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After years of steering clear of sexually explicit material in favor of the frisky but softer content favored by Hugh Hefner, Playboy has embraced hardcore pay-per-view programming and has launched the hard porn channels, Spice and Vivid. In the beginning the shift proved beneficial to Playboy as in 2001 the TV production had higher margins (26%) than the magazine ones (2%) and the television business made up 45% of the revenues (Business Week, 2002). Thus, Playboy decided to expand even further and start producing its own reality shows. The most successful of those is ‘The Girls Next Door’ that is broadcasted on E! cable channel and the plot revolves around the life of the Playmates in the Playboy mention. Since its debut in 2005, the show has become the most watched on the E! channel, with its audience growing from about 800 000 to more than 1.4 million viewers. What is interesting is that more than 70% of the total audience is female (New York Post, 2007). Despite of the big efforts and the seeming success, both the US and the international TV business of the company has been incurring losses in the past 3 years. In 2006 profits from the US programming business amounted to $82.5 million, which slipped to $75.8 million in 2007 and in 2008 there was further decrease leaving the business with a net profit of only $ 62 million. Things do not look better for the Playboy’s international TV channels. Net revenues were $55.9 million in 2007 and they fell to $49.8 million in
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Thus, we would suggest that Hefner’s role should be undertaken by his sons, Marston (19) and Cooper (18) who show interest in the company and are already popular in the media (CNN, 2008). This move would bring a fresh perspective to the company and at the same time would allow the Hefner family to continue being associated with the company. This is logical as after all, this is essentially a family business, founded by Hefner and managed by his daughter Christie for 25
Thus, we would suggest that Hefner’s role should be undertaken by his sons, Marston (19) and Cooper (18) who show interest in the company and are already popular in the media (CNN, 2008). This move would bring a fresh perspective to the company and at the same time would allow the Hefner family to continue being associated with the company. This is logical as after all, this is essentially a family business, founded by Hefner and managed by his daughter Christie for 25