The US adult entertainment channel Playboy TV is making a comeback in Taiwan after five years in partnership with Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信).
Taiwan is now Playboy TV’s fourth Asian market after Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong, Playboy Television International managing director Steve Smith told a Taipei press conference yesterday.
“The adult entertainment market is estimated [to be] worth US$3 million to US$4 million across these four markets, with Japan the largest, South Korea the second, Taiwan the third and Hong Kong the last,” he said.
He said the Asian market was big enough for Playboy TV because it has a niche in Western content, which sets it apart from Japanese productions. Thirty-minute shows produced by the company cost US$150,000, further differentiating them from other productions, Smith said.
Playboy was hoping to boost brand awareness in Asia, starting with a comeback in Taiwan after the distributor’s license to broadcast Playboy TV over digital TV was revoked five years ago.
The company is expanding its foothold in non-nudity programs, such as men’s lifestyle, tech gadget reviews or reality shows that carry the Playboy brand, which will pave the way for market forays into China and Southeast Asia over next year, Smith said.
The company will roll out high-definition channels in the US and South Africa by year’s end, and Europe and Asia during the first half of next year, he said.
Playboy will be bundled in Chunghwa’s MOD (multimedia-on-demand) service, with test runs starting in July and the official launch yesterday. Chunghwa is spicing up its Internet TV program offerings in hopes to boost weak subscriptions.
Launched in 2004, the service had 670,000 subscribers as of last year and expects a total of 900,000 by the end of the year, Chunghwa’s deputy chief engineer Chang Yi-fong (張義豐) said.
Playboy TV will be MOD’s 11th adult entertainment channel.
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