Cable ventures mark surf company's push to sell action sports. (Media & Technology).

Quiksilver Inc., one of the leading outfitters for devotees of the board-sports lifestyle, is taking its surf, skate and snow show to Hollywood.

Next month, the Huntington Beach company will begin broadcasting a pay-per-view channel in partnership with distributor TVN Entertainment of Burbank. Initially available to about a million cable subscribers in a handful of United States' cities, the new channel, to be called Union The Boardriding Channel, could be available on local cable systems by December.

In addition, a series of athlete profiles produced by Quiksilver and other action-sports companies has been sold to a distributor and will air later this year, said Danny Kwock, a former professional suffer who is heading up the new division, Quiksilver Entertainment.

Quiksilver's cable ventures follow deals earlier this year with Sony Pictures Entertainment and Boost Mobile to team up on products ranging from software for editing movies on digital cameras to pre-paid cellular phone cards.

Although the company has compiled footage of its sponsored stars for use in promotions, the media push is a departure. Quiksilver has fueled its growth through a handful of acquisitions, including skating guru Tony Hawk's apparel line and the popular Roxy clothing brand for girls.

The new division aims to develop original content for television, the Internet and print. Most of those ventures will involve Quiksilver providing footage from its film library.

Neither Union nor the cable series will bear the company's name or logo. That's because a number of different partners, including competitors, will participate in the productions, and also because in the antiestablishment board sports culture ubiquity is not necessarily an asset. Quiksilver has sold its apparel and sporting equipment under more than half-a-dozen brand names.

Nike Inc. purchased Quiksilver rival Hurley International of Costa Mesa in February and that's likely to mean more competition for Quiksilver in the international market, where it derives roughly half of its revenue, said Mitch Kummetz, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles.

"You have to believe Nike is going to spend some time developing the brand internationally," said Kummetz, who doesn't expect Quiksilver Entertainment to have a substantial impact on the company's earnings.

While Quiksilver revenues grew to $186 million in the second quarter, up from $168 million a year earlier, earnings have been flat and the company's stock, which was trading around $19 last week, has skidded from its 52-week high of $27.58 on July 10.

Neil Goldberg, senior vice president of programming for TVN, said there is a dearth of action sports programming. "If you walk into a video store there is no content targeting this niche, 8- to-18-year-old boys who are in to these sports," he said.