In early April, New Frontier Media announced a new content and development agreement with Bluebird Films USA out of Las Vegas.

The deal was that Bluebird would develop and produce 250 hours of original content and make available over 2,500 high-definition scenes from Bluebird’s existing library for worldwide distribution. The agreement also included an option to acquire up to 900 additional, to be produced scenes, over a three year term.

Then last week Bluebird’s owner Paul Chaplin [pictured] struck a deal to acquire a floundering men’s magazine, Loaded, along with their two TC channels.

Chaplin must have gotten the publication for next to nothing because Loaded, which has been around since 1994 and was considered the original “lad’s mag” for its time has seen its subscription base plummet from 450,000 copies a month down to 35,000.

On the surface one might suspect that Chaplin was just adding more fire power to the existing arsenal of adult interests under his Blue Media Group umbrella. That’s if you didn’t know better.

Behind the scenes, Chaplin, a multi-millionaire tax specialist in the UK, has been unhappy with Bluebird’s bottom line. Chaplin had been feeding the till and Bluebird had to move its operations to Las Vegas to downsize as one means to stop the hemorrhage of money.

That may not have been enough and Chaplin, according to rumor, has been threatening to pull his support of the company entirely. So that’s why this deal between Bluebird Films and New Frontier Media was so vital.

Only Bluebird has a lot more to worry about besides Chaplin’s chagrin because New Frontier Media, which has been long ripe for a takeover, has two Barbarians at its own gate. In March New Frontier Media confirmed that it had received an unsolicited, non-binding, conditional acquisition proposal from Longkloof Limited.

Longloof, an investment holding company out of St. Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands, offered an all cash transaction of $1.35 a share to acquire the outstanding shares in New Frontier Media.

With that, Longloof, several weeks later, signaled its intentions to nominate a slate of four candidates — Eric Doctorow, Mahomed Khalik Ismail Sherrif, Willem Deon Nel and Barbara Wall—for election to the Board of Directors of New Frontier Media.

That would give Longloof which is already the majority shareholder of the company complete control.

Putting Doctorow on the board is the key move in this interesting game of chess, which, and it’s only a guess, would get New Frontier Media out of the adult content business.

New Frontier Media, based in Boulder Colorado, not only produces VOD features, it also offers the Penthouse TV premium channel and pay-per-view services packaged as The Erotic Networks (or TEN) that include Xtsy, Juicy, and VaVoom.

Doctorow, for his part, has over 25 years of experience in the entertainment industry. Since February 2012, Doctorow has been a consultant to Relativity Media’s Home Entertainment business.

From February 2011 to December 2011, Doctorow served as Executive Vice President of Miramax, where he was responsible for Miramax’s worldwide home entertainment efforts, which included physical and digital activities.

For almost five years prior thereto, Doctorow was General Manager of MGM’s worldwide home entertainment through its relationship with Twentieth Century Fox, and, prior to that, Doctorow was Chief Operating Officer of Ventura Entertainment.

Prior to Ventura Entertainment, Doctorow served as Chief Operating Officer of THQ, Inc. and worked for more than 20 years at Paramount, most recently as President of Paramount’s Worldwide Home Entertainment Division.

Read between all those lines. With Doctorow on board, New Frontier Media which has had its own internal problems over the years [Longloof said as much in its acquisition bid], would become a mainstream content company and Bluebird could kiss its sweetheart deal good bye.

The other threat to Bluebird’s tenuous position with New Frontier Media is Manwin. A couple of weeks after Longloof made its announcement, Manwin countered with a $1.50 a share offer to take over the company.

Unlike Longloof, Manwin said it was highly impressed with New Frontier Media. But it also owns Playboy TV, Brazzers, the recently purchased Digital Playground as well as YouPorn, Twistys, Spankwire, Tube8, ExtremeTube, KeezMovies, Mofos, ExtremeTube, JuicyBoys and PornHub.

A powerful array of content, and one gets the impression that two’s company and three would definitely be a crowd if Manwin took over New Frontier Media. Manwin would hardly need Bluebird.

Manwin which might be going public, has powerful ties in the TV world. Confirming rumors that Manwin was hoping to leverage New Frontier Media’s position with cable networks and broadcasters to provide additional outlets for its own content, managing partner Fabian Thylmann said earlier this year at AEE: “With Playboy TV, we also got … a way to get into the door of Google Samsung’s TV group, and Netflix.

“With Brazzers, when we knock on the door, they tell us to leave, because they’re afraid of the content. They’re not afraid of Playboy, though. At least they can be convinced to talk to us about [airing] it. Later on, I can try to push other content into the mix.”

And by “other content” you know what Thylmann means.

Either way it shakes out- Manwin or Longloof – Bluebird Films is the odd man out.