LOS ANGELES, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Cable TV operator Adelphia Communications Corp. (ADELQ) and adult entertainment company Playboy Enterprises Inc. (PLA) have struck a deal for Playboy to provide adult content to Adelphia digital subscribers, officials from both companies said on Thursday.

The agreement marks a major step for Playboy as it works to build its digital subscriber base because Playboy, like other content providers, receives more money per subscriber for digital viewers than for customers on older, analog systems.

Adelphia, the No. 5 cable TV operator with around 5.5 million total subscribers, was the last of the major U.S. cable TV providers to exclude adult channels. Adelphia currently reaches about 1.9 million homes wired for digital.

One of Adelphia's most lucrative regions is west Los Angeles, so the deal also opens up a potentially high-end market for the four Playboy channels carried by Adelphia, Playboy TV, Spice, Spice 2 and the Hot Network.

Playboy's domestic TV division is its major growth engine. Through 2002's first nine months, group revenues were up 18 percent to $71 million from $60 million in the same period last year, while revenues at flagship Playboy magazine slipped by 5 percent to $70 million from $74 million.

For Adelphia, the deal marks one more content package to help it boost revenues as it battles back to financial health after accounting scandals unseated the founding Rigas family members and led it into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2002.

Playboy spokeswoman Martha Lindeman said her company "looked forward to working with Adelphia" in the roll out, but declined to provide details of the deal.

She said the launch specifics would be left to Adelphia, and an Adelphia spokesman declined to comment beyond remarks made in a company statement.

In those written remarks, Adelphia said its decision was made "in response to numerous customer requests" and said the new digital technology will prevent fuzzy or blurred images of adult content from showing up on screens of non-subscribers.

"Customers who do not purchase adult programming will see nothing but a blank screen," Adelphia said


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