Portland TV


Portland TV was a British adult television company that provided subscription and pay-per-view services to UK audiences on the Sky UK, Virgin TV and Freeview platforms.

History

The company was established in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in 1995 as the adult broadcasting division of the British publishing group Northern & Shell. At one point, Portland owned its own broadcasting facilities, but they were transferred to Channel 5, which Northern & Shell also then owned. In 2009, Portland launched sporting pay-per-view service Primetime, their first venture outside the adult PPV market.
In 2016, Portland TV was sold by Northern & Shell in a management buy-out, becoming wholly owned by Neon X, in a deal that saw Northern & Shell's complete departure from involvement in the UK television industry. Portland was reportedly sold for less than £1 million after contributing less than two per cent of group revenues per year over the previous three years, or about £9 million per annum. Portland's managing director, Chris Ratcliff, led the buyout. At the time, Portland was broadcasting five adult channels and two on-demand online services.
In September 2020, MindGeek subsidiary MG Global Entertainment Limited, who owned other adult pay-per-view networks in the United Kingdom, purchased Portland TV and merged it into their own operations.

Channels

was launched in 1995. Additional channels were launched as sub-brands of Television X, and the channel began Internet streaming content in 2007. Red Hot TV was launched in 2000 as an additional set of adult channels; the brand was renamed Xrated in 2017.

Transferred to MG Global Entertainment

  • Television X

    Other channels

  • Adult chat networks
  • * Cream
  • * Dirty Talk
  • * Filth
  • * Skincity
  • Other Pay-Per-View Networks
  • * Extreme Filth
  • * Viewer's Wives
  • Erotika networks
  • * Erotika 1
  • * Erotika 2
  • * Erotika 3
  • * Erotika 4
  • * Erotika 5
  • * Erotika 6
  • Red Hot networks
  • * Red Hot 40+
  • * Red Hot Girl Girl
  • * Red Hot Amateur
  • * Red Hot 18s
  • * Red Hot Climax
  • * Red Hot Euro
  • * Red Hot Reality
  • * Red Hot Raw, formerly Red Hot All Girl
  • * Red Hot Viewers
  • * Red Hot Just 18
  • * Red Hot Fetish
  • * Red Hot Mums
  • Television X sister channels
  • * Bangers!
  • * Television X Amateur
  • * Television X FFWD
  • * Television X HD
  • * Television X Pay-Per-Night
  • * Television X Pay-Per-Night 2
  • Sporting Networks
  • * Primetime
  • Bollywood channel
  • * Bollywood Films

    Regulatory issues

In both 2008 and 2009, Portland was fined by Ofcom for broadcasting material equivalent to BBFC classification R18 on their Television X channels. The fines were £52,500 in total. In the same years, Portland was found to have breached the broadcasting code by advertising R18 website content on Red Hot TV, and on the second such occasion Portland was fined £25,000 by Ofcom.