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BY SHIRLEY BRADY
Unlike Trio's ?uncensored? block of programming last June that blurred the naughty bits in Last Tango in Paris, the folks at IFC are offering SVOD content that promises no pixelation and no censor's scissors. Launching in September, the new Uncensored on Demand ? a stand-alone offering that won't be branded as an IFC service ? features a 20-hour lineup each month of provocative and racy programming.
The edgy content will feature films such as I Am Curious (Yellow), the 1967 Swedish sex romp that was seized by U.S. Customs.
Shock-provoking TV series have also been acquired from independent filmmakers and foreign networks such as the U.K.'s Channel 4.
The new service, produced by IFC SVP/GM Cynthia Burnell and her team, will feature a rotating menu of categories such as art, world cinema, erotica, politics and religion.
Gregg Hill, IFC's EVP of affiliate sales and marketing, who also handles Rainbow Media's Mag Rack, has not yet cut a deal with Rainbow owner Cablevision as a charter MSO for the launch.
?The pricing [to operators] will be on a wholesale rate per subscriber basis,? Hill says of Uncensored. ?There is a great diversity between operators on a retail level with VOD. So we want to make sure we're extremely flexible and work with MSOs on an individual basis. Maybe [Uncensored is] in a package, maybe it's SVOD, maybe it's part of a tier of services, maybe like Mag Rack it's embedded with the box. It could be any one of those things depending on the MSO.?
Besides offering Uncensored's two to three minute intro to operators to promote their high-speed services, Hill is bringing additional content, including new exclusive-for-broadband content based on Dinner for Five, to next month's NCTA show in Chicago.
He expects to introduce two to three additional exclusive-to-VOD services in the next 18 months.
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