Playboy Revenues Down in 1st Quarter

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LOS ANGELES - Citing "continued structural and economic pressures on the company's domestic media businesses," Playboy Enterprises reported an eight percent drop in revenue in its first quarter report to stockholders on Tuesday.

Playboy revenues fell to $78.5 million from $85.4 million as its publishing and domestic TV divisions suffered. The company posted a first-quarter loss of $3.1 million compared with a profit of $1.5 million during the same period last year.

"Our publishing and domestic entertainment businesses continue to face unprecedented change in the way consumers access and use media content," said Hefner.

Although Playboy's licensing business is on the upswing, Hefner said she does not expect that growth to offset losses in other media sectors. And while Playboy TV's monthly subscription revenue is up, those gains were offset by a drop in pay-per-view income as consumers switch to VOD services.

Online revenue also fell three per cent to $15.2 million. The company is redesigning its flagship Playboy.com Web site to attract more visitors and drive traffic to other Internet properties, but Hefner said she does not expect that effort to yield results in 2008.

"This will be a transitional year, as we are still in the investment stage of the retooling process, and results won't be apparent until year-end at the earliest," Hefner said.