Broadcasting, Business

SexTV R.I.P.: goodbye forever to the Baby Blue Movie

Comments 30 September 2009

SexTV, the digital station launched in 2001 as a spin-off of a Citytv show, will soon have its last gasp: imminent owner Corus Entertainment mentioned to investors this week that it will be re-branded as W Movies, as soon as the transaction is rubber-stamped. For quite the profitable operation — predominantly rooted in showing other people’s reruns — still-owner CTV sure didn’t want it around: they bundled it in the 2007 deal to sell the A-Channel stations to Rogers, but that arrangement was bungled when competition issues forced CTV to part with Citytv instead. This summer, Corus paid $40 million for SexTV in addition to the not-yet-renamed Drive-In Classics. While basically broadcasting on autopilot, SexTV’s website has not been updated in over a year: programming includes the SexTV mini-documentary show, timeless reruns of the clinical Sunday Night Sex Show with Sue Johanson and the unctuous Discovery Channel show The Sex Files, plus homegrown gay travelogue Pink Planet. What the end of SexTV really signifies, though, is the final moan for the concept of the Baby Blue Movie — Moses Znaimer’s vintage 1972 idea of showing soft-core nudie flicks after midnight, a hands-off approach to cinematic censorship that earned him much notoriety. Baby Blues were revived on Citytv in the 1990s, although by then it was “erotic thriller” fare, a tradition continued to this day on SexTV. Corus will soon swap the branding of Discovery Kids for Nickelodeon Canada, so their ability to run circles around regulator scrutiny — the airheaded W Network flagship got its plum positioning on the grounds of being the intensely feminist Women’s Television Network — is a chief concern of shareholders. John Cassaday, who runs the monolith, assured them the salacious SexTV could be easily flipped into a venue for chick flicks because its license is for “a relationship channel.” Yet the historical relationship between adolescent boys and their television sets, switched on late into the night with the hopes of catching a glimpse of flesh, now unceremoniously vanishes into the ether.

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  • Cure the disease by killing the patient. Why didn’t I think of that?


    This comment was originally posted on Fagstein

  • Jack B.

    “Something must be done to halt the assault on our television.”


    Why not turn it off?


    This comment was originally posted on Fagstein

  • MM

    Perhaps this has more to do with filling hours on their stations. They buy a movie package for one of their other channels. Then to save money, they rebrand another channel so that they can run the same movie package on that one as well. The same goes for lifestyle shows.


    This comment was originally posted on Fagstein

  • The bigger issue is the despecialization of specialty channels by broadcasters who are driven only by greed. They’re trying to do to television what they’ve already done to commercial radio.Exactly. And then everything becomes bland and boring. If they always lean to the greatest majority, we’ll have an American Idol station before you know it. Greatest Majority leaves a bunch of minorities left in the dark.


    Then they blame the internet for their failures.


    This comment was originally posted on Fagstein

  • What’s wrong with appealing to a (supposedly) female demographic?Nothing. Just like there’s nothing wrong with being a Top 40 radio station. The problem is when everybody does it and all the channels start airing the same programming.And since when are education, horror, and sex “yours” (men’s)?To be clear, I’m not making this a male vs. female thing. There are plenty of women interested in horror, or science. Heck, some of them even watch MANswers. The issue is that these broadcasters (particularly Corus) are replacing their programming by generalist stuff and junk lifestyle reality programming they think will appeal most to women age 30-55.


    The bigger issue is the despecialization of specialty channels by broadcasters who are driven only by greed. They’re trying to do to television what they’ve already done to commercial radio.


    This comment was originally posted on Fagstein

  • Anonymous

    What’s worong with appealing to a (supposedly) female demographic?


    And since when are education, horror, and sex “yours” (men’s)?


    This comment was originally posted on Fagstein

  • Sid

    TLC = tender loving care network?


    OK, but frankly can you really expect anything edifying to be radiating out of the “idiot box?”


    This comment was originally posted on Fagstein

  • They can’t compete in specialty markets. Even Space was leaning towards including non-genre TV on their channel (this seems to not have happened yet)


    Scream used to be HORROR only, they then included suspense and thrillers, then they changed to DUSK which play Psychic Investigators all the time.


    But the most horrendous content drop was IFC which now shows mainstream movies all the time.


    But it’s not all about branding to women. It’s not being able to market. If the money-making demo is women, they will of course follow the trend.


    This comment was originally posted on Fagstein

  • Spike TV is only mostly an insult to our intelligence.


    It’s not that I want more men’s channels, it’s that I want specialty channels to stick to their specialties and not all move toward the lowest common denominator.


    This comment was originally posted on Fagstein

  • Shawn

    There’s better movies on the “women’s” channels. And have you ever tried to watch Spike TV? It’s an insult to every man’s intelligence….


    This comment was originally posted on Fagstein

  • For whatever reason, the CRTC doesn’t require approval before even radical rebranding, so long as the network abides by its original terms of license.


    This comment was originally posted on Fagstein

  • Horonymous

    Nicklelodeon Canada starts on November 2nd at 6:00 a.m.


    It will take the place of Discovery Kids.


    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickelodeon_(Canada)


    Another example of a broadcaster changing the content of one of its channels.

    Most Canadian content on Canadian channels are old reruns. Little original Canadian content.


    Very disapointing.


    Prime became TV Tropolis

    Talk TV became MTV


    Life became Slice


    Showcase is full of Global US programming.


    Bravo full of CTV US Programming


    Must be more just can’t think of any now.


    This comment was originally posted on Fagstein

  • Another specialty channel replaced with all-purpose female-targetting network. Latest victim? SexTV: http://tinyurl.com/ydh53px


    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

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