Amid crumbling circulation and struggling sales, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner is planning to go private with the iconic company, in order to more quickly restructure and implement revitalisation strategies. At the heart of the plans for the Bunny is finding new business partners for new television and Internet initiatives, including 3D.
“We will strike new partnerships for our digital and TV businesses,” CEO Scott Flanders told Bloomberg. “We have to take huge restructuring charges to form those relationships, and doing so outside the public environment I think will make it easier.” Hef will pay $207 million to buy back his company from investors; the company has lost $200 million in the last two years.
Last fall Playboy TV tried to court female subscribers as a way to boost its overall health, dubbing it “TV for 2.” The content mix was shifted to showcase more intimacy and less actual pornography. The channel has had middling success. The next attempts will try to leverage technology rather than editorial changes.
Hence, 3D programming is being explored, Flanders added, especially since the costs have come down and the technology is becoming more widely deployed. It also has a competitive interest in doing so: rival Penthouse already has a 3D adult channel in the works.
Licensing of content will be another big push for the company. Finding a way to peacefully coexist or partner with Internet properties will also be key.
Right now Playboy offers a premium subscription channel along with pay-per-view on-demand content. But it’s struggled lately in an era of competitive, cheap and easily accessible Web porn, losing $8 million in TV revenue in 2010, when TV brought in $90 million.
We need to “accelerate our partnerships,” Flanders told Bloomberg. “That’s our future.”