Time Warner, Playboy to Announce Joint Audio Venture

Time Warner Inc. and Playboy Enterprises Inc. are expected to disclose today a joint venture creating Playboy Audio, a company that will sell audio cassettes and compact discs containing erotic fiction and other programs.

In a separate Time Warner deal, the media and entertainment giant said it has agreed to buy 16.67% of New York-based Teleport Communications Corp., which provides fiber-optic telecommunications services to business. Terms were not disclosed.

Time Warner’s deal with Playboy, expected to be announced at a New York news conference marking Playboy’s 40th anniversary, will not include Playboy’s flagship magazine, sources said. Time Warner Audiobooks will instead produce Playboy fiction, information and advice on cassette.

The venture is one of the first significant deals made by Time Warner’s audio-books division, which was formed in July by the company’s Warner Trade Publishing and Atlantic Group units.

The first two cassettes are scheduled to be released in July, 1994. The first fiction cassettes--one each for men and women--will be released in September. Playboy Audio products will be distributed by Time Warner’s Warner Books and WEA Corp. sales units.

In the Teleport deal, Time Warner Communications will become a partner in Teleport with cable giants Cox Enterprises Inc., Tele-Communications Inc., Comcast Corp. and Continental Cablevision Inc. as investors in Teleport Communications.

Cox owns a 25.05% stake, followed by TCI with 24.95%. In addition to Time Warner, Comcast and Continental will each hold 16.67% stakes in the firm.

Time Warner Communications is part of Time Warner Cable, which includes as partners US West Inc., Toshiba Corp. and Itochu Corp.

Teleport has been forming joint ventures with cable TV companies to establish local fiber-optic networks that transmit voice, video and computer data.