Playboy TV ramps up digital with online model search

by Alex Donohue, Brand Republic 12-Feb-07, 14:00

LONDON - Adult entertainment channel Playboy TV UK is to launch an online Model of The Year search, which will invite users to vote for their favourite UK model by text, and will feature blogs by would-be models looking to boost their vote.

The specially created Playboy TV UK model search website will invite candidates, who must be aged over 18, but do not have to be models, to upload non-nude images and contribute to a blog that will explain why the public should vote for them.

The models will also be able to send e-cards and instant messages to fans, upload videos and update their images in order to win the votes needed to win the competition, which has a prize for each month's winner of a lingerie photo shoot on Playboy TV UK, and a chance to be shortlisted for the Model of The Year title.

Playboy TV UK said it was conducting a university-wide search across the UK until the end of March to find likely candidates for the competition, which would include a talk by Alex Sim-Wise, the winner of Playboy.co.uk's Girl of The Year competition in 2006.

The Model of the Year search is part of the Playboy franchise' wider online ramp up, which will include the complete digitisation of all 630 editions of its magazine, since it launched in 1953.

Playboy said it planned to transfer all of its magazines onto six DVDs -- one for each decade -- which will retail at $100 each, creating more than 115,000 pages worth of digital content.

The decision to digitise Playboy's print editions means the iconic image of Marilyn Monroe, which appeared on the magazine's first edition in 1953, will be available in digital format for the first time directly from the magazine.

The digitised editions will also feature a search function, enabling viewers to access interviews and features that have featured in the magazine's pages.