NEW DELHI: Playboy TV, which generates excitement in people's minds despite more raunchy stuff easily available in the Indian market, is not only looking at the South East Asian market, but India too, if exploratory talks held with MSOs here are to be believed.

What's more, government officials have already been sounded out at a very informal level over whether laws in India would ever permit adult content on television.

A senior government official did admit that "some representative of an adult channel" had inquired a few months ago about the regulatory framework in India relating to such programming and had been informed that, if such things were to be allowed, it "would take time" as "no official file" has been created in the government on allowing adult content on TV yet.

What could have warmed the cockles of managers of Playboy TV and other such channels is a level of acknowledgement within the Indian government that if the broadcast sector behaves properly, the feasibility of allowing adult content in late hours on TV could be examined. Of course, whether Playboy TV would be ever allowed entry into India in an encrypted or some other form is the stuff of which fancies (and fantasies) are made.

Considering the lack of political will on such sensitive issues would weaken the resolve of any coalition government, it's a laudable effort on the part of Playboy TV to even think of bringing to India a diluted version of its channel, which the Indians partly snacked on some years back when a branded blockused to air on a freely distributed Russian channel (TB6) whose distribution in India has been banned since then.

What Playboy TV is looking at making available is a much diluted form of the channel that is available in other parts of the world. If it were to be granted "Indian entry", it would be in an encrypted form on a DTH platform or in a regime where it could be monitored from accessibility and content points.

For starters, no DTH operator in India would risk the business by agreeing to have a Playboy channel on its platform, a CAS regime looks like the only option for Playboy Inc. But this too would be a very limited option as even in an addressable system, existence of Playboy-type channels would be frowned upon here.

The policy-makers' resistance in India notwithstanding, Playboy TV is exploring launching a feed for the South East Asian market later this year.

The feed, of course, would be an 'edited' and diluted version of what is available in parts of Europe and the US.