Once owned and managed by the Rigas family, two of whom are currently facing prison time for white collar crime and raiding Adelphia's coffers, adult entertainment was considered a scourge by the elder Rigas, who five years ago dropped the Spice channel because he considered it too racy for Adelphia cable viewers.
But since the takeover by new ownership, Adelphia programming has seen a massive turnaround and, as the fifth largest cable provider in the industry, now offers a record amount of adult programming from content providers Playboy Enterprises and Boulder, Colo.-based New Frontier Media.
"We're hardly the first to offer this type of programming," Stull told XBiz. "People want it, so we are trying to provide it."
Adelphia first tested the waters two years ago by introducing softcore porn in certain markets and as of Feb. 4, the company will be cutting its teeth with video-on-demand hardcore porn content, which will be available for the first time Southern California and to a limited portion of Adelphia's 1.2 million VOD subscribers.
The company claims that the new cable offering will come with a blocking feature to keep children from being exposed to adult shows.
While she was reluctant to reveal what future adult programming deals were in the works – aside from deals with Playboy and New Frontier – Stull was quick to point out to XBiz that her company is also the leading provider of sports entertainment and many other types of programming and asked that Adelphia not be pigeonholed solely as a cable porn provider.
"We're far from the first," she said. "It's been on DISH for a long time."
EchoStar Communications Corp. has offered hardcore adult programming on its Dish Network and DirecTV also provides adult programming.
Since the Rigas family scandal broke, Adelphia filed Chapter 11 in 2002 and is currently up for auction. Time Warner and Comcast have entered a joint $17.5 bid to purchase the beleaguered cable operator.
