New Freeview babe channels are always a welcome prospect, and when it was announced in the run up to Christmas 2011 that Red Light Central would be screening their Playboy TV Chat show on Channel 194, the news was very positively received. Not only did Babestation have one encrypted and three unencrypted live channels on the terrestrial EPG (Channels 94 to 97 inclusive), but Elite TV a.k.a Studio 66 was also still broadcasting on Channel 192. The greater the competition, the more, theoretically, each channel would need to be on its toes. The future looked bright for the viewer/consumer.
Ree “Naughty Kisses” Petra was one of a handful of Babestation glamour girls to migrate to RLC in early 2012.
Red Light Central was a smaller channel which was kind of taken over by a group of ex-Bang Babes after Bang was dissolved in January 2011. Whilst numerous former Bang Media girls were taken by Babestation, Club Paradiso and Elite TV, (now known as S66) after the collapse of Bang Babes, RLC got the core and the driving force. Headed up by former Bang Babe and industry luminary Cathy Barry, the new RLC initialised itself with a gang of well known Bang Babes including British pornstars Lucy Summers, Michelle Thorne, Dannii Harwood, Tori Lee, Donna Duke and Dionne Mendez. It was this, more ‘commercial’ side of the operation which would quickly take the reigns and drive forward the status of Playboy TV/RLC from minor Sky channel to major player – to the chagrin, I’m sure, of a number of former RLC regulars, who fell by the wayside as the new order moved into gear.
The line-up evolved fairly rapidly, with Lucy Zara leaving Babestation to rejoin her ex-Bang Babes colleagues, newcomer Jennifer Jade taking RLC by storm in spring ’11, and several other changes, notably including the arrival of ex-Bang Babes Alex Adams and Jemma Jey, the departure of Donna Duke, etc. So by late 2011 when the Freeview show was preparing for launch, RLC was a far cry from what it had been at the same time the previous year. It was now geared up for the big time, and expectations were that Playboy TV Chat would present a stiff challenge to Babestation once in the Freeview domain. But even at an early stage after launch, you couldn’t help feeling as an observer that this might turn out to be an opportunity wasted…
Playboy TV Chat went live on Channel 194 from midnight on the night of 12th to 13th December 2011, the early Freeview shows, prior to the Christmas included Lucy Summers, Savannah Mai, Lucy Zara, and Jennifer Jade. Savannah had been trending under the name Rochelle on the babeshows up until the autumn of 2011. In spring 2012 Playboy moved channels to Freeview 99, and then, in the autumn when the adult channels were reallocated, it moved again, this time to Freeview 178.
WASTED OPPORTUNITY?
Playboy/RLC got a hell of a lot right, but they also got stuff wrong. The sets were excellent and the whole aura of the broadcasts was very classy. Playboy was the antithesis to Babestation in that respect. In fact, by mid January 2012, Elite TV had left Freeview, so Babestation was Playboy’s only terrestrial competition. Setting aside the encrypted programme, Rampant TV and Sexstation, Babestation had two channels at the height of their “migraine” phase, with wall-to-wall phone-shaking, wall-to-wall graphics ads, and intensive, ear-splitting-to-the-point-of-distortion sales pitches. They also had a third channel aiming for niche markets. So with Babestation you could either have the “migraine”, or about eight babes and five thousand balloons on one bed… Slight exaggeration there, obviously, but Babestation’s business was there for the taking…
Playboy/RLC, however, made its own errors. Not only were the Freeview shows restricted to one primary model per night (with relief provided only for the duration of her break), but they also settled into a pattern of repetitively drawing their personnel from an extremely limited number of regular girls with a very similar look. You tuned in, saw who was on, knew she was there all night, and were then faced with a decision. Did she mean more to you than a smorgasbord of mob-handed balloon-bursting?…
In more seriousness, Playboy/RLC did have a real problem with over-predictability, insufficient communication, and lack of engagement. Babestation was ‘noisy’, but every other night it was coming up with some wacko new idea, plus it had the massive advantage of multiple Freeview channels, and most importantly of all, it was constantly talking to viewers, calling them to action.
Despite all the glitz and glamour, there were several suggestions that RLC would not be able to sustain a Freeview presence, but the show did last longer than some expected, remaining live on terrestrial screens for just under a year. It was a good channel, with a visual ambience of class which is yet to be rivalled in my view. Ultimately, though, it just didn’t do quite enough to make itself matter more than the competition.
