Erotic film channel right on course for March launch

Programming for the channel, Beate Uhse TV, is already shaping up prior to its scheduled launch on March 1, that the start could be delayed. Along with international feature films and clips, the channel is to set up its own production formats, such as casting shows, and the shooting of documentaries and home videos. The idea behind this gimmick, the channel's answer to reality TV, to to enable viewers to take part in forming the programming, either by sending in home videos or applying for appearances in striptease and talk shows or even a "Miss Erotica" contest. A "Beate Uhse Home Page" on the web will show the TV public the various options for self-participation.

The channel will kick off with traditional erotic classics from its own video productions or vast library of soft and hardcore movies, but will steadlly increase the share of its in-house productions. Programming will also be supplied by Uhse's Swiss partner, Erotik Media, which holds the TV rights to more than 3,000 films. The Kirch platform itself will handle technical the technical side.

According to Premiere World information, Beate Uhse TV will take over the "Blue Channel's" current platform slot. While "Blue Channel" can be still be booked separately for a 20 mark charge, Beate Uhse TV will become part of Premiere World's group "Movie World" at no extra cost to subscribers, who pay a monthly fee of 39.90 marks for the package. The Bavaria State Media authority BLM's approval of the Blue Channel license late in 1998 was regarded in the trade as a breakthrough, since the strict state media watchdogs had previously turned down all erotic channel applications.

Whether or not the new channel will be able to transmit as planned from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. is still to be decided, depending on media authorities. For viewers concerned about their children's morals, the channel's transmission on the digital platform can remain closed until it is opened via a code number. In issuing the license, Berlin- Brandenburg media authoritiy (MABB) gave provisional clearance for the channel's planned eight hours on the air, providing this "technical youth protection" proves to be successful.

Otherwise, as is the case with "Blue Channel," transmission will be restricted to slots after 10 p.m. in line with Germany's stringent youth protection laws. The MABB plans to check out the blocking device to determine whether its technology would be effective in upholding youth protection regulations. Results of the query are expected in early in March. If the device proves to be ineffective, Beate Uhse TV will have to start two hours later. Noting the "sex sells," the launch of Beate Uhse TV could become a locomotive to boost subscriptions for the loss-making Premiere World. Despite a massive, 200-million-mark advertising campaign, and special promotion offers to entice viewers, the digital platform still has only 2.2 million subscribers, far short of its proclaimed goal of 2.9 million by the end of 2000.

The Beate Uhse company, Germany's biggest sex shop retailer, operates about 120 shops throughout Germany, which, besides sex items, offers the public soft and hardcore movies, with the latter being sold under the counter or in shops barring under age youths.

Beate Uhse Holding AG, the parent company of the erotic channel, went public on May 28, 1999 at an initial public offering of 7.2 euros, which was rapidly oversubscribed. The stock is currently trading at 13.80 euros. Beate Uhse also plans to increase its e-commerce on the Internet, claiming that 40 per cent of German adults with access to the Internet regularly refer to its sex page on the World Wide Web. So far, however, Internet revenues have failed to top 10 million marks.

The Berlin-based Beate Uhse TV GmbH, is a subsidiary of the Flensburg-based Beate Uhse AG, which holds a 49.9 per cent stake in the new company, with the Zug-based Erotik Media AG holding the remaining shares. Beate Uhse AG also has a 20 per cent in the Swiss company.

(la/dpa)