| Type | Pay television network |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Broadcast area | United States (via C-band satellite; selected cable systems) |
| Headquarters | New York, U.S. |
| Programming | |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Home Dish Satellite Networks Inc. |
| Sister channels | American Exxxtasy |
| History | |
| Launched | 1980s |
| Closed | 1990 |
Tuxxedo Network (often stylized TUXXEDO NETWORK, sometimes referred to as the Tuxedo Network or the Tuxxedo Channel) was an American pay television service that aired softcore adult films on cable systems and C-band satellite during the 1980s in the United States. The channel was operated by Home Dish Satellite Networks Inc., a New York-based company that also ran the hardcore satellite service American Exxxtasy. [1] [2] Contemporary reports and later histories describe Tuxxedo Network as a softcore companion channel to American Exxxtasy that showed R-rated erotic movies, and it ceased operations in 1990 in the wake of obscenity prosecutions involving its sister service. [3] [4]
The name TUXXEDO NETWORK was registered in the United States as a service mark for cable television broadcasting services. [5] The parent company, Home Dish Satellite Networks Inc. (also known as Home Dish Only Satellite Networks), was incorporated in New York and marketed subscription television to owners of large backyard satellite dishes. [1]
A business profile for Home Dish identifies "American Exxxtasy Network" and "Tuxedo Network" as alternate names for the firm, indicating that the services were run under common ownership. Subsequent accounts of American Exxxtasy describe Tuxxedo Network as its softcore sister channel, positioned as a companion service that carried less explicit programming than the main hardcore feed.
Outside the satellite market, Tuxxedo Network was carried as a premium or pay-per-view service on some local cable systems. In June 1989, the Los Angeles Times reported that Paragon Communications had begun offering the Tuxxedo Network earlier that year to about 54,000 cable households in five South Bay cities in Los Angeles County, California. [6] According to Paragon Vice-President Mark Mangiola, around 3,000 households ordered the channel on a regular basis, with movies sold on a daily basis through a touch tone telephone ordering system linked to subscribers' converter boxes. [6]
Paragon described the content as R-rated adult movies that were "not nearly as explicit as the movies you can rent at the video store". [6] Program listings in the same article cited titles such as Too Naughty to Say No, Young Nurses in Lust and Tropic of Desire as examples of films on the channel's schedule. [6] Other newspaper coverage identified "the Tuxedo Channel" as "a cable channel featuring R-rated 'soft-core' porn" that was operated alongside a satellite service marketed to home dish subscribers by the same company. [3]
In reporting on the fallout from obscenity prosecutions against American Exxxtasy, local papers in Vermont noted that the "Tuxedo Channel" soon met the same fate when cable and satellite carriers removed it from their lineups as well. [7]
On the satellite side, Tuxxedo Network was marketed through Home Dish to owners of C-band backyard dishes, usually available on G2-C4. Legal and media histories describe the company as a direct broadcast satellite provider that sold subscriptions to encrypted adult movie channels carried on commercial satellites. [8] [9]
The satellite feeds for Tuxxedo Network were encrypted for paying subscribers, but accounts of the period describe viewers would encounter the channels in scrambled form while tuning across transponders on big dish receivers or analog receiver boxes. [2] [4]
Tuxxedo Network primarily aired softcore and R-rated erotic films. Paragon officials and local clergy quoted in the 1989 Los Angeles Times story described the service as an "adult entertainment channel" that parents might not want children to access. [6] A local pastor characterized the movies as dehumanizing to women and urged the cable operator to discontinue the service, while another pastor circulated petitions among churchgoers in the South Bay area opposing the channel. [6]
Newspaper descriptions during the 1990 obscenity controversy surrounding American Exxxtasy contrasted the two services by stating that Home Dish marketed a satellite channel that carried unedited hardcore films and also operated the Tuxxedo Channel, described as a cable channel featuring R-rated "soft-core" pornography. [3] [7] Other summaries in media histories describe Tuxxedo Network as the softer companion channel that showed edited versions of adult films, in contrast to American Exxxtasy's unedited hardcore presentation. [2] [4]
Tuxxedo Network became a focus of local controversy in parts of Southern California during 1989. Residents, city officials and church leaders in several South Bay cities complained that Paragon Communications made the channel too easy for children to access because it could be ordered using a telephone and a ten digit account number, without additional physical safeguards on converter boxes. [6] The mayors of Torrance, Lawndale, Hawthorne and Gardena wrote to Paragon expressing concern about the channel. [6]
Paragon responded that the company provided locks and password features for the converter boxes, and stated that there was consumer demand for the service, and that no subscribers had threatened to cancel service because of its presence. [6] A local cable administrator noted that Torrance did not have authority to restrict Paragon's programming choices, and observed that similar concerns about access to adult channels had surfaced in at least one other state. [6]
Although Tuxxedo Network itself was not a primary defendant in the obscenity cases brought against American Exxxtasy, it was repeatedly mentioned in media coverage of those cases. In early 1990 a grand jury in Montgomery County, Alabama, indicted Home Dish Only Satellite Networks, its satellite partners GTE Spacenet and United States Satellite Corporation, and several individuals on hundreds of counts related to the broadcast of allegedly obscene hardcore films on American Exxxtasy. [8] [9] Commentary in Reason magazine and in legal scholarship cited the American Exxxtasy prosecutions as illustrative of tensions between new direct broadcast satellite technology and local community obscenity standards. [10] [9]
An Associated Press summary of the case noted that Home Dish marketed American Exxxtasy to home satellite subscribers and "also operated the Tuxedo Channel, a cable channel featuring R-rated 'soft-core' porn". [3] Coverage in the Vermont press similarly stated that the Tuxedo Channel soon met the same fate as American Exxxtasy once satellite and cable carriage were taken down. [7]
Legal and media commentary from the period reported that cable and satellite executives were watching adult networks such as the Tuxxedo Channel with concern, since even services that aired only R-rated films at night might become legal targets under the revised obscenity statutes. [9] [10]
In 1988, the United States Congress amended federal law to prohibit the transmission of obscene material by cable and satellite, a change that applied to subscription channels as well as unscrambled services. [10] [9] Following the 1989 and 1990 Alabama obscenity prosecutions of American Exxxtasy, several C-band satellite providers dropped the hardcore channel and its companion softcore service Tuxxedo Network to avoid potential criminal liability. [4] [2]
In 1990, Home Dish Only Satellite Networks and its founders reached a plea agreement with the United States Department of Justice under which the company agreed to plead guilty to obscenity charges, pay a fine of 150,000 United States dollars, cease satellite transmissions and surrender its adult film library to the government. [4] [9] [10] In conjunction with this settlement, Home Dish shut down American Exxxtasy and its related adult services, including Tuxxedo Network, in 1990. [4] [2] Contemporary newspaper reports likewise noted that the Tuxedo Channel "soon met the same fate" as American Exxxtasy once carriage agreements ended. [7]
Later legal scholarship and policy commentary on obscenity and direct broadcast satellite services mention Tuxxedo Network in connection with the American Exxxtasy prosecutions, using it as an example of a softcore companion channel affected by enforcement actions against satellite-delivered adult programming. [9] [10] [4]
Media histories of American Exxxtasy likewise describe Tuxxedo Network as part of the short-lived group of adult movie channels marketed to backyard satellite dish owners in the 1980s, and note its shutdown alongside American Exxxtasy following the federal obscenity case. [2] [4]