Cable TV provider Adelphia Communications has announced that the company’s short stint of providing triple-X Adult entertainment is over, at least for the time being.
Citing their bankruptcy status – the company filed for Chapter 11 in 2002 – and eventual sale – Adelphia closed bidding to potential buyers on January 31 – company executives decided dealing with the reaction to providing hardcore entertainment was an issue they didn’t need to add to their plate.
“Keeping in mind that Adelphia has a lot of other issues going on right now with Chapter 11 and its sale process, we just thought it would be better to remove (triple-X programming) and re-evaluate the situation,” Paul Jacobson, Adelphia’s vice president of corporate communications told AVNOnline.com. “We still have all the other Adult content on there. It’s just that triple-X was the source of concern for some groups, some organizations and some individuals, and right now we need to focus on other issues.”
America’s fifth largest cable provider, Adelphia will continue to provide X and XX-rated content. Their flirtation with hardcore, which was to be delivered to consumers via the cable providers Video-on-Demand (VoD) service, was almost over before it started.
The move into hardcore was initially announced by the Los Angeles Times on February 2 with a front-page story. At the same time, the newly reintroduced Broadcast Decency Bill was being tossed around in the House of Representatives – a culmination of events and increased public awareness that didn’t exactly work in Adelphia’s favor.
The company released a short statement on February 10, quoting Jacobsen, “Adelphia recently launched adult programming edited to triple-X standards on its Video-on-Demand platform in selected markets. This programming is widely distributed through satellite and other cable providers and there is readily available technology to block it. Some concern has been expressed over this type of Adult programming. Adelphia will remove it from all of its systems.”
Other than Adelphia and hardcore porn-hungry consumers, Playboy Enterprises, which was the exclusive provider of the triple-X content, is also affected by the move.
Adelphia has acknowledged, however, that they may revisit the relationship once they have all their ducks in a row.
Playboy Enterprises could not be reached for comment by the time this story was posted.
