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The Playboy Channel, meanwhile, has a dual problem. Some of its viewers have complained that the channel is not hard-core enough, that it cannot compete with the X-rated fare that is readily available on video cassettes. Many local cable companies, however, resist carrying the service for fear of offending subscribers. Media Analyst Tony Hoffman, a vice president of Cralin & Co., notes that the companies "have a knee-jerk reaction: 'Oh, it's porn, I don't want it.' " Hoffman adds that "the operators who are trying to shun it don't recognize how harmless most of it is." Even when the cable operator does not object, the community might. Earlier this year, a grand jury in Cincinnati indicted the local cable company, which carries the Playboy Channel, for "pandering to obscenity." The charges were later dropped.
Klein maintains that the Playboy audience confounds these stereotyped attitudes. About 40% of Playboy's viewers are young singles, men and women; 40% are older married couples with grown children; and 20% are female heads of households, either divorcees or widows with young children. Overall, about half the viewers are women, says Klein. Such statistics are vital to pay cable's boutique services, since the focus needs to remain narrow but not too narrow. They need to appeal to new audiences without alienating their traditional constituencies. "The interesting question," muses Analyst John Reidy of Drexel Burnham Lambert, "is whether both Playboy and Disney have lost their historic grip on their clearly defined audiences."
At its current growth rate, Disney will probably break even in spring 1985, when it reaches 2 million subscribers. Playboy is almost profitable now, according to Klein, and will probably be in the black when it reaches 1 million viewers, which Klein expects will happen in 18 months or so. Indeed, the bunny and the mouse may one day make not-so-strange bedfellows in homes across America. Already some cable operators are offsetting anticipated community objections to Playboy by offering Disney as well. Ultimately, predicts Reidy, 15% of all cable homes will subscribe to both. —By Richard Stengel.
Reported by Peter Ainslie/New York and Denise Worrell/Los Angeles