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There's a very specific strategy behind it,'' Pierre Cloete, M-Net channel head, tells me when I asked him about M-Net's brand-new programming strategy to strip a TV show – a reality show – (MasterChef Australia II) now with brand-new daily episodes in the 18:30 timeslot from Mondays to Thursdays on M-Net (DStv 101).
''It was placed there specifically, in that timeslot, and for a very specific reason,'' says Pierre Cloete about the pay broadcaster's decision to now have daily new episodes of the reality show. He doesn't yet want to fully elaborate about what exactly M-Net is planning but says ''we are definitely going to go ahead with that daily stripping idea on M-Net of new concurrent episodes of the same show in the future. Once MasterChef Australia II is done, there will be a new show taking its place that M-Net viewers will be able to follow daily from now on.''
''Viewers and viewing habits change every few years and therefore broadcasting schedules must change and adapt,'' says Pierre Cloete. ''Because of that, M-Net changes so that we're at the forefront of what viewers want. Take MasterChef Australia – it's a show where you as a viewer don't want to wait a whole week before you get to see a new episode. Many reality shows overseas are nowadays stripped in this way, with broadcasters rolling out new episodes daily if they're able to. We learned a bit from them.''
