Risqué Business

Fifty-five years ago, Playboy magazine was born — it was a unique creation without competition, and flourished far beyond anyone's expectations. Then, success begat competition and the magazine struggled, before again solidifying its position as an unbeatable brand in a crowded marketplace.

Twenty-five years ago, Playboy spawned the Playboy Channel, which would become Playboy TV. Again, the newcomer stood alone in its field until competition soon followed, thanks largely to a rapidly changing technological landscape within and beyond the world of cable television.

At the quarter-century mark, the original has endured some hits; but even as it adjusts and tries to find its footing once more, it is standing tall — the overall Playboy image remains a potent brand in magazines, television and the Internet, not just in America but around the globe.

“We always try to be a forward-thinking brand and Playboy TV embraces that approach,” said Bryan Postlethwait, senior vice president of programming for Playboy Media Group.

“Playboy has evolved multiple times throughout its history, but it was always right for the era that it was in,” said Todd Schwartz, division vice president of programming for Playboy TV. “What we are doing now is making the channel relevant for 2009.”

The important thing, Schwartz stressed, is that Playboy TV retains “the key original attributes of the Playboy brand — it is about aspiration, it is about fantasy and it has humor. We filter everything through those tones and attitudes. It is about a love of life.”

Hugh Hefner's first issue of Playboy in 1953 sold out. Hefner recognized almost immediately that it was a brand that could extend beyond a mere magazine and that it would need to in order to lay claim to mainstream mores. Before the decade was out, he had introduced Playboy cuff links, parties and even a syndicated TV variety show called Playboy's Penthouse.

Of course, brand extensions can go too far and by the time Christie Hefner ascended to president of Playboy Enterprises in 1982, the magazine had toppled from its circulation high of 7 million to under 4 million, the soon-to-be-shuttered Playboy Clubs were bleeding money and the icon's most ubiquitous form was as an air freshener.

“When I took over there was a profitable licensing business but it was not carefully managed,” said Christie Hefner. “The one item associated with it was the Playboy air freshener, which ended up in taxis not Maseratis. You're being foolish if you think you're not paying a price if you don't control the brand.”

That year marked the first annual loss since Playboy had gone public and the number was significant: $52 million. Since then, the company has been much savvier about managing the brand, beginning with the 1982 launch of the Playboy Channel (it was rebranded Playboy TV in 1992.) This early embrace of new technology would bolster the brand time and again.

While cable television seems an obvious choice now, back then it was a risky move, in part because it guaranteed another round of attacks from the right at a time when conservatives had gained control of the government. The network was removed in Cincinnati, and the protests of a group called Morality in Media, which corralled 11,000 signatures on a petition in Buffalo, drew national headlines in 1984. Even a decade later, citizen groups around the country were battling Playboy's television presence.

The fledgling cable industry was far from a sure thing at that point — in its early days Playboy Channel was in 750,000 homes on 450 cable systems nationwide and that was considered an accomplishment given cable's limited penetration. The network would struggle with its identity, but the company was willing to adjust on the fly.

“Back then it was very much, 'The magazine comes to life,'” said Gary Rosenson, senior vice president of sales and affiliate marketing for Playboy Media Group.

In 1985, Playboy Channel announced it would add movies by the likes of Woody Allen and the Marx Brothers amidst shows it dubbed “video magazines,” such as talk show Women on Sex. That push went too far to the mainstream and was soon abandoned. By decade's end, with subscribers down to 400,000, the company was moving in a new direction, shifting to pay-per-view and changing the network name to “Playboy at Night.”

“The move was based on distribution and our partners,” said Rosenson, adding that the shift to four to six hour programming blocks forced the network to find variety within each segment, which improved the channel's fare.

The 1990s saw more change, starting with a new name in 1992: Playboy TV. The company also stuck to its strategy of being an early adapter. In 1994, Playboy was the first magazine to launch a Web site. Three years later, it added the Cyber Club paid-subscription site.

Meanwhile, Playboy TV was also following the magazine's international approach with a big expansion abroad in the 1990s, popping up on screens from Japan to Scandinavia to Latin America. The Latin American version shows the company's persistence and ability to build upon the brand — it was initially available in 1998 only via satellite but soon major operators saw that it had gained mainstream acceptance and began carrying it as a premium channel. And Playboy expanded from English and Spanish to Portugese, allowing it to grow in Brazil (and ultimately, Portugal).

Playboy TV's Latin American success was also due to its strategy of creating locally flavored content with Latino stars such as Viviana Castrillón, Luciana Salazar, and Arancha Bonete, as well as directors such as Gabriel Rocca, Adrián Caetano and Marcelo Cepeda. Programming such as Miss Playboy TV Latin America & Iberia helped establish credibility, as did culturally relevant shows like Tango: Forbidden Dance. Playboy TV is now in 100 countries overall.

Playboy had also moved into racier fare in America, albeit without compromising the brand's image.

“When the MSOs determined there was a market for a channel with adult movies, they came to us because of our reputation as a trusted business partner and said, 'Would you do this if we gave you distribution,'” Hefner said.

The company launched Adultvision in the mid-1990s. At decade's end, it spent $100 million to snap up the Spice channels, though they have always been held at arm's length brand-wise in order to keep Playboy's soft-core, couples-friendly brand of programming distinct from the more hardcore channels.

But the company remained aggressive with the Spice Channels. When they were struggling two years ago, Postlethwait, a former executive at archrival New Frontier, was brought in to overhaul the networks.

Some of them were eliminated, others like the identity-less Spice Hot, Hot Net and Hot Zone were replaced with such channels as Club Jenna, featuring industry legend Jenna Jameson; Spice Xcess, featuring edgier material; Fresh, which spotlights new material and performers, and Shorteez, which features short-form programming.

“That audience wants to know exactly what they're getting,” Postlethwait said.

While the magazine has retained its men's club identity, the television network in its various incarnations has always been far more female-friendly, with a heavy emphasis on programming that would attract couples. “That definitely factors into our programming decisions,” Schwartz said.

Its fare over the past 10 years has followed other broadcast and cable network trends. In 2001, Playboy generated buzz with a series called 7 Lives Exposed that threw couples together in a Los Angeles home, not unlike MTV's Real World but with nudity and sex scenes.

Four years later the network introduced Totally Busted, a Candid Camera-type show with a sexual twist — in one scene, for instance, someone is hired as a receptionist at an office where every visitor proceeds to strip. (That same year, Playboy even extended the brand beyond its own network with The Girls Next Door, a reality show on the E! network about Hugh Hefner's three girlfriends at the Playboy Mansion.)

The way Postlethwait sees it, people don't shut off their brains just because they're watching programming with sexual content. “We are adult entertainment for the neck up,” he said. “The breadth of programming is as diverse and hip as anything you'd see in the magazine.”

Schwartz adds that Playboy TV's competition is not necessarily the hardcore channels but channels like ESPN, History and Discovery. “We want to be another entertainment option,” he said. “We think of Playboy TV as a premium channel for adults, not just an adult premium channel.”