Why is cinemax called skinemax

More from Quartz About Quartz. Follow Quartz. These are some of our most ambitious editorial projects. From our Obsession. Media are best understood as a competition for attention on internet-connected screens. Phones, tablets, laptops, monitors, TVs—it's all just glass. By Adam Epstein Entertainment reporter. Cinemax After Dark - or Skinemax, as it's more widely known - is a block of "adult programming" broadcast on Cinemax after midnight.

Well, the good times are about to come to a close as Cinemax looks to rebrand, leaving Skinemax in the dust. Despite making a name for itself with its bawdy content, Cinemax wants no more of that. With the advent of the internet, no one really needs to wait until midnight to watch softcore porn on Cinemax and with VOD, less people are watching movies on cable.

In The '90s , this gave Cinemax a reputation as one of the edgiest and most risque networks on cable, earning it the Fan Nickname "Skinemax" — a reputation that still holds, to some extent, even now that the internet provides much more explicit content and its premium cable rivals have started pushing the envelope of what's permissible in prime time.

Back in the day, adolescent boys would frequently stay up late at night in order to catch the skin flicks that would air then — telling your friends in school that you caught late-night Cinemax was an easy way to establish yourself as one of the "cool" kids. It was far from hardcore pornography, and much of it was Bowdlerised compared to your average Jenna Jameson skin flick, but for most kids back then, just seeing naked ladies on TV was enough.

Cinemax was happy to cultivate this reputation. A quick glance at their website at the time showed heavy promotion for their late-night series, complete with cast interviews, behind-the-scenes stuff, and more, just as one would expect from any other TV series The shows also usually made an attempt at actually looking like TV shows complete with intricate plots for what they can do with No Budget and lesser-known actors, instead of cheapo skin flicks, so you have to give them credit for that.

After years of declining ratings, however, the internet finally put Max After Dark out of business. The last such original program was broadcast in , and the programming blocks were phased out over the next few years until Home Box Office, Inc.