By Doug Fletcher,Staff Writer

Once the fare of stag parties and Combat Zone movie houses, hard-core pornography is now playing in some of America’s living rooms.

Soon, it may be in a lot more.

Bankrupt cable TV giant Adelphia will begin offering triple-X-rated programming today to customers in its Southern California market.

The L-A of the East – Lewiston and Auburn – could follow.

“Our competitors offer it,” said Adelphia spokeswoman Erica Stull on Thursday by phone from her office in Greenwood Village, Colo.

Already central Maine Adelphia customers can get so-called soft porn through their cable connections. The Playboy Channel, Hot Net, Spice and Spice 2 and Hot Choice can be ordered as pay-per-view selections.

Buckfield-based Oxford Networks is competing directly against Adelphia in the Lewiston-Auburn cable television market. Rick Anstey, Oxford’s president and CEO, didn’t return a call seeking comment on his company’s programming plans.

Right now, Oxford Networks doesn’t list adult programming among its offerings.

Time Warner, which serves much of Cumberland and York counties, lists six adult pay-per-view channels. Both Time Warner and Adelphia offer single- and double-X programming. Triple-X offerings ratchet the sex up a notch through the use of close-ups and certain action scenes.

Triple X, however, has remained taboo for mainstream cable companies until Adelphia crosses the line today, the Los Angeles Times reported in Thursday’s editions.

“People want it, so we are trying to provide it,” Stull told the Times.

She told the Sun Journal she’s not aware of the same demand for triple-X programming in Maine.

“I’m sure if people (in the Twin Cities area) called, we would look at it,” she added.

Stull said, “The video-on-demand environment is extremely competitive.” Adelphia needs to match its competitors’ offerings or lose market share, she noted.

People in central Maine who subscribe to DirecTV or the Dish Network – both deliver programming via satellite – already have a choice of double- and triple-X offerings. The satellite networks each offer six adult channels and viewing options ranging from 55 minutes up to three and four hours. Costs run from $5 to $15, depending on viewer’s selections.

Time Warner and Comcast, another cable provider, bid $17 million to buy Adelphia out of bankruptcy earlier this week. Adelphia owes its creditors about $20 million.