Since cable systems could effectively air the channels only eight hours a day, many decided it was more profitable to air networks with no restrictions, said Tony Lynn, president of the Playboy Entertainment Group.
"It put carriage of our network in jeopardy in a number of places," he said.
Playboy operates four separate adult-oriented stations, including Playboy Television and Spice. The largest, Playboy TV, is available in 20 million homes, 13 million with cable and the rest with satellite dishes, Lynn said. There are roughly 100 million television homes in the country, 76 million with cable or satellite dishes.
The law didn't affect what the stations put on the air. However, Playboy TV had to make certain it had programming that started at 10 p.m. in every time zone so no one was joining something in progress, Lynn said.
About 26 million homes - 10 million of them cable - get The Hot Network or The Hot Zones, channels operated by Vivid Entertainment.
Bill Asher, company president, said the law caused some cable operators to shy away from his programming.
Partly as a result, Vivid has tried to grow its business among satellite customers or on cable systems with up-to-date, digital technology that could be more effectively scrambled, he said.
"For us, this was a nuisance," Asher said. "We believe the new technology will solve our problems better than the Supreme Court will."
Asher said he expected his competitors at Playboy to see the most immediate benefits from the court decision. Since Playboy airs less explicit material than Vivid's channels, its networks will be more attractive to cable systems that have shied away from the programming, he said.
It was not immediately clear how quickly cable systems that carry these networks would begin showing them outside the 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. time period.
Clean-air review
