TV Bunnies Feel the Pinch

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Reports of its demise are greatly exaggerated, Playboy TV maintains.


Three executives have been axed and there have been some layoffs, Playboy representatives said, while denying reports of a production shutdown and a major bloodletting among the firm’s roughly 100 L.A.-area employees. Playboy TV is in Los Angeles near Glendale.


After the ousters of Sol Weisel, the executive vice president of production and operation; Dan Smith, the vice president of production; and Tom Furr, the vice president of on-air promotion earlier this month, reports surfaced claiming that the layoffs encompassed virtually all of the Playboy TV staff and that the channel would cease all original production.


A company spokesman last week said that the unit’s three original productions including “Night Calls” and “Totally Busted” will remain in production, and that the TV division is trying to reach outside its traditional 18- to 49-year-old male demographic by integrating more sophisticated programming presently in the works.


Playboy is in the throes of an internal reorganization undertaken since the hiring of Bob Meyers as president of media operations late last year.


The news of the layoffs came on the heels of an ugly fourth quarter for the company’s TV division that saw three analysts downgrade Playboy’s stock.


Domestic TV revenues were down 18 percent in the 2006 fourth quarter. While revenues from video-on-demand and from Playboy TV subscriptions increased, the gains were more than offset by lower cable pay-per-view and satellite revenues. Domestic TV profits were also hit by a $1.8 million charge from a lawsuit settlement.


Playboy’s fourth quarter operating income, reported last month, totaled $3.1 million in 2006 compared with $7.3 million in 2005 on revenues of $86.2 million and $91.0 million, respectively.


“While the year clearly has been challenging for the domestic TV and magazine businesses, growth in our licensing, online, international TV and mobile initiatives support our belief that these businesses will drive the company’s performance going forward,” said Playboy Chief Executive Christie Hefner.

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