Hustler has licensed their brand to the first new adult cable channel in Canada in 20 years. The Hustler Channel, ran by the Ottawa-based 10 Network (not affiliated with the U.S. digital provider the Erotic Network), was launched June 30.
In Canada, Playboy has been the only full-time adult channel since it was launched in 1983. Stateside, Playboy Enterprises owns most of the adult or erotic cable channels under the Playboy, Spice and Hot brand names.
“We provide the name and programming. Because of our existing relationships with the U.S. we’re doing this as a very soft launch,” Mark Hamilton, executive vice president of programming for LFP Video, told AVN.com.
“It would be very unlikely that the Hustler Channel would find its way over to the United States in its present form – particularly as titles that we may be able to broadcast in Canada may have already been licensed to existing broadcasters in the States,” Hamilton said.
“We’ve been very clear that we value the relationships of the Playboy Network and The Erotic Network,” Hamilton added.
The 24-hour a day channel with offer programming in eight-hour blocks. The Hustler Channel expects to premiere 20 videos and over program over 40 more adult videos a month. The 10 Network suggests pricing of $14.95 per customer per month for the channel.
Under Canadian law 35 percent of the content shown on the Hustler Channel must be Canadian.
The founder and president of the 10 Network, Stuart Duncan, also founded True Blue and Exxxtasy, two 24-hour-a-day hardcore porn channels that were sold in 1998 to Colorado-based New Frontier Media.
Duncan forecast the Hustler Channel will burn $5.6 million in initial operating losses and capital outlays.
The application for a cable license for the Hustler Channel anticipated 18,000 viewers in the first year and more than 155,000 by the fifth year of operation. The 10 Network forecasts that the new channel will be profitable by its third year of operation and earn more than $5 million in the channel's fifth year of operation, on revenue of $22.4 million.
