The next problem child channel for the pay TV provider TopTV: the MGM (TopTV 113) movie channel - which could possibly disappear or be radically altered content wise from what viewers are currently seeing.
Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) is quietly looking to get rid of its international MGM channels including the MGM channel as seen in South Africa on TopTV, The Hollywood Reporter reports. Channels like MGM are no longer considered core assets.
According to the trade publication, MGM which has shown movie titles which it owns on these MGM channels (25 of them across Europe, Asia, South America, an HD one in North America and of course one here in South Africa and elsewhere in Africa) no longer wants to do that with its library of films.
MGM believes it can make more money from licensing its library of films to other distributors and networks - something which is not possible if MGM continues with the MGM channel on which it has to place the bulk of its library content.
MGM rather wants to sell the movie titles from its library separately again "to make more money than they can from putting 100% of them on the channels," The Hollywood Reporter quotes a former MGM executive who's not named.
Unclear is what will happen if the MGM channel(s) are sold. The MGM name won't be able to remain if the channel is converted. It will also be interesting for what time a library license will remain in effect after a deal, since, if sold, the MGM channel will eventually no longer show just MGM movies.
The change in ownership of the MGM channel(s) could also means the disappearance of the channel off of pay TV providers such as TopTV, since new channel owners will have to renegotiate carriage agreements. It could mean that any number of the 25 channel feeds of the MGM channel will get dropped from pay TV platforms if operators and a possible new owner can't come to new agreements.
MGM in America asked for comment, declined comment.
