AT&T may not have CDMA any time soon, but they'll soon have The Hot Network beamed into your house!!! Guess this is Mr. Armstrong's way of getting the most bang for his buck... how considerate that they're only doing it on the digital service plan, to allow parents to block out the channels... like kids can't bypass that in a heartbeat... interesting to see how the widows/grandmas holding T stock react to this one.. from the online WSJ
AT&T Will Offer Hard-Core Adult Movies In Drive to Lure Digital-Cable Subscribers
By LESLIE CAULEY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
AT&T Corp. plans to carry The Hot Network, a hard-core adult-movie channel, in a programming deal that could leave AT&T with a big share of profits from sexually explicit movies.
AT&T's decision to carry the pay-per-view channel comes at a time when the telecommunications company's cable unit is under pressure to show results for the billions of dollars it has invested to upgrade its networks for new digital fare.
AT&T has promised to have a minimum of 400,000 cable-telephony customers by the end of the year. It recently passed the 60,000 mark, giving it just six months to make up the balance.
AT&T confirmed it intends to carry The Hot Network, a channel that many big cable operators, including Time Warner Inc. and Comcast Corp., have passed on.
Fred Dressler, Time Warner's programming chief, said The Hot Network "doesn't comport with the values our company wishes to exhibit. This just doesn't fit our value standards."
The way AT&T sees it, The Hot Network deal simply gives its customers more choices. "This is about supplying programming that meets the desires of customers, and is competitive in the marketplace in which we find ourselves," said Madison Bond, programming chief for the Basking Ridge, N.J., company.
Bill Asher, president of The Hot Network, said the channel is "thrilled to be associated with AT&T. People have great respect for them for obvious reasons." He described his company's movies as "halfway between the Playboy Channel and what you see in your corner adult-video store." The "R" rated pay-per-view adult movies that many cable operators offer aren't as sexually explicit.
Mr. Asher, who is also president of Vivid Entertainment, a major producer of adult videos, said about 16 million viewers have access to the channel via cable or satellite.
According to Mr. Bond, AT&T is still figuring out how it intends to launch The Hot Channel, and in which markets. Under its agreement, AT&T isn't obliged to guarantee the number of households or markets to which it will offer the channel.
Mr. Bond said AT&T has decided to carry The Hot Network only on its digital tier, in keeping with AT&T's new policy of carrying adult fare in a way that makes it easier to monitor by parents. Digital set-top boxes offer maximum control over which shows are sent into the home, Mr. Bond noted, allowing parents to "block out particular channels" if they so choose.
AT&T's decision to carry The Hot Channel provides a marked contrast from policies of the former Tele-Communications Inc. -- whose onetime assets form the basis of AT&T's cable unit, and which eschewed programming that featured explicit sex or extreme violence.
But teaming up with the channel can be lucrative, cable operators agree. According to people familiar with the matter, The Hot Network has been offering them 90% of revenue generated by the channel's sexually explicit movies. Mr. Asher declined to comment about those terms.
At about $7.95 a movie, The Hot Network's offerings cost about twice as much as regular pay-per-view movies. |
