Playboy picks up Hot nets

Playboy Enterprises is exercising an option picked up when it acquired Spice Entertainment to obtain Video Entertainment Group's Hot Network and The Hot Zone for $28.3 million and Vivid TV for $41.7 million.

In unveiling the deal on Monday, Playboy said the adult pay-per-view channels will become part of Playboy's Spice brand, as an extension of the company's strategy to grow its domestic TV networks. The transactions will be paid for over 10 years in cash or stock, Playboy's choice. Performance goals could up the ante on the networks by $12 million.

Playboy has also agreed to a 10-year extension of its deal with Vivid Video for TV rights, as well as video-on-demand and video streaming rights, to Vivid video content.
- Richard Tedesco