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I can exclusively reveal that M-Net is planning a big birthday party for October when the pay broadcaster turns 25 years old and has massive plans for how it wants to enchant viewers and the TV industry by taking everyone on a ''A Magical Journey''.
''M-Net is indeed making big plans for our birthday in October,'' says Koo Govender, M-Net's director of corporate and marketing communications when I asked about what M-Net is planning for its 25th anniversary and what M-Net is hoping to bring viewers this year and especially in October. ''We have big things lined-up,'' she says.
''We planning something big for viewers, as well as an on-air campaign.'' Regarding the theme that will encapsulate M-Net's 25th anniversary celebrations, I managed to squeeze out of the always wonderful Koo Govender three precious magical words: ''A Magical Journey''.
''We are working on a concept right now. I don't really want to tell you,'' she said, but relented. ''Okay. I'll tell you. We're basically working around 'A Magical Journey'. We are looking at not just doing something special with programming, but doing things inside programming,'' she says. ''It's very exciting. We are talking to all of the Hollywood studios. We can't do anything until there is agreement from their side, but we're thinking of specific 'wow' stuff for viewers. We want them to do very specific things, very specifically for us, for the South African TV market. We are going to try and do phenomenal stuff with an inside programming. People really need to watch M-Net this year,'' says Koo Govender.
What I can tell is that M-Net actually has four events planned for the year - lets call them ''birthday parties'' - that will include and be for ad agencies, the media, and regulatory bodies. I did ask whether the M-Net logo might change for the birthday and whether iconic M-Net moments of the past 25 years will be shown again. Nobody wanted to say anything.
