You're reading it here first.
I can reveal that M-Net will officially retire its well-known and longrunning KTV kids brand on 31 March exactly as I broke the news here in October 2010 and for exactly the reasons I mentioned: its thunder got slowly stolen by the 24 hour kids and youth channels on DStv that kid skewed shows (and sometimes better shows) on tap for 24 hour a day.
No kids brand will replace KTV when KTV disappears on 1 April on M-Net. M-Net will drastically reduce its current KTV kids programming block, although the pay broadcaster plans to keep a small kids programming block active on the M-Net channel.
''The kiddies block, KTV is falling away from 1 April,'' says Lani Lombard, M-Net's communications manager. ''The reason for that is that the M-Net and KTV audience have grown up,'' she says. The audience has moved. For subscribers who have DStv have moved to the 24 hour kids channels like Nickelodeon and all the other DStv kids channels. So there will still be some kids programming, but no longer a specific kids block.''
The KTV brand won't be replaced by another name.
ALSO READ: Why M-Net is considering getting rid of its iconic KTV brand and longtime kids programming block in 2011.
