has of them. But I guess it is an untapped (no pun intended) market. They should just remember that not all women want to see hearts and flowers and talking about feelings.

It's going to be a strange adjustment for viewers who are used to shows like Foursome. I guess the ratings are why they are doing things like having reality "stars" on their show. I read that that poor woman from last year's Big Brother who went a little off the reservation and got a really bad boob job was going to be on the show...I think one of the I Love New York men is too.

Yeah, Heat from I<3NY was on one of their shows (he also dayplayered on AMC this year ). Dunbar from The Real World was as well. I actually saw a clip of that. Porn, like everything else, peaked in the 70s.

Yeah, Heat from I<3NY was on one of their shows (he also dayplayered on AMC this year ). Dunbar from The Real World was as well. I actually saw a clip of that. Porn, like everything else, peaked in the 70s.

Dunbar

Foursome is my fave show on PBTV. I love that show.

I think I've seen a clip of that show on The Soup, was Pumpkin from Flavor of Love in one? I'm oddly surprised yet not surprised at all that the reality show folks would toe the porn line. Just as I don't need my daytime serials to look like porn, I don't need my porn (not that I watch it ) to be filled with familiar faces from silly shows on VH1. Awkward. It's weird though. Paris and Kim have really funked up that line for Hollywood wannabes between career ending and career making moves. Look at Larry Fishburne's daughter and her buttne-scarred behind. How you gonna make your big porn debut with your ass lookin like that??

Speaking of tongue-in-cheek ( ), Sylph, is this thread title a purposeful double entendre?

i LOVE d-listed celeb porn! lol.

yes she was, i think she hooked up with Dunbar from the real world.

The line between porn and reality TV has blurred more and more over the years, so it's not as much of a surprise to me as it might have been at one point that a lot of reality people are now getting into the act, although I sometimes wonder if many of those who might be interested are those that porn wouldn't be all that interested in hiring, as they're not overly attractive.

I'm also surprised that even more Big Brother people have not gone into porn. Big Brother may air on a conservative network like CBS but from very early on the show has been quite shocking. I think that show really set a certain bar for trashy reality show behavior -- the days of whipped cream bikinis and when a contestant was nicknamed "Chiwhora" almost seem quaint compared to where that show went. Whereas Real World started out as fairly low-key and only got nasty 4-5 years in, Big Brother was nasty from early on and just kept on going more and more down that road, although they did seem to make an effort to clean up after that hellish season with James the pink haired porn guy and the moralistic ex-Penthouse Pet and that poor naive Natalie who loved the Bible but also did stripshows and inhaled cucumbers.

Edited November 18, 201015 yr by CarlD2