Vudu set-top box adds adults-only channel

Vudu, a competitor to the Apple TV, just got a leg up in the lucrative adult video market thanks to a partnership with AVN Media Network. The partnership was announced Tuesday.

connects to a TV or home entertainment system and enables you to download and watch video content using a broadband Internet connection. The Vudu box contains a 250GB hard disk drive, and the content is streamed from the service and encoded in MPEG-4 format. Users can watch Vudu content using an HDMI-equipped HDTV, or for older sets, S-Video and composite video connections. Vudu already has relationships established with major studios and independent film studios, and offer thousands of movies.

The new partnership with AVN Media Network enables Vudu users to download content from a new AVN Channel — the first stand-alone content channel on the service. The AVN Channel will feature standard and high-definition content from well-known adult video studios including Wicked, Vivid and Hustler. Vudu also incorporates password-protected privacy controls to keep children from being able to access the adult content.

Standard Definition (SD) adult movies are available for rental from Vudu for $6.99 and for purchase for $19.99, while High Definition (HD) adult content costs $8.99 to rent or $29.99 to buy.

While Apple TV owners are free to stream whatever unprotected video content to their boxes that they can convert themselves, movie rentals and purchases managed through Apple TV are handled through Apple’s iTunes Store. The iTunes Store offers access to tens of thousands of television shows and more than 2,000 movies, but doesn’t presently offer any “adult” content.