Cable Firm Decides to Pull Plug on Playboy Channel

Just 2 1/2 months after Vista voters rejected an initiative that would have banned the sexually orientated Playboy Channel from their cable TV offerings, Times Mirror Cable Television announced it will suspend that programming because there are insufficient subscribers.

The Playboy Channel, which airs soft-core pornographic movies and other programs of a sexual nature, will not be offered in northern San Diego after Feb. 28, said Gary Cox, general manager for Times Mirror Cable.

Cox said community pressure did not influence the company’s decision to discontinue the Playboy Channel, despite attempts to block the programming with Vista’s so-called “anti-porn” measure, Proposition T, and a similar proposal that was narrowly defeated by Escondido voters in June. Proposition T on the Nov. 6 ballot was defeated 7,423 to 6,499.

“We anticipated that people would think that was the case, but it was suspended for strictly business reasons,” Cox said. “We could no longer continue to offer the channel because it failed to attract a sufficient number of long-term subscribers. . . . There were more people dropping the service each month than were picking it up.”

Vista City Councilwoman Gloria McClellan, who was a leader in the drive to ban the channel, said, “I’m very, very happy, and I want to compliment them (Times Mirror) on their good judgment--even though they’re saying the move was economics. If they did this for the betterment of the community, I’m very grateful.”

(Times Mirror Cable Television is a subsidiary of Times Mirror Co., which publishes the Los Angeles Times.)

The Rev. Billing Falling, pastor of the interdenominational Faith Center and leader of the Escondido-based Christian Voters League, said, “I’m glad Escondido didn’t afford them much of an appetite. . . . Praise the Lord,” he said.

Cox would not say how many of the firm’s 53,000 cable subscribers in northern San Diego County paid the extra $11.95 a month to receive Playboy.