Compañeros poco probables.

• Author: Heller, Matthew
• Position: Playboy Enterprises, Cisneros Television; Am

Playboy Enterprises and the Cisneros Group pair up to bring video erotica to Latin America and beyond.

Shows such as "club wild side" and "Sexcetera" may not translate easily into Spanish. But Chicago-based Playboy Enterprises and the Cisneros Group, the Venezuelan media giant, are betting that video erotica will translate into a major presence in Spanish-speaking households.

Now heading to TV screens in the United States is Playboy TV en Español, a 24-hour channel aimed at the fast-growing Latino market and featuring dubbed versions of its regular English-language programming.

The channel is the latest offering from a partnership that began in 1996 when Playboy and Cisneros teamed up to offer two services in Latin America--Playboy TV and AdulTV. That risqué fare now reaches some 5 million homes via either cable or satellite. Last December, the partners took a US$100 million step to expand their activities, forming Playboy TV International to create channels world-wide under the bunny banner. That company is distributing the new U.S. service as well.

For Playboy, the partnership could pump life into the aging bunny brand and help offset the decline of its flagship magazine. For Cisneros, it provides a vehicle for international expansion. "Playboy is a very well known, worldwide brand that dominates the genre and gives us an opportunity to expand globally," says Jay Scharer, chief operating officer of Cisneros Television Group in Miami.

In some ways, it is an unlikely combination. Playboy's pipe-smoking, pajama-wearing founder, Hugh Hefner, built his empire on nude centerfolds and has never shirked publicity. Privately held Cisneros, which started out in the 1930s as a Caracas bus company, accumulated interests in such staid businesses as mining and baby products. Cisneros' $3.5 billion in revenues bulges compared with Playboy's $318 million.

But over the past decade, both companies have focused on growth through home entertainment. "The future of Playboy Enterprises, as a company, is electronic and international," Chief Executive Christie Hefner, the founder's daughter, recently told Business Week. The entertainment division now accounts for about one-third of Playboy's total revenues, and this year the company acquired its main competition, Spice Entertainment, for $117 million. Among Cisneros' media interests are Venevisión, the second largest producer of Spanish-language programming, after Mexico's Televisa, and a shake in U.S. network...